"Windows" [updated concept]

Hello Tribe!

I've taken in several of your ideas and considerations into this updated version of my last concept. Mainly, I've simplified the taskbar quite a bit and slimmed down some of the lines. (Old concept here.) I've decided to keep a view of all the desktops that you may have open in a single taskbar. By removing the icon backgrounds and thinning down some of the old lines, I have achieved this. (I apologize in advance for the shadowing behind the OneDrive app. Publisher does not have good shadow effects. There was no immediate way to make them look better.)

The New Windows

Click to enlarge.

Notes from before:
Notice in the Taskbar how after the first 5 apps there is a white bar. This divider between the groups of apps represents dividers between desktops. I really hope they keep all apps visible in the taskbar and make only a small distinction between the desktops like this (I feel like it would be less like playing "where's my app?"). Obviously, the background should change with each desktop. You could then zoom out to see a summary of all your desktops and running apps by double clicking the "Show Desktop" button in the lower right corner.

Also notice the last app section on the taskbar that has the IE, File Explorer, Zune (wishful thinking), phone, and messaging apps. This is your phone (or other device) with Microsoft apps synced. I feel as if this is the best implementation of "continuity" or "handoffs"- like features in any operating system. Also, I've placed a couple of status symbols here that indicate the battery life and connectivity of your device. Clicking these can put your device (phone, tablet, etc.) into certain modes, such as if you click the battery, you could put your phone on power saver or clicking the connectivity button could turn on hotspots. This continuity-like feature would be great for other devices that you have running under your Microsoft ID including phones and other computers (or Xbox for that matter).

Ultimately, clicking the "+" at the end adds a new desktop with a couple of app icons. Apps/programs can be moved easily from one desktop to another by clicking and dragging the icon of the app from one desktop divider to another.

Thanks and let me know what you think! Constructive criticism is appreciated.

My Threshold Preview

I've been planning this concept for a while, but haven't had the time to put it together. So, here is a preliminary image to show what I've been working on. There is a little refinement that needs to be done, but overall this captures my thoughts for Threshold.

Notice in the Taskbar how after the first 5 apps there is a white bar. This divider between the groups of apps represents dividers between desktops. I really hope they keep all apps visible in the taskbar and make only a small distinction between the desktops like this (I feel like it would be less like playing "where's my app?"). You could then zoom out to see a summary of all your desktops and running apps by double clicking the "Show Desktop" button in the lower right corner.

Also notice the last app section on the taskbar that has the IE, File Explorer, Zune (wishful thinking), phone, and messaging apps. This is your phone with Microsoft apps synced. I feel as if this is the best implementation of "continuity" or "handoffs"- like features in any operating system. I forgot to place it, but before the last divider there should be a battery and connectivity symbol that will display some brief information about your device. This continuity-like feature would be great for other devices that you have running under your Microsoft ID including phones and other computers (or Xbox for that matter).

Dear Microsoft,
Please do not eliminate the charms. Yes, I believe they were poorly received on the desktop and in general, but they are a great way to access information in the same way across every single app. I understand the need to remove the charms bar for mouse/keyboard users, but perhaps you could simply re-implement them in a different area. I think you should keep it the same for tablet users.

In a future post I will give a little more detail as to how I would like to see charms uniformly implemented, but briefly it'll just say that it would be a great idea to have them in the jumplists on the taskbar.

Charms [Concept]

Hello, here is something that I've been working on to combine some different features that people want (namely notifications) with the charms that Windows 8.1 already offers.

The charms already offer a quick way for people to get to information that they want to access in every app. For instance, the settings button is always available in the same exact space regardless of the app. This is a brilliant idea because it is very unified. Another example is the search charm. Here are a couple changes in the concept images that I have made that unify and improve a couple existing features while also adding new ones.

The New Charms bar:

I've kept the charms the exact same as before hand except I have changed the search charm to a Cortana icon (which will grow and shrink to indicate that she is listening) and I have also added the time and a new notifications charm.

 

 

Notifications:

This new notifications are organized according to app type. Upon clicking on one of the apps (the mail for instance) you can tap an email and do different things with it without even opening an app.





 

 

 

Cortana: the command charm (search):

Probably the biggest addition to charms, Cortana will help you get through your day. All you need to do to get her attention is simply open the charms bar and speak her name.



 

As far a searching goes the new search results should yield the results from the app that you are currently in (not the search hero that yield anything and everything) and then yield search results from different sources (as below). I found that the search charm in the original Windows 8 was much more useful because I always knew where the search button was located. 

Other opportunities for Cortana:

OneNote

Skype integration (for translation)

(By the way, what do you think of this Skype interface and logo?? I think it's much more metro than the current.)

 

 

Settings:

The settings charm will be upgraded only a little bit. Perhaps it could include this scrollable menu idea below which would make it easier for you to click around the different settings options. It's probably not as useful in the start screen, but it may be more useful in an app. 

 

 

 

Time and Date:

The last new charm I think should be added is a simple time and date charm. Upon clicking it you get an enlarged display of the time as well as a calendar and connection/battery reading. I think that this would be much more useful and interactive compared to the floating time island in Win 8.1. 

Share and Devices:

I love the idea of share and devices, but I cannot think of any upgrades to be made to them. Perhaps for the devices there could be a way to quickly save a document that you're working on to a flash drive that's currently plugged in. Any other ideas?

 

Charms for WP:

This is just a quick mock up that I made for charms on WP. The buttons appear to be a bit small in this design, but their use would still be there. Would there still be a need for the devices charm? Should it be changed to a "phone" charm or something like that?

 

Ultimately, I find the charms to be incredibly useful and a nice touch in Windows and I think that it should be extended across the whole Windows family. How useful do you guys find the charms? Are there any complaints that you have for them or any uses that people may not know about? What other ideas or complements do you have? Lastly, should legacy software be able to integrate into the charms? Please comment below. 

Windows 8.2 [Concept: Desktop, taskbar, quickreply notifications]

Hello!

I've been working on some ideas for an integrated approach to the Windows desktop with metro in some earlier posts and I have refined some of the appearances in this post (earlier post and descriptions here). I've tried to combine the best of both interfaces and I have also allowed for the most flexibility with the settings available in the "view" setting.

Enjoy!

Taskbar and Jump Lists

• Navigate to the bottom right or left hotcorner to display taskbar (while in an app).

• The charms bar is still activated like normal. 

• Navigating to the base of the start screen with a mouse brings up the task bar (while in an app, you have to use the bottom hot corners).

Desktop and Window Options

• Scroll left and right to preview open apps (all apps are displayed on taskbar including metro apps and legacy apps).
• The minimize, max, and close buttons appear only when the cursor is being used.  



 



• Auto-hide taskbar works like normal, but to open it you need to use the hotcorners in an app.
• Pinning the taskbar makes it always available in all apps.
• Auto-pop-up makes the taskbar open automatically when you close an app, minimize an app or return to the start screen or desktop.

• You can snap apps however you want by dragging and dropping them on top of each other and pinching them together. A two finger swipe to the top of the screen will cause them to be maximized together.

Quick Reply Notifications

It's pretty self explanatory. Clicking the little X on the notification will dismiss it, but clicking on the down arrow or swiping down will cause it to expand with more options, such as reply or delete for the mail notifications.

I think that OSX does an excellent job with its quick reply toaster notifications. Applying this would be very useful in Windows 8.

 

 

• This would be a very powerful for quick messaging and deleting of junk mail as it arrives without opening the app.  

Interactive Live Tiles

For the mail app, it will work similar to the above interactive notification. Clicking the down arrow causes it to expand and reveal more quick reply options as well as options to scroll through new messages (i.e. the forward and backward arrows).

I've seen some concepts for putting buttons on different live tiles, but they clutter the tile and contrast metro. Here, I've hidden the buttons behind a single invisible button that only appears when it is hovered over (like the notification dismiss button above). Touch users can swipe down on a tile to get the same effect. (See mail app below)

•  Here you can scroll through messages, delete, or reply to the currently listed message.
• It does look a little out of place to have tiles overlap each other. Perhaps it would look better if the rest of the screen darkened a little as the tile was interacted with?? What do you think?

 

 

These are just a couple of my ideas for interactive tiles and notifications for Windows 8.2. What do you think?

I inserted a radial menu design and I also decreased the icon size and moved the icon on the folder tile to the upper left. Moving the icon away from the title definitely cleared up the tile and made the name easier to read.

I really liked the radial menu idea for the File explorer and I think Microsoft should take it further throughout the OS and other apps. Actually I almost think that they should try to get it to replace the current right click menu.
This new radial menu signifies everything that metro is about: simple functionality and touch. I really love how you can just do swipe gestures on the dot instead of having to open it and I'd like to see them take it further.

• Here I've added some ideas for drag and drop.
• Clicking and dragging a file will cause the navigation bar below to pop up half way. You can drop the file on a folder, the folder locations at the bottom, on another file (to create a folder with both files inside), and on the new folder button (to create a new folder with the single file inside).
• (You can also drag the file to different folder locations in the address bar to get the same effect as in the current File Explorer.)

• If you hover with a file over one of the buttons in the navigation pane it pops up with the folders inside.

OneDrive/File Explorer Integration [Update]

Here are some more photos of some improved ideas from the feedback I got:
(Click images to enlarge)

• I think it's a good idea to keep the background a greyish color just to white previews of documents look OK.

 

• Upon right-clicking you get the address bar on top and the navigation bar on the bottom.

 

• You can then click on the arrow to get more options, including access to the folders within, frequent folders, and recent files within that particular area.
• I think that it is important to have something with more flexibility for navigating through folders. I included this because if the navigation pane is removed by default with respect to touch devices, I think it would be a good idea to have another method for navigating to your folders.

 

• Here sows the settings charm open with the "file, home, share, and view" menus.
• Some of these settings I don't think are going to play nicely with the settings charm (i.e. File including cut and paste) as some of them aren't really settings, but rather they more so belong as a right click menu. Overall, I agree that it's best to put them here.

 

• Lastly, this shows the view setting open, which plays nicely with the metro interface.
• As can be seen, I included options to pin the Navigation pane and Address bar for those who want it. Also, I included a way to change the default scroll direction to accommodate for traditional desktop users.
• Some of the accommodations are a bit awkward and don't quite flow with metro completely, but I think that they are necessary inclusions.

I think it would be cool to have an "editing dot thing" like in the OneNote app for OneDrive (as mentioned in the comments below). I'm not sure how this would work, but I think it would work well and look good too!

 

Let me know what you think about these additions!

Does anybody else have any ideas for the other settings sections?

OneDrive/File Explorer Integration

Hi!

I have been taking some time to design a new OneDrive/File explorer application. In order for Windows 8/9 to become a completely unified OS. It is necessary that the two interfaces become completely integrated. Therefore, there can be no more distinction between the two. Below I have come up with come concepts that work to combine the two interfaces as best as possible. Post your ideas for improvement!

(Click image to enlarge)
Navigation pane buttons ("favorites, OneDrive, Homegroup, etc.) will be pin-able (so will the complete navigation pane as seen below).

• I designed the concept keeping the current SkyDrive app in mind for touch because this is the future of computing; however, I then attempted to add much of the functionality that you can find in the current File Explorer application.
• I have made the concept with the link bar on the left just so people can quickly get around to different file areas in their computer/cloud.
• Also, I thought is was an important touch to keep the view button and properties plain button available like in the OneDrive site online.
• Also I like how the app and online client keep files and folders separated by a little more space. I personally think that it makes it look much cleaner.

(Click to enlarge)
This image shows the menus expanded when you right click or swipe down from the top.
Navigation pane and address bar are pin-able via the view button below.

• I found that to completely combine the two interfaces into one some things had to be moved around.
• A lot of the same functionality is still available as in File Explorer through right clicking on the files or folders themselves
• I moved some of the menus to the bottom so to save space at the top for the address bar.
• Again, you would be able to pin the navigation pane to the left side (as you currently can do in File Explorer) which would be great because I find that I use it the most out of all the menus/navigation buttons.
• Also, I found that it was important to keep the back, forward, and up buttons because of their iconic functionality.
• It does look a little cluttered with both menus open on top and bottom, but remember that this is only when your right click.

Important Questions:

1. What would you need/miss if the two interfaces were combined?
2. If you were making the design, what would you like to add or remove to make it cleaner/more complex?
3. What other important features would you add?