UI/UX design is still inconsistent 6 months after Windows 11 was released: the media shouted that Microsoft "do the basic functions first"

Since its release in October last year, Microsoft’s Windows 11 system has ushered in a series of updates, bringing many new experiences to users. However, foreign media recently reported that some users found that the problem of "all UI inconsistencies and lack of basic functions in all existing versions" of Windows 11, which has been released for 6 months, has not been resolved.

As we all know, the UI/UX update of Windows 11 is a topic of concern for every user, especially for technicians, product and user experience designers. If the user experience is not good or the function is not enough, the user will immediately give feedback.

According to neowin, as early as last year when Windows 11 was released, the media gave it a score of 65./10, and at that time the media also commented that "simplifying the UI is not a terrible idea, but if you put it directly in a half-baked way, It doesn’t really engage users and make the experience better.”

Six months later, while Microsoft is also trying to add some new features to the existing system, users have also found in a recent Insider build that it "ignores all UI inconsistencies and lack of basic functionality in the existing version."

According to the user screenshots, all applications in the system are inbox applications developed by Microsoft itself, but we always see UI and UX inconsistencies, and it seems that the design of the operating system has not been overseen by senior leadership: even the icons The styling is also different, with some bezels being heavier, while others are more minimalistic. It's as if each development team is going its own way, focusing only on what they think will make their apps look good, regardless of the overall aesthetics of Windows 11.

It is understood that the problem is not limited to the icon. Throughout the operating system, there are still legacy menus older than Windows 10, and menu options have largely been removed and moved from earlier versions of Windows without considering the entire user experience at all.

All of this points to a glaring lack of design standardization in existing systems, which is not a good look for an operating system used by millions.

In addition, the existing system also faces the problem of lack of basic functions. According to the report, Microsoft is still refusing to let users "move" the Windows 11 taskbar. Of course, we all know that the Windows 11 development team is made up of multiple sub-teams, with different people responsible for different things (of course, the person who added the Easter egg to Notepad is not responsible for moving the taskbar).

The problem is, this prioritization can lead to a series of bad effects. For example, when you're doing something like desktop stickers, your inbox notepad app completely "goes crazy" in certain situations, which is definitely not a good experience.

Therefore, some media shouted: Microsoft, please do the basic functions first.

So, what are these "basic" functions? According to reports, Microsoft's Feedback Hub is a good place to start. There are thousands of projects out there, and ideally Microsoft should be tracking these projects with a higher priority in terms of development. However, many of these requests have been shelved for months without an update from Microsoft, and may sometimes simply ignore the feedback.

While everyone knows that Windows 11 is continually being developed by multiple teams in their respective areas of focus, it's not fair to expect things to change all at once. Therefore, users expressed their hope that Microsoft would have sufficient centralized oversight in this area (such as establishing a central oversight process), and these oversight should be responsible for managing priorities, guiding the development of missing features, and thus standardizing UI design.

Fortunately, the upcoming "Windows 11 22H2" major version is expected to be released in September. According to Microsoft's previous plans, Windows 11 has only this major update a year. According to foreign media reports, Microsoft plans to improve the interface of the existing operating system by introducing Mica+Fluent into more applications using different frameworks, and the UI will also be further optimized. Let’s look forward to it together!