Microsoft UX Designer: “Metro is Crap For Power Users”

That comes straight from the horse’s mouth, folks – a guy who is directly involved in designing UX for Microsoft, who goes by the name pwnies on Reddit. Of course, we know just how bad things can go on the site, especially when Redditors get all riled up; and then the mob mentality may or may not factor in. One thing we know for sure: users of the site are not to be messed with if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

So where did this statement come from? How come a Microsoft guy comes out and says Metro is crap for power users?

The thread started because of an article by TNW titled “After 15 months, Windows 8 has sold 100 million fewer copies than Windows 7 did“.

The Redditors then started getting edgy (of course with the more-than-occasional snarky remark thrown in), and Jacob Miller (pwnies) jumped in. To his credit, he says straight out that he’s a UX designer for the company on the hot seat. His intro:

I want to talk about why we chose Metro as the default instead of the desktop, and why this is good in the long run – especially for power users.

…but not in the way you might think.

So what is it? Metro is good or bad for power users?

Miller first explains that the Metro move is really for casual users who (this is me rephrasing) do not know what they want so they just take what is given to them – they “don’t go exploring”. He then moves on to say that the goal is to get the casual users to get used to the interface and THEN Microsoft will start making changes that will give advanced features.

To quote him: “Right now we still have a lot of work to do on making Metro seem tasty for those casual users, and that’s going to divert our attention for a while. But once it’s purring along smoothly, we’ll start making the desktop more advanced. We’ll add things that we couldn’t before. Things will be faster, more advanced, and craftier than they have in the past – and that’s why Metro is good for power users.”

So yeah, right now, Metro is crap if you’re a power user, but be patient – it will be good for you at some point.

Is any power user buying this???

[Image via PC World]