Microsoft wins interface Design battle

Absrtact: 2006 years ago, Microsoft (Microsoft) launched a ill-fated portable music player Zune. And the legacy of the Zune has been extended in a new approach to interface design that spawned the Metro interface, and now everything Microsoft does

In 2006, Microsoft (Microsoft) launched a ill-fated portable music player Zune. The legacy of the Zune has been extended in a new approach to interface design that spawned the Metro interface, and now everything Microsoft does has a Metro footprint: from mobile products to flagship Windows operating systems to Xbox, It even affects the company's own visual identity system.

The core of this vision-recognition system is based on the Swiss graphic style that focuses on the reading experience-emphasizing font elements and clean, sloppy graphics processing. Microsoft's guidelines explain that the focus should not be the interface (that is, chrome) but the content or experience. But when they first announced that they would adopt it, some hardcore fans of the iphone's aesthetic philosophy made a mockery of it. Gruber (John Gruber) wrote on the Daring Fireball website:

Almost any new interface will be stronger than the existing Windows Mobile. But a problem arises from Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 interface based on Zune-why do they think the new interface will do better than Zune?

Maik Irgan, Mike Elgan, on the computer World website, sees the interface as obsolete:

Comparing the Zune to ipod Touch is not like comparing the medium wave and FM radios. It's better to take the radio than the TV.

But along the way, a major shift has taken place. Microsoft's style has won its followers by preferring more flat colors, more attention to fonts, and no longer flaunting its interface. The Metro interface, once denounced, is becoming more and more popular with some people. This style of design was initially considered an oversimplification when Microsoft's devices began to take a flattened design route. In the 2013, with new preferences for fonts and new ways of presenting information on mobile devices, developers were looking at some old ideas, and flat design began to rise.

Then, all of a sudden, Microsoft's design philosophy is everywhere: Google (Google) began to use the new products in a thin-core design method, the recent Google now also follow the follow (in tablets and mobile devices, Gmail mailbox is also the same as the redesign); Other companies are also beginning to delete interface elements and increase the white, more emphasis on content;

Soon, the bizarre ideas that Microsoft had pushed forward were no longer unreasonable. In the spring of 2012, when the Android Jelly Bean operating system was launched, the user interface became more flat, and Google's guidelines for graphic design of the control system required developers to develop a "neutral, flat, and simple" visual language. When BlackBerry releases its new operating system, it uses flat designs and a lot of text lines.

But once there was a force to struggle.

As a thought leader in mobile, Apple can afford to do whatever it wants. No matter where Apple will take the user, its legions of fans will often come in and support the new product as a radical innovation. But at last week's Global Developers ' Conference (WWDC), Apple showed what it has long seen: improving its own products to match what the market has already been scrambling to do.

Then there is the interface, the famous blogger Om Malik (Om Malik) on Twitter on the posting taunt:

Microsoft employees look at the iOS 7 operating system and secretly wonder-what the hell! This is what we do first!

--Om Malik (@om), June 10, 2013

When Apple took this step, the user interface design leader was honored with Microsoft, and Apple's fans viewed Microsoft's product (now repackaged as Apple) as a better mobile operating system. A few days ago, Gruber to this elaboration is as follows:

iOS 7 is not perfect; The new design framework will evolve over time, as is the case with iOS's original aesthetic system. But it is an idea base that fixes all the excessive cosmetic elements of iOS's original aesthetic system. Although there has been a radical change, but not lost. Less shiny, more subtle refinement.

Some would argue that such a reputation for Microsoft's mobile interface design would give the guys in Redmond (where Microsoft is located) a champagne celebration. But, unfortunately, winning the design battle could end up being the cause of the company's crushing defeat in the mobile arena.

So far, Microsoft has relied heavily on its interface as a key distinction in the marketplace for its products. Although Microsoft has fallen behind in terms of the amount of applications supported by the device or the amount of equipment the consumer holds, it can ultimately turn the user over to the new operating system with a very different perception and experience. I have been with Windows devices for months, and I can say that Microsoft has a lot to be proud of about the interface.

But as some of the interface design innovations are replicated by competitors, Microsoft is in trouble: it lacks the development support needed to compete with Android or iOS operating systems in application development, as many companies switch to BYOD policies that allow employees to bring their own equipment (Bring Your Own Devices , Microsoft's corporate market share has been eroding; Microsoft has failed to produce or allow its partners to produce a hot phone to increase its market share (and, with Samsung and HTC, the number of hardware produced by the Android Alliance has begun to close or overtake Apple), Now Microsoft's first user experience has been adopted by all market participants.

So the question now is: What is Microsoft going to do now? Does its success need to be driven by the market that is not as saturated as the developed world we see? Is it a thorough rethink of the value of mobile devices? or this is the creation of Microsoft's own mobile phone (Microsoft's first foray into the tablet market with surface) , but slowly fade out of sight. The tech giant faces a tough time, and if Microsoft wants to get some clout in the mobile world, it looks like it needs a little bit of a big bang. The company, once synonymous with "computer processing", may find itself locked out of an important niche market, and a new model of user interaction may not be enough to revive it.