Semantic zoom is useful for navigating through the
Start Screen, or in apps with a lot of different sections. Photo: Ariel
Zambelich/Wired
When Microsoft revealed the “consumer
preview” of
Windows 8 on Wednesday, it didn’t just give the world a glimpse
at a new OS — it also showed us that it can be a leader in touch-based user
interface design. Yes, Microsoft’s new tablet UI isn’t merely utilitarian. It’s
actually innovative, and even cool.
And in some ways it trumps the best that Apple and Google currently have to
offer in iOS and Android, respectively.
Here are five of our favorite new Windows 8 features.
Picture Password
You can choose both the photo and its related gestures
for your picture password. The more that's going on in a photo, the harder your
password will be to crack. Image: Christina Bonnington/Wired
We’ve known about Microsoft’s picture password feature in Windows 8 since its
developer
preview was unleashed in mid-September. But now that we’ve had a chance to
give it a spin, we can definitely say it’s a fun, convenient alternative to
other system unlocking methods. In a nutshell, you choose a photo for your lock
screen, and then define three touch gestures to draw on top of the photo in
order to unlock your device.
When Microsoft first detailed picture password, some were skeptical: Won’t
evil hackers be able to figure out your gesture-based password based on the
smudges you leave on the display? In a blog post, Microsoft
said no: “Because the order of gestures, their direction and location all
matter, it makes the prospect of guessing the correct gesture set based on
smudging very difficult even in the completely clean screen case, let alone on a
screen that sees regular touch use.”
In that same blog post, Microsoft provided a detailed mathematical
explanation of why a picture-based password is every bit as secure, if not more
so, than a PIN-based one. And independent
security experts agree that the likelihood of someone being able to decipher
the intent of smudges on your device is slim to none.
Of course, character-based passwords and number-based PINs are an old
standby. Apple uses four-number passcodes in iOS. They’re quite secure, but not
particularly innovative. Google is more creative with its unlock security,
offering a facial recognition-based unlocking feature in its Android 4 Ice
Cream Sandwich OS. This, however, has proven not to be so secure. In fact,
it can be defeated if you hold up a picture of the Android device owner at the
right distance from the display.
Easy Gesture-Based App Switching
Flick from the left side of the Windows 8 screen, and
you can either rotate through apps lightning-fast, or pull up thumbnail previews
of the apps you have open. Image: Christina Bonnington/Wired
In the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android, Google has added a “Recent
Apps” feature that pulls up a listing of most frequently used apps when you
click the system bar icon. But in Windows 8, switching between open apps is much
more intuitive and easy: A swipe from the left edge of the device will
immediately pull up the last app you used (assuming it’s still open in a
multitasking state). It’s a natural gesture, and one you’ll rarely use by
accident.
And best of all, it’s fast — like channel surfing for the tablet era.
And how’s this for clever: If you know you have a large number of apps open,
you can simply swipe back and forth on the edge of the screen, and up pops a
vertical array of preview windows revealing all your running programs (see
screenshot above). From here, you can tap on a preview to jump to a specific
app. Again: another solution that’s easy, quick and elegant.
In the iPad version of iOS 5, you’re given two strategies to jump between
apps. Most people will double-tap the home button to reveal a lineup of icons of
all open apps. From there, a simple icon tap will jump to the new app. That’s
the popular method. But iOS 5 for iPad also lets you swipe from open app to open
app, much like the method in Windows 8.
But there is one hitch in the iOS approach: You have to use a full four
fingers to execute the swipe. Compared to the Windows 8 gesture, it’s just not
that natural.
Fat Fingers Aren’t a Problem
For the split-screen keyboard, you can choose one of
three key sizes. Image: Christina Bonnington/Wired
One problem many mobile users suffer is that onscreen keyboards aren’t
designed for a variety of hand and finger sizes. This is typically less of a
problem on tablets, which usually have enough screen real estate to offer
accommodating keyboards. Nonetheless, if you plan on using your tablet
two-handed, typing with your thumbs, typing on a tablet isn’t so easy.
Windows 8 offers a solution: It provides a split-screen keyboard so you can
type with your thumbs. But wait, you say — Apple
already does this in iOS 5. This is true, but Windows 8 goes one step
further: You can adjust key size in the Windows 8 split-screen keyboard. You
have three sizes to choose from, so if you’ve got the petite hands of a
five-year-old, you can type on the small setting, and if you’ve got manly man
hands, you can increase key size to large.
It’s not an insanely revolutionary feature, but little UI nuances like this
make Windows 8 so appealing in total.
Chromeless, Fullscreen App Experiences
Windows 8 also innovates with a unique, tablet-optimized approach that
eliminates distracting “chrome” — in other words, all those busy interface
elements that can junk up a desktop or app interface. In fact, it’s an OS-wide
theme of Windows 8′s Metro UI. There are no menu bars, task bars, or
navigational buttons permanently pinned to the display.
In many iOS apps, you’ll find navigational buttons that persist across the
app’s entire user experience. And even for apps that don’t do this, you’ll often
still see that thin bar at the top of the screen that shows data connection
strength, the time, and battery level. These are the very same elements that are
locked to the iOS home screen.
The case is similar (and arguably worse) in Ice Cream Sandwich. You’ve got
your three virtual navigation buttons at the bottom of the display that are
persistent across the UI. You also often have a bar across the top of the screen
(just like in iOS) that displays battery status, time, and icons that link to
other information.
Windows 8 does away with all of this. To see the time, battery strength and
data connectivity, you swipe open your Charms menu. Once you’re done looking at
these simple reports, you touch anywhere on the screen, and the Charms menu
disappears.
When I was younger, I was obsessed with knowing the time, so the new Windows
8 approach would have driven me nuts. But now it’s liberating to keep the clock
out of view — until I actually need it. Just check the time when you need to,
and enjoy a much less busy user interface for 99 percent of your time on the
tablet. Metro apps can luxuriously take up your tablet’s full screen, and in
cases where there’s photo or video involved, that’s fantastic.
Home Screen Style and Utility
On the Start Screen, you can get a glimpse of recent
e-mails, what's next on the agenda, the weather, and more. Image: Christina
Bonnington/Wired
Every major mobile OS provides a certain degree of personalization in what
you see in your home screen. In iOS, you can rearrange your home screen app
icons so you can put your favorite ones front and center. In Android, you can
organize the placement of app icons, and also add widgets that display real-time
information, making the home screen both personalized and a source of useful
information.
However, Android widgets tend to have their own developer-specific themes and
designs, so when they intermingle on your home screen, the resulting arrangement
may look busy and inconsistent like a chaotic patchwork quilt.
In Windows 8, however, you’ll find a happy medium between the tidy
organization that iOS provides, and the freedom and utility of the Android home
screen. In Windows 8, app icons are live tiles, either square or rectangular in
shape, but always consistent in their basic look and feel.
But live tiles also update with new information in real time, just like an
Android widget. For example, the mail app provides a constant refresh of your
latest message headers. You can organize live tiles in whatever order suits you
best. In the screenshot above, we put the calendar, mail and weather apps on the
far left so we could glean that information with a single downward glance.
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10:44 PM
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