How can us end users get Microsoft to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee? Windows 10 Tablet mode is seriously broken and is an impediment to Windows' future success. It needs to be fixed and quickly.
There is little love lost between me and Microsoft, but I want to see Microsoft succeed in the tablet world. Why? For a very selfish reason, competition. Since I use Microsoft's operating system I want it to be the best that there is. Right now it isn't!
In 2017 the tablet (& mobile) landscape is still almost a monopoly. Apple's iOS dominates. Google's Android is a distant runner up in terms of dollar value (I don't consider old, under-powered or cheap devices running a myriad of versions of Android as constituting an actual threat to Apple's iOS monopoly). Unfortunately Windows 10 doesn't barely registers above a percentage point on the tablet devices scale which doesn't bode well for its future. But, Windows 10 tablet could be better. It could be MUCH BETTER.
Android doesn't meet my work needs (it's okay as a portable web OS). iOS is way too expensive and doesn't meet my work needs (though, it a great portable OS). Mac OS X mostly meets my work needs, but, I'm now too heavily invested in software that runs on Microsoft's Windows, so, I need Microsoft to succeed.
Let me describe how I've come to the conclusion that Windows tablet mode is woefully inadequate: by watching my four and six year old sons get frustrated with Windows 10 tablet mode on two separate tablet devices (a two year old 7" tablet, the other a 2016 era 13" 2-in-1 laptop). And, with my own frustrations with Windows 10 on said devices.
My four year old only knows iPad, Android 5 and Windows 10 tablet. My six year old also knew the BlackBerry Playbook.
As young children, both boys were capable of manipulating--without any instruction--an iPod Touch 2nd generation. Let me re-iterate that: WITHOUT ANY INSTRUCTION they were both capable of opening apps and operating the device with little frustration. Android 5, same form factor (4" screen), is a worse experience with many more frustrations but still marginally tolerable. The BlackBerry Playbook wasn't bad (though, after it fell down a flight of stairs the cracked screen kind of took the fun out of it :(. Windows 10 Tablet is distinctly worse than all of the above!
My assessment of a device's/OS's usability is determined by the parent-intervention-required factor. With iOS I don't never really had to intervene beyond things that were simply beyond their cognitive ability. Android required far more parental intervention. PlayBook required some intervention for a 2 year old but not that much!
They're now much older and Windows 10 tablet mode is just a constant headache. It's not INTUITIVE. And, these boys are pros when it comes to Android and iOS so it's telling to see them be frustrated by Windows 10 tablet mode. Microsoft just hasn't got it right. Though people are nostalgic for Windows 8, its tablet mode was no better.
I do grant that Windows 10 desktop mode is even better than Windows 7! That's where Windows 10 shines (though, even there Microsoft could stand to learn from Apple's philosophy of "it just works" and it could stand to get rid of legacy approaches).
Back to the tablet mode frustrations.
Swipe from right and you get the Action Center. Swipe from left and you get the start menu. Swipe from top and you close an app or snap it to a side. These gestures are frustrating (to me too) and cannot be disabled when you could really stand to have them disabled.
Then there's the icons and menus. Tablet mode in Windows 10 is an afterthought. It's a way to shoe-horn the desktop paradigm into a touch screen and it shows. Icons are small. Many parts of the interface don't respond as you'd expect from real life (that's the genius of iOS... things "just work" like in real life). Tablet mode should "just work".
Now, I do get that Apple has a patent on the home button which limits what non-Apple touch device makers can do to make their devices "just work". But, there's got to be better solutions than what Windows currently has.
For example, try to play any touch game and I'm constantly swearing at the swipe right and swipe left screen edge actions. They're constantly interfering with the game. That's not something covered by an Apple patent and is simply bad UI design by Microsoft. That's FIXABLE without violating patents (unless Apple has a patent on disabling screen edge gestures :).
Post script: I'm a fairly recent Windows user. For the first 20 years of my computing life I was almost exclusively a Mac user. Now, for the past 10 years I've been a mostly Windows user and exclusively Windows for the past 7. Not because I particularly like Windows (I don't) but because it's what I use at work so there wasn't a compelling reason for me to pay the premium for Mac when I spent half my time finding cross-platform solutions.
There is little love lost between me and Microsoft, but I want to see Microsoft succeed in the tablet world. Why? For a very selfish reason, competition. Since I use Microsoft's operating system I want it to be the best that there is. Right now it isn't!
In 2017 the tablet (& mobile) landscape is still almost a monopoly. Apple's iOS dominates. Google's Android is a distant runner up in terms of dollar value (I don't consider old, under-powered or cheap devices running a myriad of versions of Android as constituting an actual threat to Apple's iOS monopoly). Unfortunately Windows 10 doesn't barely registers above a percentage point on the tablet devices scale which doesn't bode well for its future. But, Windows 10 tablet could be better. It could be MUCH BETTER.
Android doesn't meet my work needs (it's okay as a portable web OS). iOS is way too expensive and doesn't meet my work needs (though, it a great portable OS). Mac OS X mostly meets my work needs, but, I'm now too heavily invested in software that runs on Microsoft's Windows, so, I need Microsoft to succeed.
Let me describe how I've come to the conclusion that Windows tablet mode is woefully inadequate: by watching my four and six year old sons get frustrated with Windows 10 tablet mode on two separate tablet devices (a two year old 7" tablet, the other a 2016 era 13" 2-in-1 laptop). And, with my own frustrations with Windows 10 on said devices.
My four year old only knows iPad, Android 5 and Windows 10 tablet. My six year old also knew the BlackBerry Playbook.
As young children, both boys were capable of manipulating--without any instruction--an iPod Touch 2nd generation. Let me re-iterate that: WITHOUT ANY INSTRUCTION they were both capable of opening apps and operating the device with little frustration. Android 5, same form factor (4" screen), is a worse experience with many more frustrations but still marginally tolerable. The BlackBerry Playbook wasn't bad (though, after it fell down a flight of stairs the cracked screen kind of took the fun out of it :(. Windows 10 Tablet is distinctly worse than all of the above!
My assessment of a device's/OS's usability is determined by the parent-intervention-required factor. With iOS I don't never really had to intervene beyond things that were simply beyond their cognitive ability. Android required far more parental intervention. PlayBook required some intervention for a 2 year old but not that much!
They're now much older and Windows 10 tablet mode is just a constant headache. It's not INTUITIVE. And, these boys are pros when it comes to Android and iOS so it's telling to see them be frustrated by Windows 10 tablet mode. Microsoft just hasn't got it right. Though people are nostalgic for Windows 8, its tablet mode was no better.
I do grant that Windows 10 desktop mode is even better than Windows 7! That's where Windows 10 shines (though, even there Microsoft could stand to learn from Apple's philosophy of "it just works" and it could stand to get rid of legacy approaches).
Back to the tablet mode frustrations.
Swipe from right and you get the Action Center. Swipe from left and you get the start menu. Swipe from top and you close an app or snap it to a side. These gestures are frustrating (to me too) and cannot be disabled when you could really stand to have them disabled.
Then there's the icons and menus. Tablet mode in Windows 10 is an afterthought. It's a way to shoe-horn the desktop paradigm into a touch screen and it shows. Icons are small. Many parts of the interface don't respond as you'd expect from real life (that's the genius of iOS... things "just work" like in real life). Tablet mode should "just work".
Now, I do get that Apple has a patent on the home button which limits what non-Apple touch device makers can do to make their devices "just work". But, there's got to be better solutions than what Windows currently has.
For example, try to play any touch game and I'm constantly swearing at the swipe right and swipe left screen edge actions. They're constantly interfering with the game. That's not something covered by an Apple patent and is simply bad UI design by Microsoft. That's FIXABLE without violating patents (unless Apple has a patent on disabling screen edge gestures :).
Post script: I'm a fairly recent Windows user. For the first 20 years of my computing life I was almost exclusively a Mac user. Now, for the past 10 years I've been a mostly Windows user and exclusively Windows for the past 7. Not because I particularly like Windows (I don't) but because it's what I use at work so there wasn't a compelling reason for me to pay the premium for Mac when I spent half my time finding cross-platform solutions.
from Windows Central Forums //forums.windowscentral.com/showthread.php?t=457516&goto=newpost
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