An all-new Control Panel for Vista?

So i know that the known beta versions of Windows Vista doesn't show the final UI design yet. But i have seen those screenshots and found the Control Panel very complex. In my opinion to complex to be managed by newbies. So i tried to experiment a little bit and designed some sketches with clear rules of interface design in mind that i can't find in current Vista builts:

- clear (to bring clearity to our lifes )
- less details
- simple elements
- no redundancy (like the word "Search" AND a magnifying glass icon in the search bar)
- focus on content (best ui would be "no" ui)
- simple icons (not photo realistic, fast to read)
- NO reflections!
- NO reflections!

Reflections are bad, esspecially "sharp" ones. It's clear that i love the Luna design of XP because i think it is more modern than Apple's Aqua design, because its more usable. But MS is copying Aque style and overdo it, look at the buttons of the Windows Media Player 10 for example, they are hard to "read" because a sharp reflection goes over the symbols. So final rule:

- NO Aqua² but Luna²

and here we go:



What you think? If you want more, please ask

please note: this aren't official MS designs

You really need to USE the control panel inorder to comment on it... but like you'll make the same mistake and comment on your idea / screenshot:

1. Appearance-wise it sucks (sorry for a lack of better word)
2. Tabs -> buttons -> tabs is your interface, very hard to understand let alone navigate to something useful
3. The tabs on the top will run out soon..what then? where do you add another panel? If you see office 12 (use it please, don't just go by screenshots) they have used tabs in the ribbon bar. but the tabs you get at startup are constant, then you get contextual tabs which keep on changing... that way you don't run out of space for tabs and you don't clutter the UI.

4. Your UI is more like the old win95 apps, with some new icons and tabs. You really should have a basic interface (like the vista cp , where its mostly links and one line of text) that then pops up adialog for that particular setting. Also your searc at the top won't really work well since you have divided all the settings in tabs, tabs are futher divded into "buttons"? and those inturn again have tabs.

But nothing wrong with going against the vista cpanel..but i'd suggest plse use it first before comparing or complaining. I've been using it for quite some time now (ever since first builds came out 'publicly') and love it! The search works very well, all the items are easy to find (although few icons needs a change). It looks more like the 'future' and not somthing thats going backwards (something I see in your design).

This one looks even more complex than the one in Vista.


The one in the current builds is fine.  I like it.  Just needs less text and more images.  Generally a lot of Vista needs a better image to text ratio.

Thanks for your commands!

May be i could explain the tabs/buttons issue: On top there are some tabs (like in IE7) than there are simple icons and below there are the "meta data" (like the same in the Explorer). So no new tabs or windows are needed and you could change all settings in one window. In XP sometimes i have 3 or 4 windows opened only to change one simple setting.

Why is in Vista a "Classic View" option? Like that in XP? In XP i always used the classic view. In the Vista builts i think u have to search the whole window to find the right settings and these are organized like the Yahoo webpage years ago.

1. I doesn't do the interface.
2. Don't rate the cook by singing skills.
3. Thanks for the free English lesson

Beer28 wrote:

English as a 2nd language people are doing the interface now.

i like it better than the text list CP ive seen in vista betas

although the final aero version will hopefully be the 3d spinning circle of components (like in the video at PDC) in which case - it will go way beyond anything we've seen so far

I just hope that the current list control panel we see - is not what you get if you opt to not isplay the aero version - as it is mainly ugly

Beer28 wrote:

English as a 2nd language people are doing the interface now.

Minh wrote:

Oh, good Lord!

TiaDiMundo, that's a nice background image (of the sky). Can I download it somewhere?

Beer28 wrote:

English as a 2nd language people are doing the interface now.
This is another reason for me to use GNU products. Un-bizzare sounding interface terminology.

Windows is starting to look a lot like KDE.  I recently installed KDE on Solaris 10 to make it really usable as a desktop and I just noticed the simularities.  All Vista needs now is a virtual desktop manager and Windows Vista will be complete.

TiAdiMundo wrote:

please note: this aren't official MS designs

Beer28 how nice of you to say . espece de connard

papavb wrote:

Beer28 how nice of you to say . espece de connard

TiAdiMundo wrote:

So i know that the known beta versions of Windows Vista doesn't show the final UI design yet. But i have seen those screenshots and found the Control Panel very complex. In my opinion to complex to be managed by newbies. So i tried to experiment a little bit and designed some sketches with clear rules of interface design in mind that i can't find in current Vista builts:

- clear (to bring clearity to our lifes )
- less details
- simple elements
- no redundancy (like the word "Search" AND a magnifying glass icon in the search bar)
- focus on content (best ui would be "no" ui)
- simple icons (not photo realistic, fast to read)
- NO reflections!
- NO reflections!

Reflections are bad, esspecially "sharp" ones. It's clear that i love the Luna design of XP because i think it is more modern than Apple's Aqua design, because its more usable. But MS is copying Aque style and overdo it, look at the buttons of the Windows Media Player 10 for example, they are hard to "read" because a sharp reflection goes over the symbols. So final rule:

- NO Aqua² but Luna²

and here we go:



What you think? If you want more, please ask

please note: this aren't official MS designs

The options are already in one place just as much as they are there...  it won't save you any clicks in accessing them, since it will still be Start>Control Panel.

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:

The options are already in one place just as much as they are there...  it won't save you any clicks in accessing them, since it will still be Start>Control Panel.

leighsword wrote:

I am rarely open Control Panel, you know, it's not simple to use, you need click this and make sure the target, then click that...