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Try out Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) on your iPhone!

bp1000 said:
I commend them for creating something original.

But in all honesty I hate it. There is stuff going on all over the place. There is no natural flow. Your swiping in all directions. Multiple channels to multiple functions.

My job is web site / web app usability and one of the biggest factors in design is flow and using techniques like anchoring.

You should have areas of contrast to define headers and content or important bits of information. This design is all slushed together with no clear separation and the fonts are way too big in places for stuff that isn't important.

It's hard too see the content, too much screen real estate taken up by unessesary things and red is a very provocative and emotional colour which is a particular problem to colour blind people.

The best designs are simple on focus on experience or content, this is trying to do that but trying too hard. There is just stuff going on all over the place.
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I respect your opinion, but I, along with the developers at Microsoft, disagree with every point you've made.

SGMD1 said:
Ever since Windows Phone 7 was announced, I've been wondering this...what's up with all the unused space on the right side of the home screen? Seems like such a poor design decision.

Image

I can't be the only one who finds this annoying.
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Yes.
 
I don't know, its not terrible. I just don't find it aesthetically pleasing to look at.

I'd say it has potential, but going up against android and iOS is a tall task...
 
I think it has potential and with Nokia hardware it can be my next phone, unless Apple comes up with something new. I'm bored with iOS.
 
bjb.butler said:
I respect your opinion, but I, along with the developers at Microsoft, disagree with every point you've made.
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The world would be a boring place if we all liked the same things and had the same opinions.

There is no hard fast rule to design but the principle always remains the same. I know this is an apple forum but most of us are open minded. The problem with Microsoft is they don't listen and allow techies to dictate the direction of a product.

The overwhelming majority here don't like it and the way it operates. Maybe that's because it is a limited demo that we aren't free to explore.

With a phone it has to be about the content and you have to feel great about using it. If you don't want to pick your phone up for no reason and start playing then you've missed the point. That's how I feel about this windows demo.

The colours are dreadful, the space is used very badly, you can't distinguish what your content is, then it's written in red text on a black background. Headings aren't important yet take up a quarter of the screen real estate when it could show important messages. Then they seem to have taken the swipe concept too far, swiping in all directions, it's confusing for the mind.

Like I said I commend microsoft for trying something new and nobody has to agree with me but they seem to have over engineered this. I'm sure they will do well as people love to see radicalisation.

//update
I didn't purposely go out of my way to find the following video - it just came up in a conversation on another forum today, but it shows just how far off the mark MS are with this phone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHoukZpMhDE

.
 
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Before trying this demo I thought that WP7 looked really good and would of been fun to have as a phone, but now I can see some of it's faults.

There is a lot going on and it's a bit messy looking. The way the menus work don't make it too easy to know where you are in the OS (couldn't even find a way to get back to the home screen :/ maybe that's just not in the demo... maybe). The cut off text doesn't really help either. It looks cool, but just adds to the messy feeling. Theres a few more problems I have with it, but it's all related to the messy feeling of the OS.

I'm sure the actual phones would be a bit better then the demo, but the UI will always stay the same, it's just not for me. Still, I'm glad it's original.
 
Tried it on my Nexus One and iPhone 4. The N1 lags because its GPU is fairly outdated. My iP4 was fairly smooth although I figure the 4s would be even smoother. Tried it on the Focus just to check the smoothness and test the GPU, but it wouldn't let me try it out since I am using WP already. I don't consider the site to be that much helpful. You are barely skimming through the OS. There is alot more you aren't seeing. But hey, it is a start and Microsoft is at least putting in the effort.

I personally really do like Windows Phone. SUPER smooth transitions. The apps and the font can stay consistent as well. The live tiles really give it a personality of its own. I put individual contacts as live titles to give it a look like an animated TOP FRIENDS/FAMILY list like MySpace. Everything from seeing a live calendar tile flip that shows the entire month to the Zune app and Xbox Live tile that is all moving. Like viewing something in Times Square. You might not like it at first, but it grows on you. No static and boring icon like iOS and the default contact, pictures, and music app is way better than Android. I also the have the Samsung NOW app which tells me the weather. What the platform really lacks are apps.

My Focus is currently my most used phone and draws the most stares. Just dislike the plastic build and being a bit too wide for my hands to grip. Perhaps staying at 3.5-3.7 inch for iPhones is fine with me. But I leave iOS and Android phones behind because WP can be so fun to look at and use. Windows Phone is the most intuitive mobile OS out there now that webOS is gone and QNX/BBX is just a copy. I can't wait for Windows 8.
 
I don't like it at all,


It's terribly designed! The bland static black background with icons that look like they were designed in MSPaint and super oversized text... it is super dull and boring, after trying it for a few seconds, I wanted to get rid of it, the same thing happened when I actually tried a real WP7, so at least this emulation is correct, the whole UI is so monotonous.

Whoever sold this Metro garbage to Microsoft is a sales genius! Black background, MSPaint "designed" squares, huge text! SOLD!

Artsy does not always work and isn't always practical and this is by no means artsy at all.

Also tiles are useless, they are not big enough or variable enough to provide real useful information, like Android widgets and but they are big enough to waste space. They were supposed to be a replacement for notifications... well check Microsoft's feature requests site for WP7, a notifications menu is the most requested feature, which means that tiles are a UI paradigm failure.

And it's ridden with text, text, text various sizes and shapes, you cannot quickly glance at it and get the information you need, it all blends together, also WP7 is more side scrolling than Mario, all you do is side scroll and there is never any indication where you are in the UI or the pages... confusing and annoying.

And of course it's going to be smooth, it's so basic, all the CPU/GPU have to do is render text.


There are no apps for it and no devs are interested in it, unless Microsoft pays them. The posters that will come to "prove me wrong" are only a minority of vocal WP7 supporters, in the real world no one needs this OS.

There already is an elegant, easy to use OS with a fantastic UI and an amazing ecosystem: iOS.
There already is a powerful, functional and customizable OS with a great UI and an ever growing ecosystem of apps and Google services: Android.

What's the point of WP7?

SGMD1 said:
Ever since Windows Phone 7 was announced, I've been wondering this...what's up with all the unused space on the right side of the home screen? Seems like such a poor design decision.

Image

I can't be the only one who finds this annoying.
Click to expand...

Yea, they could've used that space for notification icons, or something productive instead they waste it.
 
Vitruviux said:
I don't like it at all,


It's terribly designed! .
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Most here do.

Windows phone is going to be a contender and become one of the top three in phone sales soon. It will be Android, Apple and Windows with RIM scrapping for the faithful.

Right now the hardware running Mango is kinda crappy but Nokia has got some hardware that will be released soon that . . . . well Apple better step up with the iPhone 5!:p
 
Tried this...

I have no idea what's going on, just swiping back from one place, takes you to somewhere else that you haven't been!

Utter cack
 
Stealthipad said:
Windows phone is going to be a contender and become one of the top three in phone sales soon. It will be Android, Apple and Windows with RIM scrapping for the faithful.
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Oh, I wouldn't underestimate Microsoft's potential to mis-execute the Mango roll-out. :p They're going to get market share purely by virtue of having lured Nokia into partnership, but Nokia's market share has been sliding. You're probably right, they'll be able to pass RIM, but I don't know for sure that this will make them a contender (RIM is in that third-place OS spot now, and they're not a contender).

I like some features of Mango, but I don't think it'll save MS's presence in the market. (In contrast, I hope the rumors are true and iOS MS Office is coming soon -- I think that would be a delightful development).

Otherwise, I think MS should focus on getting XBox games onto Android and iOS -- it'll make them more money and give them more attention share.
 
mkrishnan said:
Oh, I wouldn't underestimate Microsoft's potential to mis-execute the Mango roll-out. :p They're going to get market share purely by virtue of having lured Nokia into partnership, but Nokia's market share has been sliding. You're probably right, they'll be able to pass RIM, but I don't know for sure that this will make them a contender (RIM is in that third-place OS spot now, and they're not a contender).

I like some features of Mango, but I don't think it'll save MS's presence in the market. (In contrast, I hope the rumors are true and iOS MS Office is coming soon -- I think that would be a delightful development).

Otherwise, I think MS should focus on getting XBox games onto Android and iOS -- it'll make them more money and give them more attention share.
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Office would be nice but after using the SG2 for months now, I could not see doing Office on the current size (tiny) iPhone screen. Size DOES make a difference!
 
I really like Mango...they put some of my favorite features from Palm OS into this phone (e.g. threaded conversations so you talk to a contact in one thread regardless of if they are on facebook, text, aim, etc.)

There are some big downsides though...

-You have to use Bing....at least originally you did...who wants to use Bing as their search engine?
-The flow is terrible...it is awesome they didn't follow Android or iOS and tried to do their own thing...but it is hard to follow what to do to progress through the OS.
-The app ecosystem is really small.
 
I love WP7, but I also loved the Zune (Metro) UI when it came out. There's just something about it that is appealing to me.

If WP7 had the developers iOS has, I would probably take time to consider my next phone. But until that day, the only choice is between iOS and a vanilla Android phone.
 
bjb.butler said:
I respect your opinion, but I, along with the developers at Microsoft, disagree with every point you've made.
Click to expand...

And this is why choice is important. People can choose to use the iOS interface and get an iPhone. Or, they can choose an Android device. Or, they can choose Windows Phone.

However, if choice measured by market share were any indicator of agreement, I would say that a lot of people disagree with the developers at Microsoft, and apparently, you.

I do respect Microsoft for doing something different. And they do have a point that being able to "glance" at your interface and know what's going on is useful. The problem is, they really don't have a good answer for what to do to interact with things after you've glanced.

And I think the most telling thing about the demo is that it has to tell you what to do with certain elements. The tour is very controlled, very guided. And it didn't sell me. The local Scout feature instance. Really? I have to swipe seven times and then tap, to get a review of a specific restaurant?!

It's a little too minimalist, and then a lot of movement and action is required to make up for that minimalism. Which I guess some people might like. But not me. When I closed that demo out, I actually felt a little bit motion sick, which is not a sensation I'm used to having after using a smartphone.
 
Stealthipad said:
Office would be nice but after using the SG2 for months now, I could not see doing Office on the current size (tiny) iPhone screen. Size DOES make a difference!
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Yeah, I think it'd mostly be interesting on the iPad more than the iPhone, unless they come up with something really clever for the iPhone.
 
I think some of you might be confused about navigating the demo because you're used to one home button amd on screen navigation icons. Wp7 has both a back key and a home (windows) key. To go back hit the back key to go to the main screen hit the home key. To go back to previous apps long press the back key and swipe through the last 5 apps. Long press the home key for voice commands like "Open calendar"



Sent from my Radar 4G using Board Express
 
Very cool!

Smart move on microsoft's part. Doubt it'll take them very far but nifty nonetheless.
 
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