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Comment by ebf | Hacker News Reader

"Design is about making choices and Metro makes none. Of course excessive skeuomorphism is bad but it is design because it makes a statement and presents no choice. What Microsoft shows in “balls” to make changes it’s lacking in making choices. The lack of depth and uniqueness of the Metro interface reminds me of design work when empty of inspiration and avoiding a carbon copy from another design: flat geometric objects with simple colors. You may criticise Apple’s, at times excessive, skeuomorphism or even Google’s “engineered look”, but those are choices. With Metro, Microsoft is undesigning the UI because they’re seemingly out of ideas and refusing to make choices."

Does anyone actually agree with this? There are a lack of examples and evidence in his post. It seems to me the author just doesn't like the Metro design language.

"Good design is as little design as possible" - Dieter Rams

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It's a ridiculous statement. Microsoft has chosen not to make their UI look like 70's tape machines. That's a choice as much as Apple deciding that that's a good idea. There are a huge number of details and decisions in even a design that seems much simpler than others.

Metro makes no choices because it has been caught in the middle of Microsoft's "identity crisis": is it a touch/tablet interface or a desktop/mouse one? Microsoft is failing to make those hard choices and thus Metro is a reflection of it.

Furthermore, the lack of differentiation between apps is a bad decision in my opinion. It's hard to figure out which app/feature you're using without reading the titles/headers… I don't know about you but that doesn't seem like a good choice in an interface for a desktop/multi-tasking device. Again, Metro is being developed without a clear identity, hence my opinion.

But yes: it is my opinion and yes, you may disagree. Opinions are subjective. :)

Metro does feel half-baked. Features I expect to be able to use are just not there.

It is the kind of frustration I feel trying to use Android for anything serious.

A bit like having one hand tied behind my back.

It's an opinion piece. Why does everything have to be subject to a body of evidence like in a court of law?

Because opinions are likely to be disregarded without something showing you're basing your opinion on something real. Too many wild opinion pieces and your reputation disintegrates.

My opinion is based on something real. Whether or not you agree, it is up to you. I don't pretend to be determining what is true or not but I think my informed opinion is of value to others… otherwise I wouldn't write about it.

You think my opinion is "wild". Do you have any hard evidence to back that up? ;)

Sometimes its hard to truly agree or disagree without knowing the thought process that went into forming the opinion. I can have a gut reaction, but oftentimes those are wrong. There's plenty of evidence that Metro has been designed, and not only designed but designed well. I could link to you some sources on this, but I find clicking through the sources on the Wikipedia page [1] to be sufficient.

I'm not saying your opinion is wrong, invalid, or wild (my previous post was referring to the general importance of backing up your opinions). I honestly wasn't commenting on your specific opinion (because I haven't read it except excerpts in these comments). But those who say Metro is a design failure really seem to be running against the grain on that one. In many cases, the author's backlash against Metro was more of a thinly-veiled attack on Microsoft than an attack on Metro. If someone is saying that Metro is undesigned and made simply because Microsoft is out of ideas, that kind of lumps that author into that category for me.

I will admit I have no idea who you are/what you are. Your domain is blocked by my corporate proxy for being a spam URL.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_%28design_language%29#Re...

I never said Metro is a design failure. I'm saying Metro isn't designed and the explanation is because it can't.

As to what I am/am not, it should be pointless: you should analyze my argument and agree/disagree based solely on itself. Am I the greatest writer there is? No. Will I never change my opinion? No. Is this a rational argument based on the information given to me? Yes. And to this point, I haven't changed my opinion (but may in the future).

As to my domain being blocked, I'm sorry: I never spammed, hosted spam and it doesn't even contain any ads. I would argue against "corporate proxies" but that'd be off-topic… ;)

Hey buddy, I work in information security and even I get pissed at our proxy more often than I praise it. It takes a lot of paperwork to get a site allowed through, and no paperwork to get one blocked.

Didn't mean it in a bad way… I've worked in the information security sector and I feel your pain! ;)

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