We've just been evaluating whether our software will work correctly on Windows 8, at the moment it wont, but that's not Microsoft's fault.

What caught my attention however is the completely unintuitive user interface. I know I'm not the first to say this, but wow, way to make the user frustrated in no time flat!

I can see how this is going to be great on a tablet device, but my god, if I have to use this on a PC I will personally hunt the person in charge of this disaster and force him to use it to perform all his daily tasks forever.

I have to wonder if I am alone in this perception of the new interface.

Sooooooooo... does your software work on the Desktop (Classic) Version of Windows 8?

As far as the Metro interface goes, I transitioned from a WM 6.5 to a WP7. The first two months was painful. I was so aggravated. I must have called the OS a POS several times a day. But now.... I absolutely love the interface. It works. It's not hard. It's simple. I can get to my apps quick as day. In short, Metro is not bad. It's different. But once you understand it, and no it really doesn't take long to understand, I was just being hard-headed, it really is a joy.

Now I know that WP7 Metro is not Win 8 Metro. They're different, but very similar. But outside of dual-screening, what is so bad about it, exactly?

It doesn't work in classic either, for two reasons, the first being it needs .net 3.5 (not pre-installed in the preview, but we can fix that) and secondly WinPCAP wont install on it.

What is so bad is the complete back flip in usability. Having to use the keyboard to get to the desktop, going through several layers of menus to find an app or the power button. Scrolling sideways is just not intuitive on a PC, and the whole idea of wasting my screen space with huge tiles that tell me nothing and forcing me to scroll. No helpful names or tooltips, no intuitive mouse usage. I can't see myself moving to this OS, unless I can use VS on a tablet.

I also can't see consumers reacting well to it when it's so hard to use at first and they already know how to use their current Windows. People may learn how to use it, but it will take time to get used to, and I don't think that is a good way to make a user interface.

What is so bad is the complete back flip in usability. Having to use the keyboard to get to the desktop, going through several layers of menus to find an app

Hit the windows key and type the name of whichever application you want to run or use semantic zoom/app groups (ctrl + mouse wheel).

Scrolling sideways is just not intuitive on a PC[/quote]
iirc any mouse with a scroll wheel uses it to scroll left and right by default and ctrl + mouse wheel to use semantic zoom as mentioned above.

and the whole idea of wasting my screen space with huge tiles that tell me nothing and forcing me to scroll. No helpful names or tooltips, no intuitive mouse usage. I can't see myself moving to this OS, unless I can use VS on a tablet.[/quote]
The idea is that the "huge tiles" won't tell you nothing. They can convey more useful information to the user than an icon ever could.

I also thought that the tiles flip revealing more information about the app.

[quote name='BLiTZWiNG' timestamp='1338776990' post='4945988']
What is so bad is the complete back flip in usability. Having to use the keyboard to get to the desktop, going through several layers of menus to find an app

Hit the windows key and type the name of whichever application you want to run or use semantic zoom/app groups (ctrl + mouse wheel).[/quote]
This kind of highlights my point. Hitting the windows key (which for me does not bring up a search box) to find an app where prior I could just click the start button and click in the search box. Why hide this feature? I have no idea what a semantic zoom/app group is, and I'm not sure how you expect a new user to work this out without being told or reading a manual, because it sure ain't obvious.

Scrolling sideways is just not intuitive on a PC[/quote]
iirc any mouse with a scroll wheel uses it to scroll left and right by default and ctrl + mouse wheel to use semantic zoom as mentioned above.[/quote]
How is this better than what we have?

and the whole idea of wasting my screen space with huge tiles that tell me nothing and forcing me to scroll. No helpful names or tooltips, no intuitive mouse usage. I can't see myself moving to this OS, unless I can use VS on a tablet.[/quote]
The idea is that the "huge tiles" won't tell you nothing. They can convey more useful information to the user than an icon ever could.
[/quote]
Wait, it sounds like you're saying exactly what I said, though I doubt you intended that. I've worked out how to get a settings menu to pop up like Android has when you hit the menu button on the home screen, but it's very hard to get it to pop up and stay up, and certainly not obvious in any way. The tiles are huge and waste screen space telling me absolutely nothing about the app, just a big old block of wasted pixels, conveying only as much info as an icon at 10x the size.

I also thought that the tiles flip revealing more information about the app.

Not that I can see.

Also, how the hell do I go back when I open a page?

Well on WP7, you just hit the back arrow. I'm sure there's something similar on Win 8. waytoolazy seems to have Win 8 gestures down pat. So obviously he would know better than I.

This kind of highlights my point. Hitting the windows key (which for me does not bring up a search box) to find an app where prior I could just click the start button and click in the search box. Why hide this feature? I have no idea what a semantic zoom/app group is, and I'm not sure how you expect a new user to work this out without being told or reading a manual, because it sure ain't obvious.

It still works, it just doesn't pop up the box atm until you start typing.

I have no idea what a semantic zoom/app group is, and I'm not sure how you expect a new user to work this out without being told or reading a manual, because it sure ain't obvious.[/quote]
The same way they learned how to use every new windows feature in all the versions of windows up to this point?

How is this better than what we have?[/quote]
Aside from the fact that it's different, how is it not? The zoomable start screen is a huge upgrade in usability.

The tiles are huge and waste screen space telling me absolutely nothing about the app, just a big old block of wasted pixels, conveying only as much info as an icon at 10x the size.
[/quote]
Every tile is different, and you can change their sizes. Live tiles offer a huge amount of information over an icon.

The problem as I see it is it's a huge change in usability, and it seems more like a sideways change, rather than a leap forward. Yes I am certain there will be kewl new features (like a zoomable desktop and synchronized settings), but at the moment that only allows me to fit all of the extremely and pointlessly large tiles on the screen at once. These new large tiles are not displaying me any extra information, so there is no reason for them to be so large. I don't see the death of overlapped windows as a good thing either.

How does scrolling sideways with a vertical mouse wheel feel at all natural? Well it doesn't to me anyway. Now, if they added left click + drag, I could probably get used to that quite quickly, as that is working like a tablet device and makes sense.

I'm going to miss my clock in the bottom right of the screen. I wonder if watch manufacturers are behind this, since Windows 95 I haven't needed a watch. Yeah ok that's pretty far fetched, but it annoys me none the less.

All I can say is at first glance, it looks and feels terrible. Windows 7, as soon as I learnt I could reduce the size of the stupidly oversized task bar, I loved it. It's far from perfect but it certainly improved on Vista and XP. Windows 8 has simply frustrated me no end. Clearly I am alone in this opinion, which is what I was trying to find out.