Windows 7 Phone ... the state of apps

  • 25 November 10
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    • At this point in time Windows 7 Phone marketplace for apps, as available via their Zune software, is completely and utterly shocking. I understand that most people will not feel as strongly, especially since I am founding this opinion on the experience of using the app store alone and not a direct experience of the phone (which I completely love).

    Windows 7 Phone marketplace for apps, as available via their Zune software, is complete and utter shit. I understand that most people will not feel as strongly, especially since I am founding this opinion on the experience of using the app store alone and not a direct experience of the phone. I was beginning to think about designing for Windows 7 phone, I have seen it working, watched loads of reviews and was excited by its interesting break from the iPhone iOS via the tiled home-screen which developers can access and place content on.

    However …

    Windows Marketplace
    Windows 7 Phone Marketplace within the Zune software

    First impressions – My 4 year old could have done better

    I’m not kidding just take a look the Free Flashlight app icon, I think most 4 year olds probably could have done better than that, I would be very surprised if the team at Apple would let that icon through into the app-store.

    Windows Marketplace

    Of course this is just a snap shot of a particularly bad selection of applications, there are some professionally designed games etc but at the moment there is a massive load of crap that makes me think twice about getting involved. I wonder how many designers will see these examples and rather than being inspired to design something better they will see how poor the designs are, that paid-for apps don’t seem to get many reviews and just not bother.

    This isn’t about loving Apple, it’s about basic standards and these guys just couldn’t be bothered to sort out their designs. This makes me question designing for this phone more than anything else, Microsoft just don’t seem to care. Why let your app get swallowed up in the quagmire of crap when you can design something great and get recognition for it in the Apple app-store

    I’m interested in the design direction of the Phone UI, it’s innovative with some brilliant ideas. It is however very typographic based, which is more difficult to pull off when you can’t stick in loads of drop-shadows & gradients. You need to be a great designer to get the typography just right so that the a basic design can look perfect.

    I had high hopes for this phone OS and it was always going to live or die by the apps that are developed for it, at this moment in time the apps are really letting Microsoft down. They shouldn’t let any old shit through so they can say we have x amount of apps.