Which UI Would You Prefer? Seems Like a No Brainer to Me

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://macmegasite.com/2011/08/29/apples-ui-philosophy-vs-microsoft/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+macmegasite+(MacMegasite+-+Mac+Community+News)' target='_blank'>http://macmegasite.com/2011/08/29/a...Community+News)</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Microsoft's Windows 8 team today posted a blog entry detailing the user interface "improvements" in the Windows 8 explorer. This perfectly illustrates the difference between Microsoft &amp; Apple's user interface philosophies."</em></p><p><img height="451" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1314732601.usr105634.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px;" width="400" /></p><p>Yea, pretty much Apple rules this one. I like a simpler look, and this certainly isn't it. It just seems that they are trying to put way too much stuff in a menu bar to make it visible to the user. It seems strange to me because, as the author points out, users are more likely to use right clicks or hotkeys to issue commands. If that is the case then why clutter up the command or menu bar? I certainly prefer the Apple minimalistic view. You can read the blog post about this change <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/08/26/improvements-in-windows-explorer.aspx" target="_blank">here</a>, and perhaps that will shed some light on it but I didn't find any when I read through it. What are your thoughts?</p>

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Well, if they can hide the ribbon by default, it's not so bad. Still a bit baffled by why they'd want to do it in the first place.

[Sven Johannsen]

Well, if they can hide the ribbon by default, it's not so bad. Still a bit baffled by why they'd want to do it in the first place.
I'm sure you can hide it, like you can in the Office products. I could speculate that the ribbon concept does lend itself to fingers more so than the standard menu bar. With there being some acknowledgement that the tablets (read no physical keyboard and your finger is the mouse) are where it's at, providing some capability to navigate traditional windows interfaces is needed. It is clear MS is considering tablets for Windows 8. Note that most other 'tablet' OSs don't have a file manager concept natively, so fingerizing it doesn't even come up.

I have a couple of devices with Windows on a touch screen, a Media Center with a 24" touch monitor (great), a Dell Duo, and an HP Slate. I find all essentially usable in tablet mode, for those things I would do on tablets, read mail, surf, play games, etc. ( I have an iPad and an Acer Iconia in the house). When I get to more Windowy things, the normal Windows apps do fall short, but they were designed assuming a keyboard and mouse. Nothing on an iPad or an Android phone with a gland condition was designed assuming the user has a keyboard and mouse. Difference is I can add a keyboard, mouse, and big monitor if I choose, to my Slate, if the need arises, and use full on Windows applications. That is worth something to me. I pay for it in boot time and battery life. (Not price though. My 64G Slate was about the same as a 64G iPad.)