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Windows 11 illustrated by the man who led its design
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Windows 11
“The core of Microsoft as a tech company is about helping people to achieve their goals”, says Ralf Groene.
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Chat and focus buttons
“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”.
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Chat and focus buttons/2
“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)”.
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Multiple virtual desktops
“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”.
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Phone integration
“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”.
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Center taskbar
“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”.
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Ecological font
“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”.
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How to get away with modes
“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”.
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And of course, there’s a ton of technology under the hood
“The thoughts that inspired Windows 11 will continue for the next versions”.
