Windows Phone Live Tiles - not a great solution

smoledman · Apr 13, 2012

Pros:

- they're beautiful and big, cool animations

Cons:

- only 6-8 tiles on the screen at one time and not all tiles are "live"
- no pop up alerts or alert-tones

The way I see it the Android/iOS notification center provides a more useful condensed view sorted by most-recent-first rather then random spread out like the WP7 start screen. I use the iOS notification center on my iPod Touch and one feature I really love is that fact that every time a Gmail calendar notifies I get a popup and alert tone. That is probably the single most useful way to notify the user that they need to pay attention to the phone and it's right there on the popup telling me the thing I have to do and at what time. I think if Microsoft wants to be competitive they have to add a full notification view and popup alerts.

Bottom line - it's a very pretty feature with little useful function.

Rodimus Prime · Apr 13, 2012

smoledman said:
Pros:

- they're beautiful and big, cool animations

Cons:

- only 6-8 tiles on the screen at one time and not all tiles are "live"
- no pop up alerts or alert-tones

The way I see it the Android/iOS notification center provides a more useful condensed view sorted by most-recent-first rather then random spread out like the WP7 start screen. I use the iOS notification center on my iPod Touch and one feature I really love is that fact that every time a Gmail calendar notifies I get a popup and alert tone. That is probably the single most useful way to notify the user that they need to pay attention to the phone and it's right there on the popup telling me the thing I have to do and at what time. I think if Microsoft wants to be competitive they have to add a full notification view and popup alerts.

Bottom line - it's a very pretty feature with little useful function.

Just going to point out out windows phone 7 does have pull down notification, alert-tones and so on.
At least get your facts straight before pointless bashing.

smoledman · Apr 13, 2012

Rodimus Prime said:
Just going to point out out windows phone 7 does have pull down notification, alert-tones and so on.
At least get your facts straight before pointless bashing.

It has the toast notification and no customizable alert tones.

thejadedmonkey · Apr 13, 2012

smoledman said:
It has the toast notification and no customizable alert tones.

not customizable on a per-application basis, but customizable, definitely.

Rodimus Prime · Apr 13, 2012

thejadedmonkey said:
not customizable on a per-application basis, but customizable, definitely.

I have not dug to much or played with it much but I would not be surprised if like Android that a developer can have their own sounds.
It is a bit more work to do but not that hard to do.

thejadedmonkey · Apr 13, 2012

Rodimus Prime said:
I have not dug to much or played with it much but I would not be surprised if like Android that a developer can have their own sounds.
It is a bit more work to do but not that hard to do.

Unless it's an API I haven't found yet, they can't. I'd expect this to happen in Windows Phone 8 though.

boss.king · Apr 13, 2012

As a WP7 owner, I have to say I love live tiles. I find they work better than iOS notifications (because my iOS notifications never seemed to work properly). I haven't used Android in a while and haven't had a chance to play with ICS for more than a few mins so I can't really comment on them.

With live tiles I find the info I need is always there. It doesn't beep and buzz but when I want info it's there. Obviously some people will want it to alert them for everything, and hopefully more customisation will come in the future with Apollo, but for now they work brilliantly for me.

Rodimus Prime · Apr 13, 2012

thejadedmonkey said:
Unless it's an API I haven't found yet, they can't. I'd expect this to happen in Windows Phone 8 though.

they should bring it in. It would need to be a property setting. In android it is kind of like setting flags. Hopefully they will bring it in.

smoledman · Apr 13, 2012

boss.king said:
As a WP7 owner, I have to say I love live tiles. I find they work better than iOS notifications (because my iOS notifications never seemed to work properly). I haven't used Android in a while and haven't had a chance to play with ICS for more than a few mins so I can't really comment on them.

With live tiles I find the info I need is always there. It doesn't beep and buzz but when I want info it's there. Obviously some people will want it to alert them for everything, and hopefully more customisation will come in the future with Apollo, but for now they work brilliantly for me.

The problem is the arrangement of tiles are random. Notification Center in iOS/Android is sorted historically which is a more important way of consuming that kind of data. like I said, live tiles are a pretty but less functional way of getting notified.

ChazUK · Apr 13, 2012

smoledman said:
I use the iOS notification center on my iPod Touch and one feature I really love is that fact that every time a Gmail calendar notifies I get a popup and alert tone. That is probably the single most useful way to notify the user that they need to pay attention to the phone and it's right there on the popup telling me the thing I have to do and at what time.

Have you spent any considerable amount of time with Windows Phone?

Windows Phone does support alerts for Calendar events and not only that, your next appointment is always displayed on the lockscreen of your device. That way, every time you use the handset you will see when your next appointment is.

Not only that it will display on your Calendar live tile on the homescreen.

smoledman · Apr 13, 2012

I admit I haven't tried Windows Phone yet, but I have watched a ton of demo videos. I didn't realize that the latest calendar event is shown on the lock screen. That's definitely useful.

boss.king · Apr 13, 2012

smoledman said:
The problem is the arrangement of tiles are random. Notification Center in iOS/Android is sorted historically which is a more important way of consuming that kind of data. like I said, live tiles are a pretty but less functional way of getting notified.

Like I said, they don't notify you until you are looking for the info. I understand what you are saying, and why you think it's weaker. I do agree that WP7 notifications need to be upgraded, maybe a history section on next to the app list, but aside from that they fit very well with the way the OS works

BTW, do you by any chance go by MutualCore on The Verge?

smoledman · Apr 13, 2012

boss.king said:
Like I said, they don't notify you until you are looking for the info. I understand what you are saying, and why you think it's weaker. I do agree that WP7 notifications need to be upgraded, maybe a history section on next to the app list, but aside from that they fit very well with the way the OS works

BTW, do you by any chance go by MutualCore on The Verge?

Very simple - left swipe to toast notification history view. Sounds brilliant huh?

boss.king · Apr 14, 2012

smoledman said:
Very simple - left swipe to toast notification history view. Sounds brilliant huh?

Well given the nature of WP7 hubs it would seem to make more sense as a page you can swipe to from left or right. Other than that, I think that would be fine.

smoledman · Apr 14, 2012

boss.king said:
Well given the nature of WP7 hubs it would seem to make more sense as a page you can swipe to from left or right. Other than that, I think that would be fine.

Well the way iOS notification center works is you swipe from the top from within any application. That's a very nice implementation as it only requires the one swipe to get it. Either Microsoft does the same thing or they only allow access via left swipe from the home screen. The problem with left swipe from within hubs is that they are implemented as horizontal applications and that would be rendered moot. I think Microsoft might have boxed themselves into a corner here.

boss.king · Apr 14, 2012

smoledman said:
Well the way iOS notification center works is you swipe from the top from within any application. That's a very nice implementation as it only requires the one swipe to get it. Either Microsoft does the same thing or they only allow access via left swipe from the home screen. The problem with left swipe from within hubs is that they are implemented as horizontal applications and that would be rendered moot. I think Microsoft might have boxed themselves into a corner here.

How so? You swipe left or right to the notification page, then swipe up or down on the page. It sounds like you aren't really familiar with WP7 at all, I suggest you try it out, I think it will make what I'm saying more clear.

smoledman · Apr 14, 2012

boss.king said:
How so? You swipe left or right to the notification page, then swipe up or down on the page. It sounds like you aren't really familiar with WP7 at all, I suggest you try it out, I think it will make what I'm saying more clear.

Aren't some Windows Phone apps navigable via horizontal swiping? Essentially a tabbed interface without the traditional looking tab. If you're within one of those apps, swiping left only navigates within the app.

boss.king · Apr 14, 2012

smoledman said:
Aren't some Windows Phone apps navigable via horizontal swiping? Essentially a tabbed interface without the traditional looking tab. If you're within one of those apps, swiping left only navigates within the app.

Yes, but I don't see why you need to check your notifications while in an app, that's what toasts are for. If you need to see the notifications you're likely to be switching to another app anyway. Hit the windows button, swipe to the side, and view your notifications, if you need to go back, hit the back buttoin and you're back in your app again. Simple.

smoledman · Apr 14, 2012

boss.king said:
Yes, but I don't see why you need to check your notifications while in an app, that's what toasts are for. If you need to see the notifications you're likely to be switching to another app anyway. Hit the windows button, swipe to the side, and view your notifications, if you need to go back, hit the back buttoin and you're back in your app again. Simple.

What I'm saying is in iOS you swipe down from the top to see your notifications, it's just that simple. Why shouldn't Windows Phone have it?

boss.king · Apr 14, 2012

smoledman said:
What I'm saying is in iOS you swipe down from the top to see your notifications, it's just that simple. Why shouldn't Windows Phone have it?

Because it doesn't fit with the nature of the OS. Why should Windows Phone try to copy iOS to give people something that already exists? They should design a notification centre that fits within the Metro style and fits with the rest of the OS. Even in iOS, the swipe-down notification centre is out of place, but at least it works. In WP7 it would neither fit nor work.

smoledman · Apr 14, 2012

boss.king said:
Because it doesn't fit with the nature of the OS. Why should Windows Phone try to copy iOS to give people something that already exists? They should design a notification centre that fits within the Metro style and fits with the rest of the OS. Even in iOS, the swipe-down notification centre is out of place, but at least it works. In WP7 it would neither fit nor work.

So explain me the UX on how you get to a history view of notifications from these different scenarios:

#1 - home screen
#2 - app list
#3 - inside a hub
#4 - inside an app

boss.king · Apr 14, 2012

smoledman said:
So explain me the UX on how you get to a history view of notifications from these different scenarios:

#1 - home screen
#2 - app list
#3 - inside a hub
#4 - inside an app

#1 - Swipe left once or right twice.
#2 - Swipe left twice or right once.
#3 - Windows button, then swipe left once or right twice.
#4 - Windows button, then swipe left once or right twice.

smoledman · Apr 14, 2012

boss.king said:
#1 - Swipe left once or right twice.
#2 - Swipe left twice or right once.
#3 - Windows button, then swipe left once or right twice.
#4 - Windows button, then swipe left once or right twice.

Show me a single video proof that swiping left does anything on Windows Phone right now.

boss.king · Apr 14, 2012

smoledman said:
Show me a single video proof that swiping left does anything on Windows Phone right now.

Huh? It does do things in many apps, that's why it swiping left wouldn't work as a trigger for the notification centre. It serves as an integral part of the navigation of the OS. Seriously, think about it. What you are proposing would seriously hinder the basic navigation of the OS.

thejadedmonkey · Apr 14, 2012

boss.king said:
Huh? It does do things in many apps, that's why it swiping left wouldn't work as a trigger for the notification centre. It serves as an integral part of the navigation of the OS. Seriously, think about it. What you are proposing would seriously hinder the basic navigation of the OS.

I think he means swiping left from the home screen, not from within every app. I've through about this too, but in all honesty I think I'd rather just give apps the ability to place alerts on the lock screen (if I choose, only!) and a notification hub.

Windows Phone Live Tiles - not a great solution

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