3 ms·
It's too bad that Microsoft as an organization doesn't care about good design. I don't look at Satya Nadella and think of a man who has taste. And Microsoft doe
by andrewmcwatters 3y ago
It's too bad that Microsoft as an organization doesn't care about good design. I don't look at Satya Nadella and think of a man who has taste. And Microsoft doesn't have a Chief Design Officer, as far as I know.
Instead, Microsoft has VPs. So there's no one person at the helm saying, "This is the vision and where we're heading."
As a result, I suspect there are actual good designers at Microsoft trying to start movements from within, and those have bubbled up to what we see today as the progression of Microsoft's design through Fluent from Metro and prior.
But because there's no one at the helm, these efforts will always be isolated.
There will never be anyone saying, "Let's carry these efforts across products and down to the UI." "Let's deprecate and discontinue all of these fragmented UI frameworks. Moving forward, Microsoft will only create UI using Fluent UI."
Worse yet, even if someone tried, Microsoft has tried and failed again and again and again so why would you bother? It's clear Microsoft's UIs are shifting sand compared to Apple's platforms or even Linux desktops!
- WillAdams 3y agoThe ultimate indictment here is that Microsoft yielded the UI decisions for the one decisive creative advantage which they have, stylus computing, to Google so as to dumb down styluses to the lowest common denominator of Android styluses. Why does my digital stylus function as an 11th touch input and scroll since Fall Creator Update? I handed a stylus to a sales associate at Best Buy and challenged them to select text on a Windows 11 computer and they were unable to do so --- but were instantly successful on my Samsung Galaxy Book 12 running Windows build 1703 which allows this to function as it has since Windows for Pen Computing (and Go Corp.'s PenPoint before that). I'd give my interest in Hell for someone to make a nice stylus computer running Linux, or for Apple to make a Mac which has touch and support for the Apple Pencil.
- prox 3y agoIs it possible to hack the Apple Pencil to run in Linux?
- lockhouse 3y agoIt’s not exactly what you asked for but Sidecar works very nicely with the Apple Pencil if you have both an iPad and a Mac.
- WillAdams 3y agoI don't need an iPad --- there aren't any apps in the App Store I want to run. I need a tablet computer w/ a file system. My current setup is: - Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 w/ Wacom EMR stylus running Windows 11 --- I have to keep the Settings app open and constantly toggle the option for "Let me use my pen as a mouse when it's available" on and off depending on which app I need to use - Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ w/ Wacom EMR stylus --- on-the-go notetaking and sketching and reference to notebooks from... - Amazon Kindle Scribe w/ Wacom EMR stylus --- ebooks and full-fledged note-taking and free-form sketching - MacBook w/ Wacom One to afford a Wacom EMR stylus --- the screen on the Wacom One is dim and low-resolution, but workable and being able to seamlessly switch from working on the Mac to taking notes on the Kindle Scribe makes it worthwhile --- that said, I'd gladly update to a device w/ a better screen but the same stylus technology The previous high-water mark of my technology usage was a NeXT Cube w/ a Wacom Arz tablet and NCR-3125 pen computer w/ a Wacom digitizer (unfortunately on/off only, not pressure sensitive), but again, being able to work on my Cube, and switch to note-taking was well worth it.
- trinix912 3y ago> "Let's deprecate and discontinue all of these fragmented UI frameworks. Moving forward, Microsoft will only create UI using Fluent UI." But then, "Microsoft Bad" because they broke 30+ year old corporate apps many enterprises depend on. Or those same enterprises will then hold onto Windows 10 because "our stuff just works there" and you get even higher fragmentation. The way to do it would be to redesign the controls in Win32/MFC drawing routines for them to be consistent with Fluent Design, not create yet another UI framework that would supposedly replace it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- andyjohnson0 3y ago> I don't look at Satya Nadella and think of a man who has taste. While I generally agree with your point, this is unfair. If you're trying to set-up a comparison with Steve Jobs then ok, Jobs did act as guardian of Apple's sense of style and taste. And while that kind of worked for Apple, during one period of its evolution, it's arguably not a necessary role for the CEO of a multi-billion dollar global business.
- orthoxerox 3y agoOn the other hand, Apple became a multi-billion dollar global business because it had style and taste other companies didn't.
- andyjohnson0 3y agoI don't understand your point. There are several multi-billion dollar global businesses, including Microsoft, that are successful without Apple's focus on style and taste.
- pathartl 3y agoEspecially when they kinda target different markets. Jobs set up Apple to completely ignore the enterprise space.