It's true: Windows 7 will drive the single biggest renaissance in
Windows application design since the debut of Windows 95 nearly 15
years ago. I came to this conclusion while perusing the updated
Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines recently released by
Microsoft in anticipation of the Windows 7 launch. As I pored over
the various examples of Jump List variations and animated Taskbar
icon overlays, it struck me just how much the Windows UI has evolved
with Windows 7. For the first time in recent memory, I'm actually
excited at the prospect of seeing how third-party developers exploit
the myriad new conventions.
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7 RTM. Follow these seven steps to better Windows 7 security. ] It
wasn't always this way. Windows Vista revamped the UI's look and
feel, but the changes were mostly skin deep: new dialog layouts, some
tweaked button/control designs, and of course Aero glass. Windows XP
was likewise a yawner when it came to UI innovation.
There were some
new wizards and an updated visual skin (which was somewhat accurately
described as having been "drawn in crayon"), but nothing that changed
how you interacted with applications at a fundamental level. Contrast
these non-examples with Windows 7 and you begin to see why this
Windows version may have the same kind of lasting impact that its
long-ago progenitor once enjoyed in 1995. Back then, the concept of a
"push button application switcher" (the Taskbar) was entirely new, as
were the equally innovative Start menu and notification tray.
Application developers practically tripped over themselves to exploit
these innovations and to take advantage of Windows 95's 32-bit
execution model. I predict a similar flurry of activity around
Windows 7 as developers retrofit their offerings to provide the
expected level of UI "freshness." Of course, not all is sunshine and
roses with Windows 7. There's a real chance that these new UI
conventions will simply widen the chasm that separates XP users from
the current state of the art. The thought that you might need to
upgrade your applications in order to fully realize Windows 7's
usability benefits might be enough to give IT shops pause. In fact,
the new UI may ultimately prove to be a liability as recalcitrant
organizations latch onto it as yet another excuse not to upgrade. The
old "retraining" bugaboo still has legs, especially in a struggling
economy.