There is a clear lack of centralized oversight from Microsoft’s Windows 11 development team in terms of design standardization and prioritization. And that is something that needs to be fixed ASAP.
Back when I reviewed Windows 11 for Neowin in 2021, I awarded it a score of 6.5/10, while saying that « simplification of UI isn’t a terrible idea but having it there in a half-baked manner doesn’t really make for an enticing user experience ». Although that was my opinion based on the launch version of the OS, unfortunately, it still hasn’t changed more than six months later. Microsoft seems intent on adding new features as we have seen in recent Insider releases, while ignoring all the UI inconsistencies and lack of basic functionalities in the existing release. Let me start off with a very simple yet important example which was highlighted by my fellow colleague Taras Buria on Twitter just a few weeks ago: Despite all of the apps in Taras’ screenshot being inbox apps developed by Microsoft itself, we see UI and UX inconsistencies throughout, as if there is no senior leadership overseeing the OS’ design. Even the styling of the icons is different, some have thicker borders while others are more minimalistic. It’s as if each development team worked in their own silo and just focused on what they thought would make their app look pretty, regardless of the overall aesthetics of Windows 11. In fact, this problem is not contained to icons only. We still have legacy menus older than Windows 10 spread throughout the OS (see screenshot above) and menu options that have basically been lifted and shifted from previous versions of Windows without the overall UX being considered at all.
