The Dual-Mode Dilemma

If you haven’t seen it already, check out the video that Engadget posted. Microsoft today revealed what Windows 8 has a good chance of becoming.

I’ll give Microsoft points for trying something different. I wouldn’t call it original, since they’ve already built the OS in phone form, but it’s better than just “Windows 8: It’s got an app store now! Woooo!”

Is it a good idea, though? Call me extremely skeptical. For those who aren’t watching the video - I don’t blame you, I hate watching internet videos myself - they have a Metro UI touch interface that is clearly intended to be the core experience, but then they have it bolted on top of a Windows 7 install for backwards compatibility. The touch UI does not look bad at all. There are probably UX improvements to be made to make it easier to use, but other than that it looks fairly solid, and there is a future for this new platform. The fact of the matter, though, is that it’s just a candy-coated shell over Windows 7.

The vintage file management system, the endless configuration options, the insecure built-in protection, and, most importantly, more excuses for developers to keep making the same cheap Windows applications they’ve been making for 20 years are still there. There’s no incentive for anything new and inventive.

Let’s use Adobe as an example. They have a choice between creating a new modern version of Creative Suite, investing millions of dollars to create a brand new platform, and keeping the same old application in Windows 7 mode until the end of time. It’s obvious which one they would pick, and the smaller the company and their niche, the worse it gets. Most of the world runs on software that isn’t going to work in the touch UI, and most of the world isn’t going to voluntarily bend to Microsoft’s will.

I suppose it’s possible that this will create two separate ecosystems within the same OS: one for the touch UI and one for the point-and-click one. My worry, however, is that it’ll create the worst of all worlds: a UI designed for a reality which doesn’t exist.

What the iPhone and subsequent mobile devices did with their OS’s was to abstract away all the hardest-to-grasp concepts of computing. Windows 8’s scheme would create something even worse than Windows 7’s system: the old complicated schemes combined with a wallop of inconsistency. Imagine using a touch photo app with no concept of a filesystem, then going to Photoshop in Windows 7 mode and trying to figure out where your pictures are. Certainly installing Photoshop in the first place won’t be a friendly experience. And why is there only a taskbar in the old mode, and you have to swipe to get new applications when you can just click a taskbar button to see the old ones?

You can imagine what normal people would feel like trying to use Windows 8.

Certainly there’s work yet to be done, but as of now Microsoft has an operating system concept where they’re selectively abstracting away elements and selectively keeping obsolete components. This isn’t how you build a great user experience, it’s how you kill something through compromise.