Microsoft's Massive Metro Mistake

This article totally pops to mind - http://www.uie.com/articles/facebook_mini_feed/

When Facebook introduced the feed - it was like the world had fallen in for Facebook users. "Quit Facebook", "Worst thing ever" - "I'm quitting facebook" and so on it went.

Nowdays - no one could envisage using Facebook without it - it's become one of the most successful design changes of the site and users generally now like it (sure it still has problems - as does any design for 1 billion users). Indeed the above article concludes

"In the months since the mini feed was introduced, the users' initial reactions have since gone the other way. The mini feed is now a critical part of the site's functionality, allowing users an easy way to keep tabs on their network."

Windows 8 is no different. "Oh my god it boots to the Metro panels" - who cares. All Mac's boot the same and the consistent design interface has made all Mac User's happy. Microsoft is eating humble pie in this regard and accepts that it needs consistency across all its UI interfaces - unifying it's offering is the only way to continue forward. Booting to Metro is probably will make "some people" more likely to go and buy a tablet or phone with Metro because its now familiar - that's not a "disaster" - thats simply innovation and consistency in design principles.

What annoys me about the article is comments like

"If Microsoft continues down this path, the strategy will backfire, and PC owners with a choice will likely skip this version of Windows, much as they did with ME and Vista."

Yep, except the next version will have Metro even more tightly integrated because this is an entire interface design change. Everyone hates change, people like staying with interfaces they are used too. Changing things creates confusion but sometimes its for the better.

I'm not advocating that this is necessarily for the better, but it's certainly not a "massive metro mistake" as much as it is a consistent interface change which is required (I assume) as part of Microsoft long term UI strategy.