Folders on Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1
As I tend to do when a new feature is released on a platform I use (or is soon to be released) I feel the need to blog about it. Which is what I am doing now.
By the way, to circle back to the notification center. After a few months of use I can now say that I totally agree with my initial thoughts. I used it a lot when it was first added to get used to it, then a little less, and now virtually not at all. As I argued for the longest time, what Microsoft had in place by way of live tiles and badge notification on the lock screen should be perfect for the average user. All the notification center does is give people coming from Android or iOS a little bit more familiarity. There are obviously going to be groups of users whose usage preference makes it more valuable or people who get a vast amount of notifications between times they check their phones. And for these people there is more value there than there is for others.
I think Start Screen folders will be much the same. They provide yet another familiar feature for those coming from Android or iOS and there will be a small few whom it will be better for. But I think that, for the bulk of the people everyone will throw their hands up in the air saying "finally" and then a month later forget the feature ever existed.
Here are some simple reasons I feel this way:
Live Tiles: If your apps are in a folder you lose your live tiles. So, this simple feature effectively kills one of the best features of the OS. Granted, we haven't seen the implementation yet. I suppose it is possible that MS could have the folder cycle through tile updates from all apps in a folder. But even, it loses some utility since you can't be sure that the updates that are important to you are going to be displayed within any guaranteed timeframe. This would be the smoking gun for me.
More Clicks: If my apps are in a folder, I need to go into that folder before I can launch the app. Again, another core tenant of the Windows Phone OS was the ability to get things done faster than on other platforms. This gives people nice new features, but makes usage of apps within folders slower. The start screen is infinitely scrollable, but as long as you have only a manageable number of apps you use regularly enough to worry about, in those cases the start screen should be fairly quick to navigate if you need to scroll at all. I can easily fit all of the apps I use daily in the topmost portion of my start screen. And that includes a wide tile for both email and weather, separate groups pinned for friends and family along with a dedicated tile for my wife and myself. And I don't think I'm the exception to the rule.
Paradigm Abandonment: This is a more holistic argument. The Windows Phone UI was supposed to be an escape from the icons on a desktop mentality. The same mentality used on Windows Desktop, Android and iOS. This move takes the OS back to a more desktop like paradigm with desktop folders. Maybe the WP design team would disagree with me. And maybe others would as well. This is definitely more of a nit-picking item anyway.
I'm sure if I thought on it longer, I would have more points to add to that list. But the amusing thing to me is that I felt there was already a more than sufficient solution out there. Apps, for the longest time on Windows Phone, have been available that make resizable secondary tiles that serve as dividers on the start screen. I think this paradigm actually works spectacularly and resolves all of the above issues. All of your live tiles remain there on your start screen. You don't need to click and wait for a transition to get at your apps. If you have enough you still need to swipe to find them, but in general it should be quicker than clicking through folders. And it doesn't have any chance of violating the look and feel of the OS.
If MS baked this into the OS natively I think that they could even improve on it. What I think would be cool would be app groups, similar to the way there are contact groups. This probably sounds a lot like folders... but hear me out. Contacts can be part of multiple groups. You can also pin individual contacts or a group to the start screen. So, if the app menu was actually a management screen similar to the People hub, I could create groupings of apps which I don't need to (but could) pin to the start screen. I could then, still pin the apps to the start screen individually. Which means I could pin both an app and the group it is in the start screen. I'm sure it all sounds like semantics, but the minor differences between what I'm recommending and what I'm hearing it on the way are important differences nonetheless.
I guarantee that if an app cannot be on both the start screen and in a folder at the same time that there will be complaints. Or if an app cannot be in multiple folders at once. For instance, I may want all of my social media apps in a folder. But I like to keep Facebook pinned to the start to get updates more quickly there. Or maybe an app like Facebook I want in both a social folder and in a folder for apps I check regularly. Makes a good case for wanting it both in a group and in a folder or in multiple folders.
But, in Windows Phone (at the moment) you cannot pin an app to the start screen twice. If an app in a folder is still considered to be on the Start screen, this will cause issue. The paradigm I suggest wouldn't violate that however.
Even cooler would be the way games are done. Where it isn't simply a folder or a group. But a hub where the applications can be launched, where additional information can be shown, like updates or similar apps or news about the apps in the group. That maybe a little on the overboard and slightly cheesy side of things. But I think it adds another dimension to things.
The best part about my alternatives though. They are more than JUST folders. It would be not simply copying what Android and iOS are doing... but actually providing an overall better experience with more functionality. I also see the drag and drop on top of another tile functionality being aggravating to work with when trying to layout your start screen. The app grouping moves the grouping to a separate, dedicated screen eliminating those complications.
By the way, to circle back to the notification center. After a few months of use I can now say that I totally agree with my initial thoughts. I used it a lot when it was first added to get used to it, then a little less, and now virtually not at all. As I argued for the longest time, what Microsoft had in place by way of live tiles and badge notification on the lock screen should be perfect for the average user. All the notification center does is give people coming from Android or iOS a little bit more familiarity. There are obviously going to be groups of users whose usage preference makes it more valuable or people who get a vast amount of notifications between times they check their phones. And for these people there is more value there than there is for others.
I think Start Screen folders will be much the same. They provide yet another familiar feature for those coming from Android or iOS and there will be a small few whom it will be better for. But I think that, for the bulk of the people everyone will throw their hands up in the air saying "finally" and then a month later forget the feature ever existed.
Here are some simple reasons I feel this way:
Live Tiles: If your apps are in a folder you lose your live tiles. So, this simple feature effectively kills one of the best features of the OS. Granted, we haven't seen the implementation yet. I suppose it is possible that MS could have the folder cycle through tile updates from all apps in a folder. But even, it loses some utility since you can't be sure that the updates that are important to you are going to be displayed within any guaranteed timeframe. This would be the smoking gun for me.
More Clicks: If my apps are in a folder, I need to go into that folder before I can launch the app. Again, another core tenant of the Windows Phone OS was the ability to get things done faster than on other platforms. This gives people nice new features, but makes usage of apps within folders slower. The start screen is infinitely scrollable, but as long as you have only a manageable number of apps you use regularly enough to worry about, in those cases the start screen should be fairly quick to navigate if you need to scroll at all. I can easily fit all of the apps I use daily in the topmost portion of my start screen. And that includes a wide tile for both email and weather, separate groups pinned for friends and family along with a dedicated tile for my wife and myself. And I don't think I'm the exception to the rule.
Paradigm Abandonment: This is a more holistic argument. The Windows Phone UI was supposed to be an escape from the icons on a desktop mentality. The same mentality used on Windows Desktop, Android and iOS. This move takes the OS back to a more desktop like paradigm with desktop folders. Maybe the WP design team would disagree with me. And maybe others would as well. This is definitely more of a nit-picking item anyway.
I'm sure if I thought on it longer, I would have more points to add to that list. But the amusing thing to me is that I felt there was already a more than sufficient solution out there. Apps, for the longest time on Windows Phone, have been available that make resizable secondary tiles that serve as dividers on the start screen. I think this paradigm actually works spectacularly and resolves all of the above issues. All of your live tiles remain there on your start screen. You don't need to click and wait for a transition to get at your apps. If you have enough you still need to swipe to find them, but in general it should be quicker than clicking through folders. And it doesn't have any chance of violating the look and feel of the OS.
If MS baked this into the OS natively I think that they could even improve on it. What I think would be cool would be app groups, similar to the way there are contact groups. This probably sounds a lot like folders... but hear me out. Contacts can be part of multiple groups. You can also pin individual contacts or a group to the start screen. So, if the app menu was actually a management screen similar to the People hub, I could create groupings of apps which I don't need to (but could) pin to the start screen. I could then, still pin the apps to the start screen individually. Which means I could pin both an app and the group it is in the start screen. I'm sure it all sounds like semantics, but the minor differences between what I'm recommending and what I'm hearing it on the way are important differences nonetheless.
I guarantee that if an app cannot be on both the start screen and in a folder at the same time that there will be complaints. Or if an app cannot be in multiple folders at once. For instance, I may want all of my social media apps in a folder. But I like to keep Facebook pinned to the start to get updates more quickly there. Or maybe an app like Facebook I want in both a social folder and in a folder for apps I check regularly. Makes a good case for wanting it both in a group and in a folder or in multiple folders.
But, in Windows Phone (at the moment) you cannot pin an app to the start screen twice. If an app in a folder is still considered to be on the Start screen, this will cause issue. The paradigm I suggest wouldn't violate that however.
Even cooler would be the way games are done. Where it isn't simply a folder or a group. But a hub where the applications can be launched, where additional information can be shown, like updates or similar apps or news about the apps in the group. That maybe a little on the overboard and slightly cheesy side of things. But I think it adds another dimension to things.
The best part about my alternatives though. They are more than JUST folders. It would be not simply copying what Android and iOS are doing... but actually providing an overall better experience with more functionality. I also see the drag and drop on top of another tile functionality being aggravating to work with when trying to layout your start screen. The app grouping moves the grouping to a separate, dedicated screen eliminating those complications.
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