Someone speaking their heart out! The redesigned Start Menu in Windows 11 remains perhaps the most divisive feature of the new operating system, with opinions very much split on it.
Redmond believes it is a great piece of engineering, but many users think that this OS marquee feature could be a lot better. A former Microsoft executive is in this camp, too, as he makes clear that he is not a fan of the Windows 11 Start Menu.
The company’s former Director of User Experience, Jensen Harris, reveals how he was shocked by the design of the operating system’s Start Menu.
The Start menu is Microsoft's flagship user experience. It should represent the very best UI design the company is capable of.
Today I searched for "chrome" in Windows and was shocked by the user experience. pic.twitter.com/GZq386qqzK
— Jensen Harris (@jensenharris) August 29, 2022
He then went on to describe his grievances in a long Twitter thread that is very much worth a read if you want some insider insights into all that is wrong.
One of his more pressing criticisms is for the banner advertisement for the Bing Wallpaper app that he says looks like a virus, has a dated background color choice, and the text is misaligned too. Additionally, the left side of the banner has a rounded corner, while the right side has straight edges.
Clearly, someone had not been paying attention!
He also highlighted several other bad design choices and inconsistencies that he believes should not have made it out of the walls of Redmond. Likewise, he says that banner ads in the Start Menu cheapen people’s experience in this high-touch UI piece.
Harris then dived into the history of the Start Menu, explaining how the previous iterations were built with so much thought and effort put into the intricacies of the design of what remains the most used feature of the OS.
Finally, he concludes by saying that he is not a fan of the Start Menu being moved to the center, as it also goes against Fitts’s law’s recommendation.
Jensen is quite an authoritative figure in the domain of UI design, having devoted 5 years in his role at the company, where he spent 16 years in total.
He was also responsible for the famed Ribbon UI in Microsoft Office, which stands as one of the company’s finest and most innovative pieces of user interface design. In addition, he was at the company during the development of Windows 8, which gave us some radical UI changes.
Do you agree with Harris and how he is making his feelings known to the public? Or is the revamped Start Menu your jam and you are okay with how it is designed? Let us know in the comments below!
