There has always been the idea that early builds have queer icons simply as place-holders....and the real McCoy would eventually show/be better...

Bit like those 'disguised' cars you see on the road doing live trials before product release....

...except with some of them....when they take off the masking, that which is revealed is equally ugly....

And that's pretty much a given when it comes to MS icons/GUIs.

I mean, how much would it cost MS to employ somebody with a real aesthetic eye to create a more visually pleasing GUI?

For mine MS needs to consider the end user more when buillding a new OS... and that importantly includes ti UI, not just under the hood.  sadly, though, MS seems to have the attitude of 'the users will get what they're given', and we're lumped with some half assed UI that's barely acceptable.

Wake up MS... we're real people, not just sales statistics.

An update here....................http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-10-10036-83-updated-icons-in-this-build

'Fugly' is the best word I could think of..........

Read the Neowin back lash...................

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmb9cnx__hA

Good grief! You've got to be kidding! 

Frogboy is feeling pretty damn good about his retirement nest egg about now.

Demand for IP for W10 will be through the roof.  And I don't mean Intellectual Property, folks.  He's gotta have somebody on the inside over at MS.  This is just too easy.

Frankly, MS has got to have rocks in its head if this is cindicative of the final build.... which means more than ever, IconPackager needs some TLC, to bring it up to date with Win !0.  Within that much needed update there should ought to be the ability to add custom desktop  icons for non-system apps.  It could be done via a pathway to the desktop folder, then non-system icons could be changed via IconPackager and not have do be done manually EVERY damned time.

Well the entire point of icons is to be easily recognizable and distinguishable. The more detailed you make an icon, the more convoluted and arbitrary it tends to be. The more convoluted and arbitrary, the less it tends to make sense.

This is why "flat" icon design has become so popular. It basically has evolved from logo design. If you look at most logos, they're flat. There tends to be very little in terms of gradients, highlights, or "3D" design elements. This is because logos usually need to be used in a lot of different ways, from the front of a store, to letterheads, to websites, to whatever else.

This generally benefits icon design as well. And in spite of what some people may think, an icon being "flat" doesn't necessarily make it appear like it's made for a child, either. Colors chosen have a huge effect. For instance, here are some flat icons that would be difficult to call "kiddie".

 https://d13yacurqjgara.cloudfront.net/users/136389/screenshots/1113492/flat_icons_brownie_theme.png

Hell, a couple of the more popular iconpackages are also pretty flat...

https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/iconpackager/2083/

https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/iconpackager/2080/ 

So while some of you may not like "flat" design, I have to disagree, as well as clarifying that that's just like... your opinion man...

I will say that the Windows 10 icons are pretty ugly, imo. I think the best term for the set would be "uninspired"... maybe "generic". As for looking "kiddie", I'd say Windows XP still wins overall in that regard. Over-beveled "plastic" UIs are so 2001.

I'm currently working on an icon set to match a blind I was building. It's entirely flat. Am I to assume no one here would like it because flat = "kiddie"?

http://i.imgur.com/Qmq6DMA.jpg 

If there's one thing I wish MS would do, it would be to remove the requirement of 3rd party software from the icon equation entirely. Not to slight Stardock, but to make the task of swapping out icons less monumental. I wish there were a simple folder in System32 called "Icons". Each icon used by the OS would be in this folder, and would have a specific name. To change the icon, all you would have to do is replace it with another icon of the same name and reboot. It would make changing ALL of the icons used by the OS a snap, and I'm sure people would be uploading huge packages of system-wide icon packs all over the place.

But of course, that's just an OS customizer's wet dream...

It's not the flatness per se that's the problem IMO.  That particular set is just really hard on the eyes.

'Flat' does not disguise the poor and inadequate design of those icons. Still let's see.........Microsoft may well do a 360 on those icons.

to me the icons are supposed to communicate, but the w10 icons by ms  just totally FAIL to communicate anything other than incompetentness.

harpo, te NON-subscriber

Hideous. I can't think of a company more inept than Microsoft when it comes to interface design. Their incompetence caused me to buy a Macbook, and now I only use Windows for games.

benmanns

reply 93

Also a good way to waste money   

No more expensive or wasteful than a comparably equipped Wintel laptop, of which i have owned dozen over the years.

I use Windows for everything.... cos CRApple products suck saveloys big time,  what with [near] Chinese slave labour and suicide prevention nets rather than improve workers employment conditions.... not to mention massive tax avoidance all around the globe.  Yup, CRApple can go jump.... and hopefully there's no nets.

Oh, and I used a window to day to see if it was raining outside.... can do that with a Mac.

Show me a massive global corporation that doesn't engage in unethical behaviour and I'll be happy to buy their products. Foxconn and Pegatron manufacture vast numbers of products for every platform, so they're all complicit with what goes on there. Tax avoidance is likewise common among them all, and will remain so until meaningful reforms are enacted (probably never). My conscience is clear.

starkers

reply 95

Oh, and I used a window to day to see if it was raining outside.... can do that with a Mac.

I had a pie last October made from fresh Macintosh apples. It was delicious. 

i still like them

I am sure there are other global companies whose practices areless than righteous, but CRApple is the one spoken most about when unsavoury practices are discussed in the media. 

Not only that, Tim Cook is a smug bastage I'd like to slap around the jowles with a wet kipper.

What!  Granny Smill will be disappointed.

John, if ever I'm in your vicinity I'll be sure to bring a wet kipper with me.....

NGC7000

reply 94

Quoting benmanns,

reply 93

Also a good way to waste money   

No more expensive or wasteful than a comparably equipped Wintel laptop, of which i have owned dozen over the years.

In my opinion apple was good until 2004 after that there was nothing impressive that was able to actually compete with a high end windows machine and its performance.
The price was and always will be insane... you get double the power mostly if you go for a windows linux product.
I mostly shake my head everytime i see someone run around with an apple product, be it a phone tablet mp3 player laptop or the most recent gimmic "the crap watch" that could not be any cheaper and offer more for the buck. seriously i think it is that awesume

For me the only "reason" for someone to buy a apple product is "showcasing" nothing more.
The question  is would you buy it, if it had no apple logo? 


 

They may be listening...

http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-asks-for-feedback-on-windows-10-icons-shows-off-entirely-new-set