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Windows User Experience likely to change for desktop users
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On touch devices, the user experience behind the most recent version of Windows has gained accolade by many designers , but it’s likely to see some changes within the next year aimed at traditional desktop users. While the Windows user experience is perfect for a touch device, such as a tablet or phone, it’s a huge shift for desktop users, who generally don’t have touch-sensitive displays. This group of users hasn’t been as receptive to the large tiles that replaced the traditional desktop, and in some cases have been downright hostile to the switch to live tiles, which are front-and-center in the Windows 8 UX. These tiles are squares of varying sizes that display application or web-connected information, ranging from flight status on an airline tile to weather information on a weather app, and they are used on all devices Windows devices, whether they are touch or not.
The next version of Windows, known as Windows 9 and code-named Threshold, will continue to provide the live tile user experience for tablet and mobile devices that are touch-centric. Desktop users will find a UX that is more similar to what they’ve experienced in Windows 7, with a traditional desktop. The hundreds of millions of long-time Windows users will also appreciate the reported return of the Start menu. These are addressing many of the questions that we’ve heard from application designers, developers, and UX professionals as we’ve delivered our Windows UX training courses and seminars around the world.
Modern applications will still run in Windows 9, and the modern-style applications will continue to use the live tiles, swipe motions, and other interaction paradigms introduced in the Windows 8 UX. This change of directions, to provide more support to traditional desktop computers shows that non-touch devices are still widely in use. If you’re looking for a place to start in understanding UX principles for both the desktop and mobile devices, you may want to consider our UX training courses which provide a foundation for designing apps and websites to meet the needs of your audience.
About the author
Jennifer Smith is a user experience designer, educator and author based in Boston. She has worked in the field of user experience design for more than 15 years.She has designed websites, ecommerce sites, apps, and embedded systems. Jennifer designs solutions for mobile, desktop, and iOT devices.
Jennifer delivers UX training and UX consulting for large Fortune 100 companies, small start-ups, and independent software vendors.She has served as a Designer in Residence at Microsoft, assisting third-party app developers to improve their design solutions and create successful user experiences. She has been hired by Adobe and Microsoft to deliver training workshops to their staff, and has traveled to Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, and across the U.S. to deliver courses and assist on UX design projects. She has extensive knowledge of modern UX Design, and worked closely with major tech companies to create educational material and deliver UX workshops to key partners globally. Jennifer works with a wide range of prototyping tools including XD, Sketch, Balsamiq, Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Blend for Visual Studio. She also works extensively in the fields of presentation design and visual design.
Jennifer is also an expert on Photoshop, digital image editing, and photo manipulation. Having written 10 books on Photoshop, and having consulted and provided training to major media companies and businesses around the globe.
Jennifer is the author of more than 20 books on design tools and processes, including Adobe Creative Cloud for Dummies, Adobe Creative Cloud Digital Classroom, and Photoshop Digital Classroom. She has been awarded a Microsoft MVP three times for her work with user experience design in creating apps for touch, desktop, and mobile devices. Jennifer holds the CPUX-F certification from the User Experience Qualification Board and assists others in attaining this designation in leading a UX certification course at American Graphics Institute. She is a candidate for a Master’s degree in Human Factors in Information Design.