The UI Evolution of Windows Mobile from PPC 2000 to Windows Mobile 6

[Brandon Miniman]

The Windows Mobile UI has certainly changed over the years from the days of Pocket PC 2000, to the more present, Vista-inspired Windows Mobile 6. We've put together a graphic that shows the evolution of the Windows Mobile interface over the last five versions. Click onward to view!

Thanks to Wikipedia for the help.

[xdalaw]

Actually, it's sort of sad. Even though the appearance became sleeker over time, the general idea of what the home screen should look like hasn't changed too much in Microsoft's mind.

Thanks to great 3rd party software developers like SBSH & Spb, to HTC and Palm, and even to the style-conscious iPhone creators, we can have much more beautiful gadgets ourselves--despite MS.

[Brandon Miniman]

Originally Posted by xdalaw

Actually, it's sort of sad. Even though the appearance became sleeker over time, the general idea of what the home screen should look like hasn't changed too much in Microsoft's mind.

Thanks to great 3rd party software developers like SBSH & Spb, to HTC and Palm, and even to the style-conscious iPhone creators, we can have much more beautiful gadgets ourselves--despite MS.

Kinds of reminds me of the evolution of Windows...

[ajwalker]

Yeah, the colors have changes but the basic icons and layout haven't. As much as I like Windows Mobile/PPC, they don't get many style points.

[Jaime Rivera]

I honestly find the Today Screen to be a great concept. It can not only give you today's summary but it's also fully customizable. I'll never forget the great surprise I felt after upgrading my old h3630's ROM to ppc2002. WOW! what a difference!

I would honestly consider the Today Screen to be better if it were tabbed just as Spb Diary or even the new Neo interface would allow. It would be neat to see how everybody prefers to use it.

[Brandon Miniman]

Originally Posted by Sagitario

I honestly find the Today Screen to be a great concept. It can not only give you today's summary but it's also fully customizable. I'll never forget the great surprise I felt after upgrading my old h3630's ROM to ppc2002. WOW! what a difference!

I would honestly consider the Today Screen to be better if it were tabbed just as Spb Diary or even the new Neo interface would allow. It would be neat to see how everybody prefers to use it.

I agree, would be interesting to see how everyone uses it. Perhaps we could do that for a future contest.

[sheltem]

Microsoft really needs to work on the UI. A big issue with mobile devices is the available screen space. The user should see only what they need to see, rather than throwing the kitchen sink at them with a tiny screen. At the same time, the great thing about Windows Mobile is customization. You can get around many of these shortcomings with 3rd party programs.

[adamz]

I like the Today Screen and think it should continue to stay the way it is... or go to the XML file method that the Smartphone edition uses. Either way, the Today Screen DOES show me what I need to see. I don't know what kitchen sink sheltem is referring to.
I would much rather see today's appointments, emails, tasks, etc. rather than a listing of programs like Apple or Palm would have you see. Who needs that? I'd much rather see the things that are important to me right now, and that's what the Today Screen does. The Symbian S60 Standby screen is (practically) exactly the same thing.

You should have shown the Windows CE 2.1 Palm Sized PC Today Screen... then people would notice a difference. I remember complaining about moving the Start Menu from the bottom left to the top left.

But consistency is also important. Drastic design changes are not good. How would you like it if you got into a new car and there was no steering wheel or pedals, just a joystick. You can imagine it would be pretty difficult to learn how to drive something like that after being used to the "normal" way for so many years.

[Brandon Miniman]

I agree, Adam, that the Today and Home screen allows for a good view of some important stats. I wonder why they didn't do the same thing for the Widows Desktop - it seems that Sidebar was an attempt to make at-a-glance info more accessible, but it's still limited.

[ajwalker]

Originally Posted by Sagitario

I honestly find the Today Screen to be a great concept. It can not only give you today's summary but it's also fully customizable. I'll never forget the great surprise I felt after upgrading my old h3630's ROM to ppc2002. WOW! what a difference! I would honestly consider the Today Screen to be better if it were tabbed just as Spb Diary or even the new Neo interface would allow. It would be neat to see how everybody prefers to use it.

I think the tabs work very well. I've always used some sort of Today screen plug-in whether it was for my PPC or Windows Mobile 6 Standard devices.
The "concept" of a Today screen is great, but I think the third-party developers have always had a better implementation of the concept. Now, things have changed with the Shadow interface but out of the box for most WinMo devices, it's still lacking.

[Jaime Rivera]

Originally Posted by ajwalker

I think the tabs work very well. I've always used some sort of Today screen plug-in whether it was for my PPC or Windows Mobile 6 Standard devices. The "concept" of a Today screen is great, but I think the third-party developers have always had a better implementation of the concept. Now, things have changed with the Shadow interface but out of the box for most WinMo devices, it's still lacking.

Yeah, third party developers always save the day.

Probably my biggest complaint with this approach is that Windows Mobile is pretty stable and fast when you first use it out of the box. Once you start loading stuff to it, boot times become slower and the possibilities of your device crashing become more common.

Apple's approach to the iPhone wasn't at all crazy considering they always want to guarantee that users will enjoy a stable interface, but they obviously over did it.

In my point of view, Microsoft needs to seriously go back to the drawing board with a selection of all of today's current best selling apps that focus on becoming Windows Mobile service packs, like say Spb's or SBSH's solutions and try to allow the same user interface flexibility out of the box for stability. If after that, users still choose a third party app over the one built in, than fine, but things are so much better when it's a matter of choice and not a need as it is today. The today screen is great as it is, but it can improve for the sake of productivity. It can be as simple as allowing me to view my today tasks instead of showing me how many I have to attend or as complicated as adding tabs. Everybody has a different approach to productivity and if Microsoft gave us flexible options, it is then that the device becomes a true companion. The ring is supposed to fit the user, because if it doesn't than there is a large probability the user will search for another option instead of finding a way to make the ring fit.