Announced in June, Windows 11 is ready to make its debut. It comes as a free upgrade to some devices six years after the launch of Windows 10, a platform that has garnered overall positively praiseafter the Windows 8 debacle. Compared to its predecessor, Windows 11 is an evolution, more than a complete reboot. Nonetheless, it’s probably the best-looking Microsoft OS ever, even if there’s been some controversy about the oversimplification of the Start menu, that leaves behind W10’s tile design to reintroduce classic app icons.
Windows 11 illustrated by the man who led its design
Microsoft’s new OS is an evolution in step with our times. We talked about it with Ralf Groene, the company’s CVP Design Windows and Devices.
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- Alessandro Scarano
- 04 October 2021
Everything looks straightforward and simplified in Windows 11, from menu organization to settings hierarchy to introducing a “focus” mode that hides unessential elements from the screen. With a UI overhaul, the new Windows parts ways with some mad complexity you’ve always associated Microsoft with.
Managing – guess what! – multiple windows is now easier; virtual desktops now make more sense; and you can simplify your workflow using snap layouts, to dock different windows in preset configurations – that’s not different, but more evolved, to what you’ve seen recently in iPadOs 15. Something Windows already did, but not with this nicely designed solution. It’s an example of a more general approach, with Eleven rescuing from entropy intuitions already present in Windows, simplifying to the bone graphics and processes, and making quite a leap on visuals, and that's something quite unprecedented for Microsoft. The company has a long history in overlapping new features over the old ones, like a labyrinthic house getting new rooms and floors over decades by different landlords. The new Windows, long story short, looks nice, simple, and lighter. But expect some vulnerable points of the system, like File Explorer, to be still a mess.
Teams has taken the place of Skype, and Edge is the flagship web browser, killing de facto that nightmare called Internet Explorer. Users will enjoy new gaming mode based on the Xbox app, AI-enhanced widgets, and the chance to use Android apps on PCs, filling a crucial gap, since Windows apps usually simply sucked – sorry to say that, but it’s the truth, everybody knows it. Microsoft was brave to admit it and take control. And talking about apps, there’s a redesigned Microsoft Store. I met with Ralf Groene, CVP Design Windows and Devices, in September, on the first days of Milan Design Week. It was the in-person follow-up of our first conversation, which occurred during the lockdown and evidently via a video call. In this new occasion, we had the chance to talk about many topics, ranging from Fuorisalone to Microsoft’s ecological mandate to be carbon negative by 2030. Groene also expanded on some of the ideas he touched on the first time: from that of a modular computer to implementing a “red button” for switching off the internet, to strategies for recreating office small chat routines into digital environments. This time, he had the chance to discuss them more in-depth.
It’s very important to relate technology back to humans, because at the end of the day, it's for humans we are creating tools
Moving from hardware to software, in the relative sense that this transition can have in a company like Microsoft, after a streak of successes with the Surface lineup, Groene stepped up to work with the operating system team - “a very good team”, he comments. To build up Windows 11 they focused on what people expect from an OS, how smartphones changed these expectations (“those were different when Windows XP came out”), while also using scientific data based on fMRI scans of users, taken when testing different UIs. About this, he said that “It’s very important to relate technology back to humans, because at the end of the day, it's for humans we are creating tools“, and this is probably the single most relevant quote of our entire conversation together. At the moment of this meeting, software was still on beta, “and everyone is working night and day to get the little bugs off and make things perfect”, the designer said. A month before the debut of Windows 11, Microsoft CVP illustrated some of the key challenges he had to address developing Windows 11, and some conceptual shifts he introduced. You'll find all his quotes in the gallery at the beginning of the article.
In the gallery: Microsoft recently launched some new devices that will ship with Windows 11: updated versions for Surface Pro and Go (8 and 3, respectively), a new pen, an ecologically-friendly mouse and other minor updates, and brand-new Laptop Studio, the most powerful Surface ever, aimed to creatives, designers, and gamers.
All pictures courtesy of Microsoft.
“The core of Microsoft as a tech company is about helping people to achieve their goals”, says Ralf Groene.
“In our smartphone home screens, everybody has at least one communication app. So, there are moments you want to be totally connected and moments you want to be focused. In Windows 11, we have this new chat button on the taskbar, and it’s cool. I can send a message from my computer to someone who answers back from his phone. But if then I have to write a paper, like in Word, we created the focus button, and when you click it, the UI disappears. You just have the text, and what’s in your mind. That’s paper, digital paper”.
“For me, it's like working in an open space. It's cool, you can connect with people, but sometimes you need to close yourself into a room and focus. The downside of ultimate connectivity is that you’ll never be able to focus. Finding that balance, and being able to control it, is important. My daughters, on the other hand – one is in college, the other is a designer – don’t seem to bother much about this, and they are able to manage everything at the same time. Maybe it’s a generational thing, and I’m too old (he laughs)”.
“You can create different desktops, and it’s almost like what happens with rooms: you have a living room, a dining room, and you can create all those different spaces on PC, in order to focus, for productivity, or for gaming. It’s an adaptation that follows how the world changed since Windows 10”.
“People have one way to work on their PCs, and another on their smartphones, and these things need to come together, in the same way we’re blending digital and physical experiences. So, for example, if I get a text on my phone, maybe I’ll need it on my PC. That’s why there’s an app called Your Phone”.
“Today screens get cheaper and cheaper, and people buy bigger and bigger displays. I have one of those at home, and whenever I wanted to look at the start button with my reading glasses, it came out of focus. It's nice to have a central dashboard, like the one you have if you ride motorcycles or cars, like in the center of our devices we have spacebars and trackpads. You know, the axis. When you have an axis, from there, you can branch out”.
“We got a new scalable font and I love it. It’s also very ecologically friendly because it’s scalable. Instead of having 15 different cuts of the font that need to be installed, you can just scale this one. Makes you waste less hard drive space, it’s lighter, it’s much faster”.
“We had tablet mode and desktop mode. Now we have transitions, so when you go from mouse and keyboard to using touch display, the OS adjusts, but it doesn't give you a whole new way of interacting. And that makes it easier to move in and out. You know, when you move from your kitchen to your living room, it's not like you're changing houses”.
“The thoughts that inspired Windows 11 will continue for the next versions”.