Windows 7 Ideas | The Coffeehouse

jamie

www.channel9.ca/win7/win7.htm

or to sort of get the effect... use the PPT (view full screen / slide show mode)

www.channel9.ca/win7/win7.ppt

* all put together within a couple of hours.. so go easy Wink

..anything?

edit: updated the htm link with 3d versions

mVPstar
I'm white because I smelt an onion.

CompGuy101 wrote:
I like simple, but your Windows 7 interpretation is just too simple!

Agreed.

But then, I'm not sure what else you could do for the UI.

I like the "your information is always available" concept for the UI, sort of like what was shown in the last future demos in which Gates previewed the future desktop concept that had a display projected on three panes of glass and this really cool UI.

jamie

you could do it that way - or you click view - just like now you have to click .. um.. orb?

but in this version - it would show - running programs (taskbar) background programs (notification area) and All programs - * also with "Uninstall" link right next to each - combined.

*i know i didnt show this but the first click on view menu is programs

jamie

..plus i liked the tag - above and beyond... you dont look UP at the clouds in win7 - you look down on them

(creates a sence of ..hugeness?)

Google moon etc

i thought it was ok for 3 hours... [A]

stevo_
Human after all

Uhh, leave it to them I think.. you know Microsoft has had some jip in the past about its design skills but.. yea.. not so easy is it..

If Seven is going in the same direction as XP to Vista did then I'll be happy..

The OS feel to me needs to be clean and like the OS has got things in control.. to me that's serious but not 'sgt major'.

As for some critic, the startup screen resolution is far too high, I wouldn't expect 7 to introduce a high resolution boot option, Vista has yet to really take off on using EFI in the house hold..

The scale of the startup screen is a bit 'teletubbies' and the kerning is extremely loose and the font is pretty ack, (see the W and it's pointy ascenders and descenders)..

The desktop is unreasonable and pointless sparse, the words Exit and View don't really fit what I'm guessing their roles are.. start doesn't really make much sense either.. overall it leaves me a bit confused..

The exit popup is needlessly huge, for some reason tells me AGAIN who I'm logged in as. Also, not sure why the username is in a textbox looking thing, Log out is also very hyperlink looking compared to any other buttons, not sure where there should be an X on there..

The view menu, not sure why the weather details are associated with the users profile (picture and name), because weather would be more related to the computers location.. not sure about system configuration details being listed so close to common operations.. also, as these operations increase, and sizes of resolutions change, it would become increasing difficult to support a horizontally specific window.. Not sure why the copyright is reitterated there..

Flip3D 2.0 looks around about as useless as Flip3D now.. I loved the concept but I've never actually used it, and in Vista I use alt-tab a lot less often anyway.. I think the taskbar navigation is much more obvious most of the time..

Browser is.. erm, somewhat unfinished, users would .. struggle Wink

.

Jpeg icon sample is well.. pretty standard, but it shows the extension by default and the font size is a bit on the large side..

I like the idea of a much slim lined photoviewer (see how the zune player shows videos and pictures), the ui should be dockable but maybe appear over the top by default.. but this is arguable, perhaps the preview handler framework in vista could be more utilized like how leopard is, and media previews could open in a slim lined version as just suggested..

elmer
I'm on my very last life.

Time for retro... it was all there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Windows1.0.png

What more do you need ??

Note: They suggest this is really SP1 ...LOL

PaoloM
Hypermediocrity

Keep going jamie, these are good ideas Smiley

Dodo
I'm your creativity creator™ :)

jamie wrote:

i thought it was ok for 3 hours...

It is

I just don't like the inconsistence of light and dark windows (shapes borders, whatever) and the shutdown window (too roundly) is either bad use of bevel and emboss or... weird gradients? Use borders (ordinary 1px gradients from dark to light do great) and shadows/glow. Makes it more 'airy' and would better compose with the clouds.
But it's great so far Smiley

jamie

stevo_ wrote:

As for some critic, the startup screen resolution is far too high, I wouldn't expect 7 to introduce a high resolution boot option, Vista has yet to really take off on using EFI in the house hold..

macs have had nice boot screens for years...

The scale of the startup screen is a bit 'teletubbies' and the kerning is extremely loose and the font is pretty ack, (see the W and it's pointy ascenders and descenders)..

ya its too big - pretend thats 640 size

The desktop is unreasonable and pointless sparse,

disagree - its just a bg pic - but with no "bar"

the words Exit and View don't really fit what I'm guessing their roles are.. start doesn't really make much sense either.. overall it leaves me a bit confused..

view = everything search = bypass that exit = ..uh... exit

The exit popup is needlessly huge,

ignore fatness... mainly showing Shutdown/ restart / Sleep

for some reason tells me AGAIN who I'm logged in as.

in vista shutdown menu there are tons of switch / log options. this one treats it like facebook

Also, not sure why the username is in a textbox looking thing,

so you could type - steveo_ / enter - and be logged in instantly

The view menu, not sure why the weather details are associated with the users profile (picture and name), because weather would be more related to the computers location..

it goes by profile info - if your from toronto it defaults to toronto

not sure about system configuration details being listed so close to common operations.. also, as these operations increase, and sizes of resolutions change, it would become increasing difficult to support a horizontally specific window..

perfect world the whole thing would scale (like vista was suppose too)

Flip3D 2.0 looks around about as useless as Flip3D now.. I loved the concept but I've never actually used it, and in Vista I use alt-tab a lot less often anyway.. I think the taskbar navigation is much more obvious most of the time..

at least you can see more at once in a circle

Browser is.. erm, somewhat unfinished, users would .. struggle .

that was not a design - just showing if you typed live.com in search bar - ie opens

Koogle
I'm a Terminator - Astalavista, Vis7a!

"Above and Beyond" great music Big Smile

errm as for the rest.. hmm no comment

stevo_
Human after all

jamie wrote:

stevo_ wrote:

As for some critic, the startup screen resolution is far too high, I wouldn't expect 7 to introduce a high resolution boot option, Vista has yet to really take off on using EFI in the house hold..

macs have had nice boot screens for years...

macs have had critical control of their target hardware for years, windows uses the bios, and it will continue to be the bigger in the PC market for maybe 5 more years

The desktop is unreasonable and pointless sparse,

disagree - its just a bg pic - but with no "bar"

let me explain, windows today has, a task list of applications, a notification area for a user to interact and get feedback from background apps, theres a quick launch bar.. while the quicklaunch bar could go, the task list and notification area won't just disappear in windows

the words Exit and View don't really fit what I'm guessing their roles are.. start doesn't really make much sense either.. overall it leaves me a bit confused..

view = everything search = bypass that exit = ..uh... exit

my point was the wording doesn't make sense.. I don't 'exit' my computer, view doesn't describe me changing a system setting (didn't they dump the word 'start' because it was confusing to say 'start - shutdown')

for some reason tells me AGAIN who I'm logged in as.

in vista shutdown menu there are tons of switch / log options. this one treats it like facebook

never used facebook, not sure what it has to do with the desktop, so I don't see why the reinforcement is there

Also, not sure why the username is in a textbox looking thing,

so you could type - steveo_ / enter - and be logged in instantly

thats highly unlikely given it's highly likely the user would need to supply a password, where do I supply the password?

The view menu, not sure why the weather details are associated with the users profile (picture and name), because weather would be more related to the computers location..

it goes by profile info - if your from toronto it defaults to toronto

well im from x, but I work in y, weather information like that is arguably useless anyway, yea - maybe user a wants their home town weather, maybe user b wants the weather in the town their working, maybe they want it for someone else.. in Vista the weather gadget is seperated away from an OS level ui item, I just think it adds clutter to a panel where its task is to help you find an app, doc or change some settings

not sure about system configuration details being listed so close to common operations.. also, as these operations increase, and sizes of resolutions change, it would become increasing difficult to support a horizontally specific window..

perfect world the whole thing would scale (like vista was suppose too)

scaling doesn't work well for resolution changes, spanning out horizontally is asking for trouble given our writing style goes horizontally, main point however was that the system configuration options don't make sense to be listed there

DCMonkey
Monkey see, monkey do, monkey will destroy you!

stevo_ wrote:
perhaps the preview handler framework in vista could be more utilized like how leopard is, and media previews could open in a slim lined version as just suggested..

At the very least, MS should make it as easy as Leopard to show and hide the preview pane (spacebar with Leopard, buried in some menu with Vista).

jamie

..another small branding thingy... the windows flag logo - is beside search (center) - not - left "View".

to me this says: here is windows... notice any shift of focus google?

ps - updated page and ppt to show dark BG = doesnt matter - no bar

(obviously the search box cant go in center of desktop/page like google - but it can go in center of invisible - but there - bar)

jamie

*disclaimer*

i just tried to make these quick mockups of ideas look vaguely like Windows Live = you know consistant

I am not suggesting these designs are to be seen as "real"... or whatever.

* if i were to work on win7 for real - Im sure the desktop alone would take 3 hours (lol)

stevo_
Human after all

3000 hours maybe Tongue Out

jamie

PaoloM wrote:
Keep going jamie, these are good ideas

thanks..

* i think id better clearly write out the ideas - so everyone doesnt focus on the actual (quick) design

DCMonkey
Monkey see, monkey do, monkey will destroy you!

Start menu jokes aside, I don't understand why exit needs to be a top level item, always visible on the desktop.

Is exiting the desktop something users have to do constantly (ie: as often as "viewing" or "searching")? Does it mean "shut down" or just "log out", or something else entirely?

jamie

re - steve - i wanted to call the left and right links - Open and Close... it is Windows after all... but i thought that might be more confusing than View / Exit Smiley

edit: thinking about it... i would vote for open / close now though...

elmer
I'm on my very last life.

DCMonkey wrote:
Start menu jokes aside, I don't understand why exit needs to be a top level item, always visible on the desktop.

Moreover... there is clearly still a Windows Logo and menu construct (or of sorts) so why not just make the Exit things a pop up from the Logo.... move all that crap to the LHS (to maintain familiarity) and that leaves the RHS for things like "View" etc... which is akin to the Notication area people are already used to.

Minh
WOOH! WOOH!

I have a few scenarios that I'd like Win7 to consider:

* Reading e-mails

* Manage / Search "Office" documents

* Browsing pictures

* Surfing the internet

* Manage "generic" files

* Manage people connections

* Paying bills

* Viewing car scheduled maintenance

* Browse viral videos

And I think these things need to be re-imagined to be totally different than what we do today. Because today, we have crap! crap! crap! when it comes to the non-computer literate crowd.

I think some mind-altering substance is required by MS designers prior to tackling those. I'll give it a shot, too, though.

jamie

Idea Summary:

Idea 1. none (for name)
Windows 7 will probably have a new name (as calling 7 in 2009 wont really work) In a way it is too bad. Ive never liked "names" for windows. Its windows. That one is up to ms.

Idea 2. Tag. Windows ____ : Above and Beyond
As mentioned in posts - i liked this because it sounds big. above the clouds - beyond the competition.. google moon.. xprise - or linux etc

Idea 3. Invisible taskbar - Search moved out of startmenu - centered
Again as mentioned: if MS is competing with google for real (from pcs to phones) they need the default main page UI to have search. It cant go in center of wallpaper (as it would wreck the look of family photos) but it could go in the center of the - invisible - bar.

Idea 4: Tag win flag logo to search box (not View or Open menu)
This just re-enforces the "when we say we are going to kill f$%$ google - we mean it!"

Idea 5: Start menu is replaced with full width panel
Ive been going on about this one forever. why just 25% of screen?

Idea 6: No "switch user" / "hibernate".
It either says log in - or logged in as. To change - type a different name and hit enter. hibernate is sleep (it figures it out ..laptop / desktop)

Idea 7. Move shutdown options to top level
I put them far right. this is more for cross device consistancy

Idea 8: Flip3d - goes in a circle
Shows more at once - round is fun

Idea 9: No borders on JPGs (till mouseover)
Just like youtube. Looks nicer to view as just a photo. Worse case scenario - add a white border around them (like old kodaks - not the polaroid borders like today though)

idea 10: it is consistent with look of windows live

Lloyd_Humph
If Blackberrys are addictive cellphones, Channel9 is the ultimate addictive website.

How long until these hit Digg as real mockups? Tongue Out

DCMonkey
Monkey see, monkey do, monkey will destroy you!

jamie wrote:

Idea 5: Start menu is replaced with full width panel
Ive been going on about this one forever. why just 25% of screen?

An extra wide start menu means you've got to move the mouse even further to get to some things (depending on exactly where your start panel sprouts from).

I can see why some people would like the Vista programs "list" to be resizable, but I haven't had a problem with the default size myself.

DCMonkey
Monkey see, monkey do, monkey will destroy you!

jamie wrote:

Idea 7. Move shutdown options to top level
I put them far right. this is more for cross device consistancy

What devices? On my desktop I'd use it once per session. On my laptop I can just close the lid. On my phone, tablet or UMPC I can press the physical button on the side.

Foolish consistency etc...

jamie

re- Devices (above one): i was picturing an iphone with NO buttons = exit/close needs to be top level. oops i mean Surface mobile Wink