Windows 7: Radical UI Change

My previous post provided showed some of the subtle visual style changes to the Windows theme that have been revealed in the Windows 7 Milestone 1.

The theme is simply a part of the Graphical User Interface of an operating system. The theme is what affects aesthetics and makes the system more appealing to use. It is a part of the User Interface. The complete UI is the system by which users can execute actions and interact with their computer.

The theme itself actually has little or no bearing on productivity. For example Windows XP can be used in either the Luna interface or Windows classic. They look different but function in exactly the same way.

The question then isn’t really about what Windows 7 will look like… as clearly there will be various cosmetic changes, but wether it will additionally feature a complete new UI.

Some have suggested that the news of Julie Larson-Green joining the “Windows User

Experience” and of Steven Sinofsky being in charge of the Windows 7 interface indicates a dramatic change for the UI of upcoming operating system. While this is somewhat likely, the main cause of this conclusion is from the following Microsoft advertisement:

“Come lead the effort to update the Windows 7 platform with the latest advancements in User Interface design. Bring the Ribbon, Jewel, and other new UI concepts to the Windows platform.”

This advertisement for software engineers and programmers is fairly good reason to believe Windows 7 will incorporate a number of changes to the UI, but not in a ‘tear up the guidelines’ kind of way as has been suggested in this article and here:

We knew that Windows 7 would look different from Vista and its other Windows ancestors. Now it’s becoming clear just how different that will be. The next generation of Windows, due around 2010-2011, will sport a radical facelift that borrows elements such as Office 2007’s ‘ribbon’ toolbar and the orb-like ‘jewel’ application menu. More than that, the UI will be based on XML and what Microsoft describes as “a small, high performance, native code runtime” rather than the Win32 framework, in order to deliver a “rich, graphical, animated user interface”. In shorthand: think functional, flashy and fast.

Well I’m sorry but before we get too excited over this maybe we should think for a moment about certain user interface revisions of late that didn’t go down too well. Vista had integrated search, a streamlined start menu and numerous other changes which merely resulted in a general “so what?”

If you have the idea that Windows 7 will be a radical departure from everything that we have known then I would suggest instead it will be a consolidation of the changes that occurred in Vista and the major UI refresh will be for Windows 8.

So with Windows 7 don’t expect something like the fake screenshots below. It’s nice to think of Microsoft secretly working away on some killer productivity boosting UI, but I doubt very much in this being a reality.

So what is Sinofsky referring to then?

Well Windows 7 will be a continuation of what Vista has started. Vista already began an “advancement” of the user interface design and already incorporates elements of these concepts. Looking at it from the point of view that it would seem Windows 7 is a minor update to Vista then it would make sense.

More details on this soon with part 3, subscribe to our feed to get the latest news on Windows 7.