Don’t miss it if you pass by! Four major impacts of Windows 10 on web design

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I think you must have been flooded with Windows 10 news in recent days. To upgrade or not, that is the question. But whether you are a die-hard XP fan or a Win7 fan, you have to admit that Microsoft, which is known for the reliability of its inter-generational products, has released a remarkable Win10. From now on, Microsoft will stop updating major versions and adopt frequent updates and iterations (perhaps every few days) to continuously respond to new needs and add new features. (From the perspective of demand, it is good, but from the perspective of Microsoft's update system, turning off the computer will be even more annoying)

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There is no doubt that Windows 10 is more powerful, but this is somewhat related to Mac OS X. The dispute over the graphical interface in the 1980s is long gone, the legend of Macintosh and the counterattack of Windows 95 are just a thing of the past, but Mac OS X can definitely be called the nemesis of modern Windows systems (XP, Vista, 7, 8, etc.). At least in terms of design, it deserves it.

If you have read books such as Design and Cognition about the basic laws and rules of design, you will find that Mac OS X is almost the most typical and excellent example of GUI design in the past 15 years - it takes into account both ease of use and beauty. If you carefully observe the evolution of Windows from XP to 10, you will find that Microsoft is indeed a good student.

OK, that's a little off topic. This time, Windows 10 also borrows a lot of Mac features, such as the task management mechanism (Win8's task management is as bad as a car accident scene), plus the return and optimization of the start button and the carefully thought out and adjusted new features. This system is definitely worth upgrading.

Just like Mac, an excellent system will always have an impact on design. Even Windows Phone, whose market share is appalling, has influenced the trend of mobile UI design to a certain extent. How will Windows 10 affect future web design?

1. Popularization, more devices and more possibilities

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Microsoft missed the last mobile revolution. Although its sluggish Windows Phone still occupies the third position, only behind Android and iOS, its market share is currently almost negligible.

Although WP still has many fans and its modernist design style is also remarkable, the acquisition of Nokia's mobile division has not helped, and the number of users has not increased. Fortunately, the new Windows 10 is not a desktop system in the traditional sense. It is a "responsive" operating system that will span desktop, tablet and mobile systems. Microsoft will let it run on many high-end hardware, and you will also see it on a large number of consumer computers, tablets and mobile phones. If you have ever paid attention to the white-label tablets from Shenzhen, also known as "copycat tablets", the price of the floor and the performance that is acceptable will make you realize how low the current digital products are priced and how low the system performance threshold of Windows 8/10 is.

The popularity and extension of platforms will naturally affect web design. In the future, you will need to worry about more sizes and more platform-based design solutions. Maybe Windows will give you a good full-platform adaptation solution. If the prevalence of new Windows devices makes designers face more complex and variable responsive designs, it is a defect, then the existence of these low-cost Windows devices as designer tools is an absolute advantage. A Windows tablet with a few hundred yuan and an Atom CPU can already run PS and handle some daily design work smoothly. It can play League of Legends smoothly in low-effect mode, not to mention writing code and debugging bugs. The Core M CPU that has become popular this year has performance that is not inferior to low-voltage i5 processors and battery life that is not inferior to Atom CPUs. Coupled with the price of computers/tablets that has dropped to 2,000 yuan, I think you should know what this means in China, a hot land that pursues cost-effectiveness. The previously somewhat awkward Atom+eMMC+ 2GB memory solution is evolving into a Core M+SSD+4GB memory configuration, and new cost-effective tools for web designers are not far away.

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2. Cortana, the new upstart in search and interaction

The new situation that Siri opened up for voice search and artificial intelligence has been greatly developed in Cortana, a new personal assistant portal integrated into the start menu that is no less powerful than Siri.

The viral video of hacking OnStar is indeed hilarious, but voice recognition, input, and interaction are developing very rapidly. Currently, Cortana services have covered the United States, the United Kingdom, China, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, and will soon conquer Japan, Australia, Canada, and India.

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Compared to Siri on iOS, Cortana, which is integrated in the most prominent position of Windows 10, has a more important meaning in interaction. Unlike long-term document input, our daily searches and operations are mostly based on phrases and words. For example, we search for something like "web design blog", and when we communicate with tools like Cortana, we will say "Cortana, where can I find a good web design blog?"

"OK Google Now", "Hey, Siri" and "Hello Moto" have not been popular on a large scale, which seems to be related to the usage habits of mobile terminals. What about Cortana on the desktop? It seems that it has the potential to open up the situation. SEO and content marketing seem to have gradually moved away from keywords, but the arrival of natural voice mode will allow high-quality content search and natural language search to gradually occupy the market share of network search. In the next few years, this trend will become more and more obvious. Convenient operation, extremely obvious interface and significant tool attributes are the cornerstones for Cortana to become a new search and interaction upstart.

3. Open, better development platform

The two main factors that affect the vitality of Windows are budget and widely needed applications (typically enterprise and business applications, such as Office, and games).

Like Windows 8, Windows 10 is now facing the lack of a large number of third-party plug-ins to improve its usability, and the Microsoft software store that imitates Google Play and App Store is currently quite lacking in applications, music, movies and other content. The biggest question is when high-quality applications such as Affinity Suite, Sketch 3 and Sublime Text (you can still install it yourself) will appear on the Windows platform.

The good news is that Microsoft's rapid iteration will improve the security, stability and scalability of Windows 10, and the high-quality platform will attract software manufacturers and developers to develop plug-ins for its software.

Under Apple's high quality requirements, its terminal products are inevitably facing a lonely battle. The relationship between Microsoft and hardware manufacturers makes Windows' market share almost indestructible, which also makes Windows 10 almost certain to be the most popular platform in the world. Market competition will bring innovation, and the beneficiaries are not only ordinary users, but also you as a web designer. The emergence of each excellent Windows version will bring a wave of high-quality software, and there is no reason for Windows 10 with better experience and stronger performance to discourage developers. Compared with the ambiguous and sloppy interface design of Windows 8, Windows 10 is more refreshing and unified. We can even foresee that there will be a series of excellent tools exclusive to the Windows platform full of Metro style. Mac OS X gave birth to Sketch, so why can't a unique Draft be born on Windows 10?

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In order to become a better and more unified development platform, many features of Windows 10 are unprecedented. As the standard configuration for web designers, Firefox and Google Chrome are browsers that almost every front-end and designer has on their computers, at least one of them. The highly anticipated EDGE browser built into Windows 10 no longer continues the closed nature of IE. It will support the plug-in system from Google Chrome to the greatest extent possible, and even the API is as consistent as possible. This not only greatly facilitates users, but also allows plug-in developers to make slight adjustments, or even no adjustments, to make the plug-in run perfectly in the default browser of Windows. The closeness of interface and experience has further integrated and unified the multi-browser experience of web pages.

4. Iteration, long-lasting service

For the first time, Microsoft is completely focused on one operating system platform. The Microsoft Windows team has no Plan B, no next-generation products hidden deep in Microsoft HQ. Windows 10 is just like Apple 17 years ago, starting to build an operating system platform that continues to evolve through iterations. Interestingly, the X in Mac OS X is not a letter, but the Roman numeral 10. The tacit understanding between the two companies on the operating system seems to foreshadow an interesting future.

Of course, OS X is not an isolated case. Adobe's Creative Cloud, also known as the Adobe CC suite, follows the same idea: unique name and continuous iteration.

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In the eyes of new CEO Nadella and executive vice president Terry Myerson, Windows 10 is not only the only Windows at present, it will also be the "last Windows"! It seems that Windows 10 is more like the final and perfect version of Windows 8, but the new team and completely different research and development direction make the two seemingly similar systems essentially different. They strive to make Windows 10 a "service" rather than a pure, single operating system. The previous major version updates in the Windows system will also be replaced by frequent and fast small iterations, and the huge gap between versions will be filled by these smart and fast changes.

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For web designers, the stable iteration of the platform means one extremely important thing: standardization. When designing web pages and products, compromising for traditional browsers and old versions of browsers will no longer happen on a large scale (damn IE6!), and new front-end technologies will continue to develop and support in the process of iteration. With Edge moving closer to Google Chrome, multiple browsers may achieve a unified experience in the near future. How wonderful! Multi-platform compatibility, multi-size responsiveness, and cross-browser experience will gradually be bridged in future upgrades and iterations.

Conclusion

Windows 10 has finally filled the holes left by Windows 8. The mobile experience that lagged behind its competitors by several years has been made up, and the touch screen experience is excellent enough. The full-featured support for an excellent responsive operating system makes people think a lot. These excellent features make people can't help but exclaim "Win10 is a good comrade!"

Finally, I can't help but add one more point. Microsoft's curse of kneeling down after each generation is really destructive. The unfortunate Me, Vista and 8 should be nailed to the pillar of shame. Is it because of this that Microsoft intends to keep Windows 10 as a "version" for a long time? Maybe, this is really a stupid but effective solution.

Source: uisdc.com