Metro style multitasking - Interesting observation

Question

Hi,

Sandro Villinger in Windows Weekly 226 mentioned that multitasking is "broken" on the metro UI. It seems that switching between apps would be better if the 'card' display from windows phone 7.5 was used instead. 

After watching his comments at http://youtu.be/pymc6pDiQes?t=57m0s I think he may have a point.

I'm not a developer but from an end user perspective I tend to agree with Sandro's comments.

What are your thoughts?

 

 

Answer 1

It could be. I can see WP7.5 multitasking UX used in Windows 8. It may provide the flexibility and power to choose which apps to go to.

On the other hand, MS may have a point by using the side swipe as people have tendency to hold tablet with 2 hands. Also it might be hard to implement the side snap (having 2 apps in the screen).

Having card system like WP7.5, you cannot hold the tablet with two hands on the side. For 11-12 inch tablet, it may not be mobile enough.

It depends on how much percentage of user holds the tablet, need further research.

That's just my two cents though.

Answer 2

I COMPLETELY agree with this suggestion! The current method is just too slow :/.

Answer 3

I agree . Infact I think they may show off something in the beta. Honestly I don't think even Microsoft is blind enough not to see the problem .They made multitasking a priority for Mango on the phone and it's got a great UX. I don't think they would intentionally cripple multitasking on the PC cause that would make no sense.

Microsoft hasn't talked about the hardware so we'll probably see a dedicated hardware button (a la back button in win phone devices) for app switching

Answer 4

IMO the current W8 "multitasking" is probably one of the worst ideas ever (and i'm saying this as probably one of MS's hugest fans). Lots of times I have about 5-10 documents (.docx, .pdf, etc.) open, a music player running in the background, an instance of IE open, MS Outlook, Skype, and a Development tool (e.g. VS2010) and some other programs running on my laptop. So, is MS saying that looping through all these programs "one at a time" is the most efficient method to "multi-task"? I certainly hope not cause that's just retarded. If WP7.5 could come up/borrow the idea of "cards" for multi-tasking (which i'm impatiently looking forward to), I'm sure there are lots of options available for a full-blown OS too! (I mean how hard is it to "pinch to zoom" in the tiled start menue to see a preview of all your running programs in your desktop, maybe bundled together based on program types so if you have 20 documents open, they dont take over your whole desktop - just my two-cents though)

Answer 5

This is a mockup I did for the new taskbar. Let us pin metro tiles to it, with transparency levels indicating if they are running or not and whats with the black background on the start button? Just make it fit with aero, with pastel colors.

Also notice that the "aero" taskbar I implemented is very simple: black box in photoshop with transparency increased: no dropshadows or glass. This is a simple yet effective style which fits in with metro's simplicity and can even be used for popups in metro UI.

Answer 6

I COMPLETELY agree with these words.  I don't think Microsoft would intentionally cripple multitasking on the PC cause that would make no sense.

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Pr.wa'el .Net Professional