REVIEW - 8 Things you need to know about Windows 8

The much awaited Windows 8 is about to launch today. Since Windows 95, this is a giant leap in the overall UI of the world's most widely used Operating System. Here is a list of things which Windows 8 has to offer for us:

1.      Desktop replaced by Home Screen - No icons, no files and no folders, yes this is the new Windows 8 home screen. This icon concept has been replaced by the information tiles which give dynamic information. Home screen also comprise of a powerful universal which can be used to access the programmes, files, system settings etc. The best thing is that now the desktops will be cleaner and cutter free.

2.      Desktop in an App – Desktop has been transformed to an app in Windows 8.This means that Desktop can be accessed through the home screen. Also a big change is that the users don’t have access to the start button at the home screen.

3.      Modern UI – Modern UI is the Microsoft’s future interface design philosophy. With the concept of basic colors and minimalism, the UI looks richer and more usable. The whole interface is designed using basic elements like rectangles, squares and clean lines. The overall UI is genuinely attractive and catchy.

4.      Windows App Store - In Windows 8, all the programs with Modern UI design language will be distributed through Windows Store, a concept that is similar to app stores on Android devices, iPhone and iPad etc. Microsoft says it has a good business model to monitor the sales of the apps through the windows store. Moreover, this ecosystem ensures more safety for windows 8 from malware, viruses, etc.

5.      Lock screen Concept – To stay in the race, the Windows 8 has introduced the concept of home screen in its UI. Instead of boring wallpapers and screen savers, users can now see their social media widgets on the home screen. This change is again adopted from the IOS and Android UI.

6.      Cloud Connectivity – Again to stay in the game, Microsoft has adopted the Cloud model for data storage and sharing. Moreover, it is expected that big players like Adobe, Autodesk and others are ready with the cloud version of their apps. This will not only require less space on the hard disc, but will also minimize the software piracy.

7.      Control Panel is far – The controls panel stays in the Windows 8, but it has been pushed deep. Instead, what most users are likely to find when they look to change settings is the Settings Panel that uses Modern UI. Moreover, Windows 8 has adopted the IOS and Android approach again to simplify their modern UI. Also, now one can reset the PC to factory settings.

8.      Lack of Multitasking - There are two ways to multitask in Windows 8. One is the traditional method. This means all your open programs are accessible from the task bar. But this works only in Desktop mode. If you want to multitask in Modern UI mode, you are limited to seeing two windows at a time. Of these two one, occupies 80% screen and other 20%. These windows can't be resized.

Other open programs run in the background. On a tablet, a user can switch between open programs by swiping right on the left bezel. On a desktop or PC the way to bring the list of open apps in Modern UI mode is by navigating to the corner on the top left. Once the thumbnails of open apps show, you can select an app to switch to it or you can snap it in either 80% screen or 20% screen for two-app multitasking.

Bottom Line-

Overall Windows 8 has a good, usable and aesthetically pleasing UI. But in terms of innovation, Microsoft has done nothing new. I don’t think that they have done anything patentable apart from the minimalistic UI. Android simply copied it from IOS and now Windows 8 copied it from IOS and Android both. It seems like the innovative UI team in Microsoft is into hibernation mode these days. But with Windows 8, Microsoft surely stays in the game.

Campus Recruiting a Designer

Companies in India follow more or less the same process to recruit the fresher’s from universities. Shortlisting Test>Group Discussion>Technical Interview>HR Round, this is the loop they follow. I don’t think this is right way to identify the right candidate, moreover it has some loopholes.

35% of Indian population lies 15-25 years of age

      a.    Shortlisting test cannot judge the capability of an individual. He may tend to perform better in the long run rather than 1 hour long test. 

b    b.    Group discussion is a good way to measure the confidence level of an individual. But here too, it is not necessary that the one who speaks best is the best guy for the job.

Group Discussion - Crap ?

How is a designing job different for other jobs?

Art and design are somewhat different fields. They require creativity rather than labour. Hence it is important that the recruiting process for a designer has to be completely different from the process a regular software or a management guy.

Brainstorming Sessions hep Generate Ideas on the other hand Group Discussions end nowhere

Design as a subject is something very special. A designer doesn’t really have to have a special training or experience to develop an idea. An idea can be born in mind of designer at any point of time. What is important is the process that designers follow to give the best idea and present it in the best possible way.

Hence, while recruiting a designer, it is important for the recruiters to know that what kind of work they are expecting from the designer. In most of the cases I have seen that Designers do not like working at big companies, reason being that they have absolutely no work to do, and the work they have is usually data gathering, which is too annoying for a creative person.

So it is important for the recruiters and the designers, both to be clear that what kind of work they will be doing, before actually carrying the recruitment discussion forward. (Pre placement talk is a good option)

Does the same traditional recruitment process work for recruiting designers?

The answer is a big NO. I personally feel that recruiting designers is a really big challenge within itself. Following are the things that recruiters must look for:

     1.    CV and PORTFOLIO – 

     ·         Should be brief and to the point.

     ·         Portfolio should consist of specific projects. If you intend to recruit a UX designer, the portfolio should only contain UX projects.

     ·         One can judge the composition, artistic and presentation skills by looking at the portfolio.

CV and Portfolio should be precise and clear

      2.     INDIVIDUAL AND TEAMWORK Performance –

      ·         Try giving a 3-5 hour design problem, which the aspirants work on, solve and present in the end.

     ·         Asking questions related to team work and individual performance will help you judging the right person.

  

Having a friendly conversation in the interview may help the students to open up

Candidates must talk about their interests rather than packages

     3.     ENTHUSIASM AND BRAINSTORMING CAPABILITIES

 

.     You can organize a brief 30 minutes brainstorming session instead of group discussions. I somehow feel that group discussion is a crappy idea.

.    The brainstorming session will not only help you find the right candidate for the job, but also if you hook up with design department of your company, it can be really helpful for them to get ideas on the projects they are currently doing.

Another important aspect of a brainstorming session is that you get to know the enthusiasm and energy level of individual candidates and will help you choose the right candidate.

Brainstorming Session help in understanding the confidence eve and enthusiasm of the candidates

In the end, both the recruiter and the aspirant should be happy

Bottom Line –

The recruiters should give more time to select the right candidate for the design job. Patience is required to understand the skillset of designers. No company wants its employees to leave the company soon; hence it should be important for the recruiting team to look for the candidate who would fit in the environment of the company rather than giving the whole weightage to the candidate’s talent.

History of User Experience Design

User Experience Design is a broad term which includes terms like Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Interaction Design, Physical and Visual Interaction Design, Interface Design etc. The term was first coined in 1940’s when the researchers realized that there has to be a lot of research done in order to understand that how the user connects to the machines. Mostly because military warfare invention was on peak of their development, the scientists had to keep in mind number of factors, of which Interaction Design was the most important one. Today’s what we broadly call User Experience Design was called Human Factors in US and Ergonomics in Europe. 

Study of Human Factors or Ergonomics

After the First World War, everyone became more interested in chips, computers and software. The so called Human Factors study or Ergonomics was taken to the next level. Visionaries had already imagined what we today call laptops, mobile phones and tablets. So now researchers started developing input and output devices for computers. Thanks to their research and design that we have mouse and keyboard, which are like eyes and ears of the computer.

Ergonomically Designed Keyboard and Touch pad

The first Computer Interaction Conference was held in 1982, where people realized the importance of Interaction Design (Which was now being called as Experience Design). Moreover, the scientists and researchers started developing products which were more Human Centric than the Function Centric. It was this time when huge machines, cockpits, kitchen equipment, automobiles etc. were all designed, keeping in mind the End User.

We today call this term as Empathy. Empathy is the capacity to recognize feelings that are being experienced by another sentient. 

Example of Empathy - Looking from the Perspective of the End User

So as for researchers, engineers and designers, Empathy acted as a backbone to incorporate the physical as well as the emotional aspect for the product. Gradually with the era of Personal Computers, the User Experience Design became a more important study. As the first computers came into market, there were many problems with this machine. Most of them were the Ergonomic and software errors, which created a resistance or hindrance between the User (Human) and the Computer (Machine). It was this instant, that engineers, designers and researchers first thought of Iterative Processes in their designs.  Before this, the professionals were quite skeptic and adamant about accepting the problems in their products and iterating them. But during the 1990’s, as the market became more and more competitive, it was important for the big companies to iterate their poor designs and make them into something world class. This was the turning point in the history of User Experience Design.

Since 2000, researchers realized the importance of User Experience and User Centric Design. We can see the paradigm shift in the experiences of Shopping Malls, Automobile Showrooms, Railway Stations, & Airports and absolutely everywhere you can imagine of. 

Internet Explorer Logo explains the Experience of Surfing which they serve here

Companies are now designing products which give an emotional selling point to its customers, which I call ESP. In the words of Steve Jobs – “We are no longer designing products. We are designing (often physical + digital) experiences”. I feel that’s the reason why Apple Corporation spends so much time and money to design their Apple Stores across the globe. There is a sense of awesomeness I get whenever I enter the Apple Store.

Bottom Line: 

Hence as UX Designers, it is important for us to understand this trend of User Centric Design. We just don’t have to focus on the Product Design or Interaction Design aspect of the product, but we have to look at this product from far outside & see that how the End User experiences the Product.

Latest trends in User Interface Design

What is a User Interface? Everything that we use and interact with is a User Interface. Right from a washing machine to an aircraft’s cockpit, or any software for that matter, everything is a User Interface. 

Some of the interfaces we come across everyday

The best way to identify a poor User Interface design is to observe the user. Whenever the user is frustrated or pissed off while interacting with product, it is an example of poor UI Design. For example, I always have a tough time in understanding the buttons located on the remote control of a set top box. Moreover, the text on old remote controls is nearly torn off.

As UI Designers, our job is not only to create “Beautiful” stuff, but it is to create more “Usable” stuff. Products or Interfaces, which is not only easy to use, but also create minimum user interface friction.

Sounds like an easy job, which involves just a few properly placed buttons and links, but it is far beyond. Imagine! In companies like 99design, Apple, Google, UI Design is the highest paying job. I think because the industry has now realized the importance of user centric design.

Following are some latest happenings and trends in the UI Design-

     A.      MINIMALISM –

It is the most happening trend in the UI industry just for the reason that designers have realized that everything Usable is simple. Simple background, simple foreground and simple icons, with simple colors makes the UI easy to understand and more usable.

Windows 8, IOS 6, Photoshop, all these interfaces are simply the icons with a contrasting background padding which directly speak for themselves.

Though Minimalism is a great way to design a web application which focuses on user generated content – if done right, users will rarely complain about it. But it is often a pain in the ass of a designer to convince the client for such a design. It will often be too simple for him and he would often think that, why is he paying you so much money for such a simple design? So it is important to understand the stakeholders of your project before actually using such an approach.

Minimal and Clean Windows 8 User Interface

     B.      SKEW MORPHISM-

Apple was the pioneer to adopt this Design approach, later many other companies like Google and Microsoft adopted it. The design approach relies on imitating the functionality and looks of the physical objects around us and further implementing them on our interfaces. For example, using wooden bookshelf with book covers to represent digital content. This is the closest example of Skew morphed UI Design.

This design approach is often argued upon by the critics because according to them, imitating real-world objects necessarily means imitating the limitations that come with them. On the contrary, others believe that such a design gives freedom and friendliness to the user and is more Usable.

Such a design trend should be used while design UI for touch devices. Gesture response is important for implementing such a design. Using it on web apps and projects is not a good idea, although some elements can be used to enhance parts of the interface.

i Books use bookshelf as a whole to depict its UI

     C.      LASER FOCUS-

Laser focus, focuses on exactly the one task that is user is there for. Such a UI is clean and direct. Google search engine is the best example of such a UI. The key benefit of this approach is simplicity – users instantly know what the application is about and what the suggested action is.

Such an approach is best when the function of a website or project is single. This trend can mostly be used in search engines, flight booking websites, etc.

Google homepage with crystal clear function

     D.      CONTENT SENSITIVE NAVIGATION-

Such a trend came up with the rise of dynamic user interfaces. It is best way to hide the unnecessary element in the UI of any project. This approach raises a serious question. What elements should be on the screen all the time and which ones can be shown only in certain situations.

Such a trend is being followed in the social networking sites like Pinterest, Facebook, etc.

Content activates only when the mouse is rolled over the image in Pinterest

     E.       COLLAPSED CONTENT-

This is another way of decluttering your UI elements. The important information is grouped into specific headers and collapses only when required. Many mail portal use such an approach. The best part about such a trend is that despite having infinite functions in your webpage or project, the actions are grouped.

Such a design approach is used in mail portals and in software like Photoshop, Word, and Excel etc.

Collapsible top bar in Microsoft Word

CONCLUSION:

When designing web or mobile pages and applications, good user interface design is of paramount importance – sometimes, that’s what the project is all about.

By becoming a great user interface designer, you put yourself in a rather elite design company – there aren’t a vast amount of talented user interface designers out there.