After months of leaks, from one website to another, Windows 8 has finally been brought out into the open for it's first appearance. So, what exactly did we see?
Tile Based Start Screen
One of the first things we were introduced to in Windows 8 is a brand new start experience, focused around Live Tiles, a user experience which first appeared on the Windows Phone.
Alike to those tiles, many of these appear to present relevant information, such as a latest e-mail, or the current weather conditions. Compared to what we've seen on the phone though, the ones presented in the video do not appear to be animated, though whether this is final or just in the current build isn't apparent.
In use, this start screen has a horizontal orientation, vs. the vertical one we've seen on the Windows Phone, as well as the tiles have a horizontal placement style. At this point, we don't know whether this has a vertical orientation, but we'll likely see that in later builds.
Panoramic, "Immersive" Applications
Another part of the Windows 8 experience includes "Immersive" applications, a user experience similar to Panoramic applications on the Windows Phone.
Exampled with a weather application (above), as well as a news reader and stock checker, the experience here appears to be equal to those of the Windows Phone, presenting you a cascading amount of information across the screen, navigable by moving left to right throughout the lists provided.
On the developing end, this appears to be a bit confusing. Microsoft has said that this new experience is powered off of HTML 5 and JavaScript, and it has been said that APIs would be provided to developers to connect into "new services." Now, if Microsoft is serious about this being HTML, I can't help but imagine that not lasting ala the iPhone development system from their launch days.
Touch Focus First
From top to bottom, this UI screams touch.
On the start screen, the experience features large tiles more than capable of being touched easily on a wide arange of screen sizes, and the experience requires movement left to right, something easily possible with a finger, no so much a mouse and keyboard. While theoritical, I can't help but imagine there's a possibility that this is a prime location for a Kinect for Windows experience to exist, waving your hand about to enter experiences.
On the application level, you once again have lots of touchable elements, as well as menus which appear to be touchable in size and placement, though how this evolves toward launch will be interesting to see as well.
Small Touches
This, this is what Metro is all about. One major piece of it is 'Motion'
Life is in motion. So Are We.
Motion brings Metro to life, moving swiftly,
responding to input, tying everything together.
You know how good that feels?
This is essential, and 8 is keeping to this mantra.
Watching through the video with a keen eye, you can really notice how much more fluid of an experience this is comapred to any version of Windows prior.
How so? Fluid in that the tiles fly into the screen in a natural way. Applications also fly in in a similar form. Moving left to right, up and down, each have a smooth as silk appearance throughout the OS.
What's even more stunning, as a traditional Windows user, especially a Media Center user, is the idea that transitions to your desktop from a full-screen experience can be silky smooth as well. While the picture above doesn't translate it well, the video shows the desktop flying in, something we've never seen Windows do.
What truly gets me as a Windows user, and I mean this like mad, is the point that the desktop resolution can change this smoothly. Once again, go to the video, but resizing the desktop, from the 95 days to even 7, has always included flickering, bumps, and bruises. This is fluid beyond belief, and I'm just amazed.
The Legacy Lives On
Now, I'm sure most would hear this and think code, but I'm talking about all the user experience elements build over years and years of experimentation.
Ultra Mobile PCs
The moment I saw the split keyboard presented in Windows 8 I couldn't help but think of the Oregami Project and the Ultra Mobile PCs.
An experiment from the early 00's, and refreshed during the Vista launch, these small devices featured a thumb keyboard of a similar, but different form.
Windows Media Center
Also, seeing the file browsing experience, which was shown while choosing an image to upload, was also a bit of a kickback to a product I know very well: Windows Media Center.
Once again, it's another piece of the legacy which has helped Microsoft get where they are with Windows 8. This isn't even making note of the hundreds of Research projects at Microsoft, plus products including the Zune desktop software, hardware, Windows Phone, Kinect, and XBOX.
What's Left?
As evident through the leaks, as well as the tiny preview we got of Windows 8, there's a lot left that we don't know about.
On the user experience end, we haven't seen an actual productivity application inside of this new experience, so how well those can be executed, and how usable they'll be, has yet to be seen on this scale. We've seen them on the Windows Phone, but not on the desktop yet.
Also, there's other parts of the experience which apepar to be in transition. If you paid close attention during the video, the Windows Explorer is being transitioned over to a Ribbon, and there's likely other changes to occur to the traditional Windows UI.
On the backend, there's plenty of questions left. What options exist for developers inside the new experience? Will there be legacy support on ARM? Will we get a new file system? That's all likely to be explained at BUILD in September.
So, What Does it Mean?
In short, and this may be from a touch of a fanboy point of view, but Microsoft is finally tying together their years of experience into something that appears to be a cohesive strategy for tablets, and likely to be a good evolution of the desktop.
While services were not mentioned, the next big thing Microsoft would have to do, to truly tie everything together, would be to show how this new OS would tie into their Windows Live services, as well as a media experience ala Zune or however that part of their company is re-shaped.
So, truth be told, Windows 8 looks exciting. It's a culmination of 10 years of experimentation, from Windows XP Tablet PC & Media Center Edition, to the Oregami Project and Zune, plus the Windows Phone & even Kinect.
Question is, will they execute it well, and will people buy it?
