Windows 11 UX Experience Thoughts

Introduction

This holiday period on my away trip I was not going to have access to my daily driver PC so decided it was time to break out my previous PC, my Alienware 17 R2 laptop. The specs being an Intel? Core? i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz processor with 16GB DDR4 2133MHz Ram, NVIDIA Geforce 970M/ Intel Integrated graphics and 512GB NVMe Drive, 128 M.2 and a 2TB 7200rpm SATA drive. Currently the system only had Windows 10 Home edition installed on it and was mainly setup for Unreal Engine tinkering and gaming. I decided that it was time to blow it away and refresh the OS prior to my trip as I wanted the system to be ready to use for Unreal Engine if I had the urge to make something and to play some games, (And write this article as it turns out). So I decided to do two things. As my processor is technically not supported by Windows 11 for upgrade I would need to format my drive and do a clean install if I wanted to drive Windows 11 on this computer. I also decided that I wanted to give a Linux OS more of a shot (Also which I am currently using writing this article).

I decided to dual boot a Linux OS with Windows 11. But which edition… I ended up going with POP OS on my 128 GB SSD and Windows 11 on my Main NVMe drive. Dual boot selection via the Laptops UEFI boot manager. I have hesitated the urge to upgrade my daily driver (Ryzen 7 3700x) as I am not hearing good reviews on the OS. But that has never stopped me before. I am the kind of IT person who will listen to others opinions but also at the same time try something myself and make up my own mind on the topic. Especially when criticism of Windows for the most part tends to be purely based on bias towards fear of change.

I had the idea to write this article at about 2am in the morning while on an air mattress and was unable to sleep so started thinking about the experience of using Windows 11 for the last week as my only Windows OS available to me (well not counting my work laptop that hitched a ride with me just in case I needed to attend to work matters while away) I will try and sum up my thoughts about the OS however this is more aimed at some of the negative feed back I have been seeing online in respects to the new OS as I see a pattern when it comes to Microsoft OS releases. I will attempt to be succinct and keep it on point, enjoy.

Initial Thoughts

So, before I even attempted to use Windows 11 I thought I would do some due diligence and see what other IT professionals had experienced with the new OS. And to no surprise all I could see for the most part was negative reviews and feedback about how Windows 11 looks and feels which as a main interface to your computer the OS look and feel is quite an important element. Some positives on the performance for some things also noting that new computers with the new Intel processors will need to use Windows 11 to utilise the low power core enhancements (which in its self is a REALLY cool feature, especially for mobile laptop devices to assist with battery life enhancements). A lot of concern is things like “How can Microsoft remove this feature or that feature” [I paraphrased this a little as it is the general con-census on new OS releases especially Microsoft]. And to a point I agree, however I feel it important to note that I do not wish to be bias in my opinions on the OS moving forward so have approached my experience with an open mind and to my surprise it actually is not that bad. To be perfectly honest I like a lot of the graphics changes to the OS BUT!, and there is always a but! I feel there is a feature that Microsoft have not used that would save them so much hate in the community especially for their OS releases, which I will get to shortly. So the look of the OS, yes somethings are a little odd and hard to get used to and I keep finding myself getting caught out by it is the new right click context menu. Although I still heavily use keyboard shortcuts to process common commands like Cut Copy and Paste. I do on occasion like to use the menu, especially if I am wanting to use apps like Tera-copy to monitor large transfers.

Figure 1.1: Windows 11 Right Click context menu

Another element of contention as it ALWAYS is is the new Start Menu. I for one like the centered approach but must admit after the first few days I ended up moving it to the left like the old interface. Although I have a similar task launcher in POP OS which is centered and hidden so much different to my Windows experience yet strangely is more comfortable that way, much like in Mac OS.

Figure 1.2: Windows 11 Start menu

I do prefer earlier versions of the Windows start menu to the new one and although not a fan of the Windows 10 start menu I have found myself setting that to full screen tiles (akin to Windows 8 of all things) rather than install a 3rd party start menu custom utility like Classic Start etc. I do not spend much time in the Start menu these days so have not really bothered much with it however I feel I may just go down the Classic Start utility for Windows 11 just to tweak it more to my liking. I must stress here that I do not HATE the new start menu but to be honest I have no real feelings either way towards it which I find odd, especially as I HATE not having a proper start menu in Windows Server 2012.

Another issue of note is the grouping of common icons. I find this needless and it only adds another mouse click to get to certain settings like WiFi and Bluetooth options. The way it was was fine, to hide said icons then simply move it to the ^ arrow menu on the task bar hidden items tray. This again is not terrible but also unnecessary. This is another example of an option that should be a user choice rather than forced on users from the beginning.

The Interface problem…

As I setup both OS’s on this laptop the other day I inevitably installed Blender 3.0 (figure 1.3 is of Blender 2.93.2) for Windows and Linux and it struck me as I loaded the program the first time. Blender ACTUALLY asks me how I want to interact with it, albeit on a basic level.

Figure 1.3: Initial config screen for Blender

After installing the program the first thing to do is choose how to interact with the program. This here is the key that Microsoft is missing, as Windows 11 still has a lot of Windows 10 at its core there are other methods of interacting with the system which essentially is what custom utilities can unlock for us. It comes down to choice. Allow your users to continue using the system they are used to then they will be less likely to show disdain towards the new OS, and inherently upgrade more freely so that the ecosystem can evolve under the hood.

The Solution

The easiest solution I can think of for this is to have Microsoft expand their Tweak UI suite to be part of Windows wholesale again but make it also part of the OOBE (Out of Box Experience) so as part of the initial setup of windows where it asks users to sign in with your Microsoft Account or setup local account and to setup your initial settings it should also integrate an OLD vs NEW comparison screen which gives options on your start menu and context menus. Basically open the UI up a little to user expression. Kind of like the Windows 98 days :). I know that Microsoft wants to keep the Windows Eco system UI the same across the board to enable their developers 1st and 3rd party to develop applications with a KNOWN variable of what the end user will see. This makes documentation and training for applications WAY simpler. However I believe that a balance can be struck. Once you have moved into the new UI if you do not end up liking it then you can just load up the tweak UI tool set from the start menu and flip a switch on the sub system you wish to either revert back to the old way or the new way. This way everybody wins and its not that big a job seeing as these old interface systems still live in the core of the OS. If and when those options are removed for good then fine. There are 3rd party tools that can re-insert these features back into the system (kind of like the way Linux does. In Linux if you don't like they way your file manager looks or does something, uninstall it and install a different one.

So to sum it all up it really comes down to the lack of choice Microsoft gives its users when it comes to how and when they experience new UI elements in their OS. Change for the sake of change is not always the right way to approach UX design, whilst at the same time the “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!” view does not mean you should not try to improve upon a system. That being said, change to UI elements can be subjective and what one person likes, another will not. Humans are creatures of habit after all and as designers we should always keep that in mind. Just because you can move a button to a different position on the screen does not mean you should, it has to have a strong reason to be moved! just like rounded edges on windows look cool but they also waste a lot of screen space that can be valuable especially on smaller laptops with 13 / 14” screens. If you pretty new UI wastes 5% of the screen with dead space due to chamfered edged windows then you have missed the point of efficient design.

Thank you for taking the time to read my article today and as a final thought for Microsoft, you can still achieve an aesthetically pleasing look whilst maintaining form and function.