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.

Comments

Screenshots?

[ArcadeMan]

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!

Looking better

[Ol Olsoc]

Much better.

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.

Re:Looking better

[Gadget_Guy]

Good lord, do people actually use the 'built in' email provided with Windows?

Of course they do. Most people in the world will have never heard of Sylpheed, let alone know what it is for. It is pretty arrogant to think that people don't use the built-in email simply because you don't.

flat as a pancake: invasion pending

[etash]

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.

What's the sudden (the last year or two) appeal with the super flat GUIs all over the place ?

Change for the sake of .. UX experts...I apologize, for the sake of change ?

Re:flat as a pancake: invasion pending

[ArcadeMan]

The problem is, it seems companies are letting designers do the job of the UI experts.

Re:flat as a pancake: invasion pending

[itzly]

No, we'll end up with beautiful icons that are hard to use.

Re:flat as a pancake: invasion pending

[Ol Olsoc]

The horror!

We may end up with intuitive and user-friendly software, oh no!

Like Windows 8?

Re:flat as a pancake: invasion pending

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, let me know when that happens... you idiot.

'Flat' design means 'designers' are attempting to design user interfaces, when they clearly have NO CLUE on how to design a user interface, let alone improve the current one we have. Windows 7 was perfection, but some idiot at Microsoft is actually paying people to RUIN their own company - hello? Jensen Harris anyone? 'The Ribbon'? Metro? Microsoft lost hundreds of millions of dollars because they couldn't admit they were wrong, and they couldn't leave things as they were - because some assholes' jobs depended on changing everything.

What is 'intuitive and user friendly' about buttons that no longer look like buttons, so the user has to GUESS what is and isn't a button, by mousing over every bit of text in the program?

Re:flat as a pancake: invasion pending

[ArchieBunker]

Change for the sake of change. Programmers can't grasp the fact that maybe there is an ultimate end design. A hammer made today still looks like a hammer from a century ago. There is a reason for that.

Re:flat as a pancake: invasion pending

[gstoddart]

We may end up with intuitive and user-friendly software, oh no!

You know, if people are actually doing proper user interface design, that might be true.

But having seen Metro on a Windows 8.1 box ... that's not what is happening.

Graphic designers focusing on pretty, but with no understanding of functional are producing shitty interfaces which, while they might be fine for a tablet or a handheld, are complete garbage for a desktop machine with no touch screen and operated with a keyboard and mouse.

So, I don't care which shade of pastel and crayons the useless interface is. I want to turn off the useless interface entirely, because it provides nothing in the way of utility.

Windows 8.1 is fast and stable, and has nice features. But it's only usable as a desktop once you install something like Classic Shell and turn off the crap that these "designers" have put in.

They're spending all the time tweaking the wrong things.

Re:flat as a pancake: invasion pending

[Gadget_Guy]

We may end up with intuitive and user-friendly software, oh no!

But the problem is that you don't get an intuitive and user-friendly system. You might get a clean system without clutter, but then have to figure out and dragging from the top of the screen to the bottom is the way to close a program. Or that clicking in the space that used to have a design element (but is now just blank) was the way to bring up the start screen. Or that things that look like they are just decoration are actually active buttons, but you only know this (and what function they perform) by blindly clicking, dragging, swiping over every part of the screen.

Even when you do this, you still have to face the final insult when you find that the function you are looking for was removed from the software because it was deemed too advanced for modern users - even though Windows has been able to perform that function for decades up until now.

Modern user interfaces have absolutely nothing to do with intuitiveness. I looked at some really old software recently and found it so pleasant because I could tell exactly what functions were available and how to perform them simply because they used textual buttons and menus. It was so much better than being faced with a bunch of similar-looking graphics with no mouse-over pop-ups to explain what they were for.

Re:flat as a pancake: invasion pending

[Anonymous Coward]

Please explain the presence of Metro on Windows Server 2012.

Re:flat as a pancake: invasion pending

[itzly]

Change just for the sake of change is stupid, especially if the change is a step backwards in functionality.

Re:Windows 10 is for cows!

[ArcadeMan]

Moo-moo, moo?

Signed,
the Cow King.

Fiddling while Rome burns?

[gstoddart]

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.

Crazy idea

[itzly]

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.

Make a new windows 7

[CrAlt]

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.

Re:They were better before

[mister_playboy]

Because the concept of "choice" is anathema to UI designers circa 2015.

Why not test? I just don't get it.

[dpbsmith]

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.

Re:They were better before

[iampiti]

Exactly! Seems like the motto is :"One true,flat,ugly way".

Re:They were better before

[DocHoncho]

It's not ugly! It's modern and elegant!

You know, unlike all those other UI designs that were modern and elegant. They're all old and busted now. UI design has more to do with fashion trends than any sort of objective basis in usability.

Re:They were better before

[sootman]

The other motto is "hide everything, because we don't understand the difference between 'actually making something simple to use' and merely hiding complexity."

Dear Mozilla (and everyone else), fuck you. This shit is RETARDED. "Look everyone! We got rid of all those confusing menus! Now there's just one button! ... Which spawns a bunch of menus.

Oh, and the regular menus also all still exist.

Oh, and we have TWO buttons like that, because we are in full-on shithead mode. Why hide everything behind one button, when you can force user to FIRST choose from one of TWO buttons! Mwa ha ha ha ha! One looks like a fox, the other looks like a hamburger. NEITHER has ANYTHING to do with what lies underneath! Hey, "New Private Window" is pretty important... put it in BOTH! But only put "new tab" in one. But make "new tab" a menu, and put "new window" underneath it. Got all that? Good. I need another drink. It's almost 10am!

Seriously -- I couldn't make this shit up. There's a special spot in hell waiting for you douchebags. You are collectively wasting YEARS of people's lives with this monkey shit.