The iNterface (Part 2)
Windows has, to me, always been about multitasking. Having several windows opened at once and being able to quickly bounce back and forth between your applications is the foundation that home computing is built on – something that encourages productivity and multi-tasking. The graphical user interface we’re familiar with has come a long ways since its inception at Xerox and consumer-ready appearance through the Macintosh computer. Multitasking has been important for around three decades, and continues to be important today – whether you’re a computer power user or someone just looking to kill some time. So, how does the iPad handle multitasking?
The short answer: it doesn’t. Sure, you can have multiple applications open at any given time – but you can only access one at a time. No matter how much you want to play Candy Crush and look at silly cat pictures or memes at the same time, you can’t. You cannot do two things at once on your iPad – claims for multitasking are lies. To be fair, I will say I can’t run more than one task at a time on my phone, either (though that is rumored to be changing with the next version of Windows Phone, which may feature “snapping” similar to Windows 8). On both devices, this pseudo-multitasking is handled by being able to zoom out to see all of your open applications. On the iPad, this is done by pressing the Home Button twice; on Windows Phone, this is done by pressing and holding the Back button (we’ll go over the back button more in a bit). The multitasking views on both devices look very similar – you hover over your apps and scroll through them like pages. Swiping up closes apps on the iPad while swiping down or pressing the “X” button closes apps on my Windows Phone. How these devices handle “multitasking” is very similar, but never is it true multitasking.
In addition to the multitasking view, the iPad features a “Multitasking Gestures” setting. This enables users to “use four or five fingers” to switch between apps, enter the multitasking view, or go to the Home Screen. It’s a neat idea, but it feels clunky and pretty terrible in practice – especially the app switching. Using four fingers to pull up the multitasking view is less than ideal when two quick presses of the Home Button serves the same function. Using five fingers to get to the Home Screen works just fine (and probably the best, in my experience, of the multitasking gestures), but makes less sense than pressing the Home Button in most instances. App switching would be great if it didn’t require four of your five fingers – two or three would have likely made this gesture more manageable. However, as it is, switching between apps with the multitasking gesture is a pretty wonky process – I recommend sticking with the multitasking view and just picking the app you want.
On the Surface, I have the luxury of both the Metro (modern) and Desktop (classic) interfaces. On the Desktop, I can have multiple programs, folders, windows, what have you open at any time, and can switch between them effortlessly by tapping, clicking, or “alt tabbing” to them. Additionally, I can have a Metro application snapped while I’m using my desktop (say, if I wanted to keep an eye on the weather while working on this article). Snapping is the biggest deal here when multitasking. Metro apps, for those of you unfamiliar, are the new “modern” or tablet/phone-like applications that run full screen and are designed for Windows 8/8.1. These applications can be snapped side-by-side (or side-by-side-by-side on some displays) to allow you to be running multiple applications simultaneously. This is great if you like to do more than one thing at a time (like write and look at the weather – sorry, I sometimes lack creativity). Additionally, my Surface has a micro HDMI port for connecting to an external display – allowing for even more multitasking. With the HDMI out, I’ve also got quick options available for selecting how I want the external display to behave (e.g. if I want it to extend, replace, or duplicate my display).
Switching between applications on the Surface is done a little more gracefully as well. Instead of using four fingers to scroll through applications, I can use just one. I’ve got my Surface configured to show recently used applications instead of cycling between them, but I tend to prefer to be able to choose the app I go to instead of cycling through them until I find the one I want to land on (again, I recommend using the multitasking view for switching between apps on you iPad over using the multitasking gesture to cycle through them). However, even if I had it set to cycle through apps, I could access the recently used applications simply by throwing the cycled app off-screen. I do a lot with my technology, and my technology being able to easily accommodate for my need to multitask is important. In this aspect, the Surface wins – not only in ease, but usability. The iPad is a fine device if you’re looking for something to run apps – and run them one at a time. Like my phone. My phone is in no way an example of multitasking done right, but it does what it needs to when it needs to. In that aspect, iOS and Windows Phone 8.1 are equals, and that’s okay by me.
Usability isn’t just about multitasking, though. Usability is the interface as a whole. I went into great detail about the keyboards and main screens in the last article, but there’s a lot more to a device’s interface than what it looks like when you turn it on and how you write. Settings aren’t just limited to customizing your desktop or background, but should also affect how you interact with and use your device. Navigation is also hugely important for usability in a system’s interface. While navigation in multitasking is definitely important, what about quickly navigating apps and the OS?
Navigation on the iPad is limited primarily to the Home Button. Applications can feature on-screen menus and buttons, but system navigation as a whole is limited to the Home Button and multitasking gestures. The Navigation Center and Control Center are still accessible from any screen, but this, generally, has little impact on the interface or navigation on your currently opened application. So, that leaves navigation up to the Home Button, gestures, or how the application is written. The Home Screen does feature a quickly accessible “Spotlight Search,” which can be accessed by dragging down anywhere on the Home Screen (except from the top as that opens Notification Center). This allows users to quickly search their iPad, their apps, or the web. This is incredibly useful for quickly getting information or finding that app you possibly misplaced. However, the Spotlight Search is only accessible from the Home Screen, from what I’ve experienced.
The Surface features similarly limited system navigation – there is a capacitive Windows button. This button serves the same function as the Windows key on a standard PC keyboard and the Start Charm. It will open up the Start Screen when accessing any application. However, it also allows you to quickly return to your last opened application with a second press. This is great for users looking for a quick view of important items (as Windows 8 and 8.1 feature Live Tiles that give information at-a-glance without opening applications), or for individuals who may have accidentally navigated to the Start Screen. Additional navigation is left to the applications and the gestures. It’s also worth noting that the Windows Key/Button can be configured to take users to the All Apps view instead of the customizable Start Screen if they prefer a traditional list over the Live Tiles. The Search Charm serves a function similar to Spotlight Search in that it allows you to search your system, applications, and the web (it’s dubbed “Omnisearch” in Windows). This search feature can be accessed on any screen, however, as it is part of the always-accessible Charms Menu. Additionally, searching can be performed by simply typing on the Windows Start Screen – nothing needs to be selected, no actions need to be performed, just start typing. In this aspect. The navigation of both iOS and Windows devices are similarly limited, but I feel the options for the Windows Key/Button, the ability to quickly return to your app with a second press, and the always accessible search gives Windows the upper hand in usability here – but just slightly.
Navigation on Windows Phone has a few key differences from its tablet and desktop counterparts. The Windows Button brings you to the system’s Start Screen, but a second press fails to do anything. It’s disappointing to me, but it’s not unlike pressing the Home Button on the iPad’s main screen. The key differences between Windows, Windows Phone, and iOS navigation is the back and search buttons present on Windows Phone. The back button does just about what you’d expect – it goes back. On web pages, this brings you back to your previous page. With applications, this closes menus, opens menus, or goes back a step. Pressing and holding the back button brings you to the multitasking view mentioned earlier. The search button brings up the phone’s Bing-powered search. Again, this searches your phone, apps, and the web. The search is powered by Bing and presented by Windows Phone’s personal assistant, Cortana. Pressing and holding the search button (or pressing the mic on the search screen) activates Cortana’s voice recognition allowing you to say your search or give Cortana a command. Personal assistants are for a different time, but having an always accessible search (yes, even when the screen is locked) is a great feature. Having the back and search buttons always present is great for quick navigation and searches – buttons like these would be definitely useful on the Surface and iPad alike, though may not be cosmetically appealing (which may explain the absence of these buttons). However, I’m a fan of functionality over form, so I’d still welcome a couple extra buttons on my tablets.
A few key features on the iPad are the notification view and the quick options accessible through swiping down from the top or up from the bottom. Notification Center can be accessed by swiping down from the top and give you a quick view of the important (or what your device and apps feel are important) notifications you have waiting for you. So, if someone tagged you in a post or someone you follow is now broadcasting, these notifications will show up there. The quick options or Control Center can be accessed by swiping up from the bottom. This tray gives you access to play, pause, rewind/fast forward media that is playing, turn on airplane mode, enable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, enable do not disturb, adjust screen brightness, snap a picture, or lock screen orientation. It’s something that was implemented with iOS 7, I believe, and something that adds a welcome layer of user friendliness with iOS. These are accessible from any screen on the device – even when it is locked.
The Surface (and all Windows 8 devices) have a similar quick menu for settings. At this time, there isn’t a notification center for Windows 8.1 that I know of. The quick menu (or Charms Menu) can be accessed by swiping on from the right side of the screen. This gives you the option for Search, Share, Start, Devices, and Settings. Settings gives you similar quick options with screen brightness, volume, power, and notifications (the “Notifications” button gives you the option to hide notifications, but not view your existing notifications). The Charms Menu can be accessed from any screen in Windows, but not while the device is locked – you have to be logged into Windows in order to access Charms. Media controls can be accessed from the lock screen by pressing the physical volume buttons on the Surface – which isn’t necessarily ideal, but the option is accessible from the lock screen, so that’s something.
On Windows Phone, things are a little closer to what you see on the iPad, with a few key differences. On Windows Phone 8.1, the notification and quick options are available in the same gesture (swiping down from above the screen). This “Action Center” displays all of your pending notifications and four customizable quick settings (right now I’ve got mine set to Wi-Fi, brightness, Bluetooth, and rotation lock – I typically have “Internet Sharing” saved there, but I haven’t needed to use my phone as an access point for a while). For these quick settings, the options exist to set airplane mode, camera, location, quiet hours, project my screen and VPN in addition to the options I already mentioned. I would appreciate an additional quick option, but the fact that I can customize them is important to me. Additionally, if I’ve got music playing, media options display automatically as soon as I press the lock screen/power button on my phone (media controls are displayed over the lock screen, yes).
Each device has its pros when it comes to quick options, with my only complaint on my phone being limited to four. I will give the iPad the win for quick settings against my Surface based primarily on the easily accessible media controls – the notifications and accessing quick options on the lock screen are also nice.
Regardless your device of choice, Windows and iOS both have a lot to offer. My preferences are still with Windows devices – everything I have works together in the way that I want. As a Microsoft enthusiast, I feel more comfortable and familiar with their products while feeling they offer more for me. That’s not to say that an Apple device is incapable of suiting someone better than a Windows or Microsoft device – just that it doesn’t offer me what I need from a device. My Surface can and does do more than the iPad – for me. Proper multitasking isn’t necessary for every person on the planet, expandable storage (with USB, network drives, and/or micro SD) and outputting to an external display isn’t something everybody needs – but I do. That said, I would appreciate media controls and quick options available from the lock screen on my Surface. Who knows, that may come with Threshold – but Threshold might also change the way I interact with my phone – which, to me, is nearly perfect in every way. It’s exciting, but also terrifying. Technology is great – no matter where you place your allegiances.