Windows 8 Desktop UI Concepts

Posted by zainadeel on February 25, 2012 11:24 am 18

Hello. Ive been making some concept UIs for quite some time now. I recently saw a tweet and decided to post my designs here as This is the Microsoft Tribe! :P what better place!!! As ive been making concepts from the day WDP came out. There are actually 4 different concepts. One is based around the idea to make a Fully metro Windows Explorer and Superbar view. I am not so happy with the fact that we will have to press start to search and go away from the desktop to search for things that you want in the desktop. At times you have to search for a .dll and you cant memorize the whole name so you open startmenu and look at the name from a site and type as you see it. This will not be possible with such ease in windows 8. To counter that i suggest a searchbar on top. This bar will only search for files and apps inside the desktop environment. Here are some pictures explaining the concepts.

Metro Desktop Concept

Windows_8_concept_intro_by_zainadeel-d4jc2ud_medium

via fc05.deviantart.net

Windows_8_explorer_concept_1_by_zainadeel-d4jc2wy_medium

via fc00.deviantart.net

Windows_8_explorer_concept_2_by_zainadeel-d4jc2ze_medium

via www.deviantart.com

Windows_8_explorer_concept_4_by_zainadeel-d4jc34u_medium

via th08.deviantart.net

Windows_8_search_concept_1_by_zainadeel-d4jc3e6_medium

via fc03.deviantart.net

Windows_8_explorer_concept_3_by_zainadeel-d4jc309_medium

via fc00.deviantart.net

Windows_8_search_concept_2_by_zainadeel-d4jc3h1_medium

via fc05.deviantart.net

Windows_8_explorer_search_3_by_zainadeel-d4jc3lb_medium

via fc05.deviantart.net

All the designs above were my way of telling them to get rid of Ribbon!! Im not a big ribbon fan. As the B8 blog was populated with more posts it became clear that ribbon is here to stay. So i went on to design a UI where we can add ribbon but actually make it look better and more cohesive with the whole METRO idea. I was dragged away from it when i started experimenting with a design that is not exactly a good companion of the Metro Design Language. Concepts below show

Discovery Explorer Concept

9786ab3b0b7ba310bb5741ed23f34bd3-d4p72np_medium

via fc07.deviantart.net

A6a51a23f6c7df939ef409284b0aed61-d4opz3q_medium

via fc07.deviantart.net

E3080355f31ac7cbe5590f9aa287f315-d4opz80_medium

via fc07.deviantart.net

E710ad09760358a468e6eaeeaae3fe97-d4qwzlw_medium

via fc00.deviantart.net

And finally i also did a little design based on the Office 15 Technical Preview designs. I just wanted to show how Explorer can look like with such a design. Also the bright colors are for my pals @ Neowin :P majority werent happy that i went for monochromatic icons. I myself find them bettter because they are less distracting

Office 15 UI Explorer Concept

8b357c7cff026daa20807ea9e1130ed5-d4qw8bx_medium

via fc03.deviantart.net

0bd5349ab72b1e7a6efbf476c7db0cf0-d4qwaa3_medium

via fc09.deviantart.net

All the Icons and Images are my work. Except for the wallpapers in some shots. Hope you like it. I just wanted to share them here as i visit this site alot. Please click the links below to open in full size the picture dont direct to the fullsize image. I am not good with editing posts and dont know how to directly link the phot to open in fullsize.