Here's How the Windows 7 User Interface Could have Looked
Here's How the Windows 7 User Interface Could have Looked
Posted 03/24/2009 at 7:20am
| by Paul Lilly
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By now you've probably had a chance to either play with the Windows 7 beta, or have at least read up on Microsoft's upcoming operating system and have had your share of screenshots. But what you might not know is that the Windows 7 interface was close to being decidedly different than what it is.
Steven Sinofsky, senior VP for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, said that kept a gallery of designs for the Office Assistant on his office wall to help inspire the Windows 7 team. His gallery contained over 400 sketches of the desktop UI, including a taskbar with thumbnails of open windows instead of icons.
Other interface considerations include a Bat Signal, so that when you hovered your mouse over an icon, a window pop-up would appear highlighted by beams of light. This would later evolve into Aero Peek in Windows 7. Aero Shake, on the other hand, came from an experiment called Aladdin. So long as a user kept 'rubbing' a window in the background, it would stay on top.
Check out what other wacky ideas the Windows 7 team considered and view more sketches here.
(Image Credit: TechRadar)
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JonnyNYK
March 24, 2009 at 12:50pm
I wonder if there ever was a "Spider Sense" gui so that you knew when a crash was about to happen...
I Jedi
March 24, 2009 at 8:46am
Too bad for the batman spotlight. Seems cool in that picture. Anyways, keeping it clean and simple is usually the best route to go for this sort of stuff. Eye candy is nice, but not necessary.
Keith E. Whisman
March 24, 2009 at 8:21am
I'm surprized that squirt gun wasn't an idea. You know you opena window and it squirts onto the desktop.
This is a cleaner idea than my earlier thoughts of ejaculating windows... LOL.. That would be too dirty to post here on MaximumPC.com.
grayscare0
March 24, 2009 at 7:34pm
"Ejaculating windows"? Why on Earth would Microsoft implement that? lol
Keith E. Whisman
March 24, 2009 at 9:43pm
That's why I didn't say anything about it because it sounds kinda dirty. You click on a program Icon and it's window squirts onto the screen.
We are really going to miss out on Windows 7 because this feature appears to have been omitted.
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