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Microsoft Tries Another Icon Theme For Windows 10
jones_supa writes: Back in February, users decried the new icon look in Windows 10. In response to that feedback, Microsoft has implemented a new icon pack in build 10125, which was leaked early but expected to arrive soon for Technical Preview testers. Screenshots show what the final version of the OS could look like when it goes live this summer. The new icons go all-in on a flat approach, following the same design cues as the rest of the operating system, but the "pixel art" style has been abandoned. Once again, Softpedia asked for user experiences, and this time the comments have been mostly positive.
very iconic.
Those "screenshots" are only 600x375. They're more on the side of being huge thumbnails than actual screenshots.
Unless of course you're still using a 640x480 display, in which case you're seeing an article from the future. Hello from the future! Buy these things called "Bitcoins", they'll be worth hundreds of dollars some day!
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Sorry, but they were. I'd rather simple and clean.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I wonder if people get too hung up on system icons however - same thing happened with OSX Yosemite. I can change icons in a few seconds rather than beyatch about it.
Now if I just don't have to go to the web to find out how to do things I've done for years, in their other Os's, we might be talking here.
Also, I hope they've put POPmail back into the system mail program. It's not like half the world uses it or anything.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
There is a large amount of information missing to be able to base the icon set as being good or bad. Basic click bait from softpedia
I (genuinely) don't understand this tendency with flat buttons and interfaces, they do look slight of "90-sh revamped". Generally speaking through the years, changes in the UI have been positive and IMHO they were at their peak with Windows 7.
.. UX experts...I apologize, for the sake of change ?
What's the sudden (the last year or two) appeal with the super flat GUIs all over the place ?
Change for the sake of
Moo-moo, moo?
Signed,
the Cow King.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
So, instead of trying focus on what kind of user experience we're going to have (which sounds like they think the tablet interface is what people actually want for everything) ... and focusing on making all of that good and usable ... why does it sound like throwing out new sets of icons means someone has lost the plot and is focused on the eye candy, and ignoring the fact that for a desktop machine Metro is a completely garbage interface?
I like my Windows 8.1 machine. But it was really only useful once I basically removed all of the stuff that Microsoft thinks they innovated or that was valuable.
Metro on a 23" non-touch screen monitor is a pathetic interface for Windows. If Microsoft is going to think everybody is running everything on a touch screen interface, instead of a mouse and keyboard ... they're doing a shitty job of knowing what people actually use computers for.
But, hey, we've been working diligently on the icons. 'Cuz, that's what people really want.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Why not simply let the user choose what they want ? Personally, I don't really care what they look like, but once I'm used to a set of icons, I would prefer to keep it.
Probably one of the most unappealing set of icons that I've seen in a long while.
It still looks like flat Windows 8 icons. What am I supposed to be seeing? Looks about as good as FVWM did in the 90s.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Why is this a big deal anyway? Couldn't you personalize the icons any. I'm sure that Windows always had the ability to add custom UI anyway, so what does it matter what the defaults look like.
Certainly can. I use personalized icons all the time. Different colors for different purposes, sometimes a letter as an icon. Just pretty much whatever I want.
The icons however, for many(most) people are just the part of the system they interface with, so inordinate attention is paid to them when they are fugly.
The part I am curious about is the stuff under the interface. Windows 8 was such a dog's breakfast that I just stopped supporting it. Weird stuff like no popmail for the integrated program, the insane distinction between "Desktop apps" and "Metro Apps", where you couldn't make a desktop shortcut with the metro apps, and the need to play Whack a Mole when trying to perform basic system functions. Then going to the web to look it up (shouldn't that tell you something that ther are websites telling you how to shut down a computer with Windows 8?You'd be surprised how many people use popmail, or like to have their programs shortcutted to their desktop.
Its not that it didn't work. It just didn't work in a way that made much sense to too many people.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
You know what would make the most people happy?
Just make a new version of Windows7. Why would I want to re-learn how to do everything...again?
Going from Win95->Win98->Win2K->XP->Win7 was easy. People stuck with windows because they knew how to use it. Companies stuck with it because re-training was easy. It kept people from jumping ship to OSX/Linux/ChromeOS.
Going from Windows 7 to Linux Mint is easier then going from Windows 7 to 8.
Microsoft spent 20 years teaching people how to use their UI then just throws that all out for no reason at all.
I have to return some videotapes...
Probably needs both. Lean in for a kiss, and oink, what a smell.
Comments have overwhelmingly been to the tune of "erh... yeah. ok. Whatever". But I guess MS counts anything but outright resistance to the point of making a shitstorm a "positive reaction" these days.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Most people in the world will have never heard of Sylpheed
And even if they have heard of it, they think it's a shoot-em-up for Sega CD and Xbox 360.
People used to do real tests with real people, in controlled situations, measuring response time, counting errors, videotaping what they were actually doing, finding out where people are getting stuck and using that feedback to redesign and try again.
This was common all the way back to the 1970s. People like Ben Schneiderman were doing formal research and writing textbooks in the 1980s.
Why do I no longer hear about any of this being done? Why is it all about the visual tastes of individual designers?
There's nothing wrong with beauty--the original edition of Inside Mac, 1983, said in so many words "objects are designed to look beautiful on the screen." But beauty and style are not the same as usability.
All of the insane "mystery meat" UI of today, in which you cannot find an affordance unless you already know where to click to make it visible, cannot possible be usable, even if some people enjoy developing the necessary skill set.
Without real testing, you always get the same things: the personal taste of the manager in charge, who is sure that what is natural for him is natural for everybody; or, the personal taste of the developer, who is sure that what is natural for him is natural for everybody.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
unless you fell for all the hype and purchased a shitty little touch enabled laptop... fuck touching the screen and getting fingerprints on it.
But are there 10" laptops that aren't touch-enabled, like the netbooks of 2008-2012? Or should I just buy an ASUS Transformer Book (a 10" tablet with a snap-on keyboard) and live with getting fingerprints all over it?
Wrong end!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Nothing says "modern" like that new floppy drive icon.
Progress!
Wrong end!
But should you happen to prefer that end, you could annouce it proudly in a comment, get modded +5 Informative and then make it a Slashdot signature memorable enough that it is brought up in otherwise unreleated comment threads like this one.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
I agree w/ this. While Windows 10 has attempted to undo most of the damage, fact remains that Windows 7 was perfect for laptops and desktops: all that MS needed to do was to swap the underlying kernel, which is the good thing in Windows 8. In fact, since Microsoft was in the Apple copying mode, they could have left Windows 7 as the equivalent of OS-X, while introducing a Metro OS just for tablets. And avoid trying to make the hybrid, which looks more and more like an afterthought solution to accommodate Windows, rather than Windows accommodating the different form factors.
I use the Windows 10 Preview Edition on my Winbook, and right now, the icons and everything are too small. I just bought a stylus today hoping to improve it, since my fingers aren't sharp enough to touch exactly the part of a button that needs to be touched, as I found out today. So even in its current form, Windows 10 is fine for laptops, but somewhat shabby for tablets, even if one has a keyboard and stylus for them. To those who say use a mouse, the tablet has just 1 USB port, which may be needed by other peripherals, and I'm not sure that attaching the wireless USB dongle to a hub would have the same effect. Anybody seen that work?
I do plug in a USB mouse when I'm at a desk. But it's hard to use a mouse while riding the bus, so I use the laptop's trackpad instead. Yet all 10" laptop-like devices sold nowadays happen to be touch-enabled tablets with a detachable keyboard and trackpad, such as the Transformer Book and Surface 3.
After Windows 8 and MS gutting so many important sub-systems to fast-track release on mobiles and tossing out decades of UI design guidelines to only produce pathetic unusable interfaces (with bad documentation) to seem touch-oriented and competitive, Windows 10 might be the only chance MS ever gets at keeping its crown in the OS space. People have options now although most will stick with Windows 7 or whatever bespoke solutions they are using. Sure, MS is expanding into services and trying to get a cross-device strategy working (with some encouraging signs) but it never achieved success on mobile. If it cannot provide a true desktop experience it may just fall flat in promoting its other product lines that generally rely on developers using its platform end to end. By now most UI designers hopefully realised touch and desktop are two paradigms so chimera interfaces missing critical options and properly designed workflows like Win8 are something to avoid. We do live in a strange age where the technological capability exists but many of the designers and builders making use of them have forgotten about things like reliability, privacy, security and giving control to the user, hopefully things change.