At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, held in mid-July in Los Angeles, I found it really interesting that Microsoft hinted, yet again, that the Metro user interface (UI) that ornaments Windows Phone 7 will become the standard UI and user experience (UX) across the PC, phone, and Xbox 360 when Windows 8 arrives. My first reaction to the now infamous Windows 8 "first looks" video of June 1, 2011, was "That's Metro!"
You see, I "bought in" to Metro when I first saw it on Windows Phone 7 and had it explained to me on the Redmond, Washington, campus of Microsoft almost three years ago. The paradigm, as explained then by Brandon Watson, the director of developer experience for Windows Phone, and Charlie Kindel, partner group program manager at Microsoft, was that user navigation on Windows Phone 7 is similar to the text-based navigation we see on signs in subway and train stations all over the world; hence the name "Metro." With a smile, I call Joe Belfiore "The Godfather of Metro." Joe is the corporate vice-president at Microsoft who is often credited with Metro. In my interview with Joe, he talks about how "end user is king" and the metro interface.
Metro user interface on Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8
Tiles
For over two years now we at InterKnowlogy have been building custom software in Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) with the Metro UI. And it has gone very well. Customers love it because of the usability. With customers, I often refer to Metro as "tiles"—because a major feature of the Metro interface is large, readable tiles in the UI. Live Tiles is a feature of metro where the rectangular tile itself is composed of active pieces of content that make up the tile's look. In this unique paradigm for UX, the content defines the experience. Normally in UX in computer software we see the exact opposite: The experience defines the content. But Live Tiles even use push notification technology to update the live tiles remotely; consequently, Live Tiles can indicate the current status of the tile's content. Live Tiles are prevalent beyond Metro, too. It even looks like Bing is going to get a bit of Metro in terms of Live Tiles in very short order.
Metro Is Perfect for Touch-Based Interfaces, and the Hardware Is Coming
Windows 7 is fully touch capable, but the UI is not designed for touch. Even on my fully multi-touch–capable 24-inch monitor at the office, the start button is still too small for me to touch it with 100 percent accuracy. Hitting that little red x with my finger to close a window is nearly impossible. But Metro with its large tiles and Windows 8 completely designed from the ground up for touch are perfectly suited for touch.
All the major computer hardware OEMs have released and/or have planned to release not just touch-capable hardware but multi-touch–capable hardware. You are going to get multi-touch capability in your PC hardware whether you like it or not over the next year, if you don't have it already. The computer I am writing this article on is an HP TouchSmart tm2. It's fully multi-touch capable and has a beautiful fidelity of touch at a consumer price point. At the Microsoft PDC in November 2009, almost two years ago, every attendees was given an Acer Aspire 1420 P notebook: a fully multi-touch–capable Windows 7 computer. That computer at the time listed at a retail price well under $500. Today, 42-inch multi-touch–capable, HD-quality, Windows 7 monitors are now at a $1500 retail price point. And I believe it is safe to predict a legion of Windows 8–capable slate-like computers with a beautiful fidelity of touch. Companies like Samsung are releasing 80-inch fully HD- and multi-touch–capable certified Windows 7–compatible monitors that are hitting the streets as I write this. Touch-based computing is simply going to be a way of using software from here on out.