HTC’s quiet renaissance of Windows Mobile (ex-UX #1)
When you read the words “Windows” and “Mobile” smashed together, what comes to mind? You likely have one of three reactions: first, you may shudder and imagine a cursed Mobile OS that was one of the very first to ship preloaded on the earliest “smart” phones; second, you might be thinking of a long scrolling screen of squares on a Nokia phone; and third, you may be thinking Windows on Mobile? I’ve never heard of that!
If you fall within the third category, you’re probably a very young and very new designer, in which case, welcome! But for veterans of mobile OS’s and their respective UX, let me take you back in time to one of the least intuitive (and most complained-about) smartphone operating systems in history, and a paradigm shift that would change its course for the rest of its existence.
Windows Mobile was a mobile operating system that evolved out of Microsoft’s Pocket PC project, which took form in the year 2000. The earliest forms of the OS were aiming to bring users the productivity of Windows in a palm-sized device, which was a revolutionary thought at the time. Despite how archaic the UI choices look now, the experience of using its earliest iterations was actually intuitive to users, because it closely mirrored the desktop version of Windows, featuring a Start menu button in its upper left hand corner, and providing users with features like file managers, a pocket version of Microsoft Office, and some of the earliest mobile email clients. At this point, there was no real precedent for mobile usability.
Through the early 2000s, Windows Mobile was doing a good job at serving its primary user base of professionals who needed to bring their productivity tools with them on the go. Its UX did not bring users very much joy, but it also didn’t aim to. It involved many frustrations, like tiny buttons that only a stylus could accurately press and an almost exclusively text-based UI, apart from some icons and background images. It also essentially ignored any media functionality, with only a few versions including a very basic MP3 player application. But to reiterate, the OS was never built to serve those purposes. It was mostly for dads to check their email while they were on business trips. And it did that very well (for the time, anyway).
This layout of Windows Mobile had virtually no major changes to its UX and UI through to 2010. Smartphones were not terribly smart during this period, nor were they expected to be, and the basic functionality continued to expand in minor ways, incorporating more visual interface components and media functionality, but still focusing primarily on being a portable email and Microsoft Office machine that could *just barely* work as a web browser (if you were truly desperate — those who remember Opera know).
But then the definition of a smartphone turned a corner in 2007 when Apple introduced the iPhone. Suddenly, “smart” actually meant fun and intuitive to use, rather than just loaded up with productivity features. The first iPhone couldn’t really hold a candle to Windows Mobile devices in terms of features for your office job, but it could do most of what users really needed, and it could do it really well. Apple’s mobile email client was infinitely more enjoyable to use than the built-in apps for Windows Mobile devices, and multi-touch made every action feel fun. You could swipe-to-delete, pinch-to-zoom, shake-to-clear, and do a million new things that the old stylus just couldn’t hold a flame to. And to top it all off, you had a built-in iPod and Video Player, too. Apple had crafted what was inarguably the best experience for mobile media yet in the first version of iOS. And for users at that time, that really felt smart. At least more so than a really squished and mostly unpleasant version of desktop Windows.
Prior to the iPhone’s early years, HTC had been a long-time manufacturer of Windows Mobile devices who specialized in creating top-notch hardware. When the smartphone focus shifted to usability, visual interest, and media consumption, they prepared their own optimized version of Windows Mobile to better present the OS to consumers who had seen how much easier the iPhone had made using smartphones. They developed and shipped a visual-based UI skin called TouchFLO 3D that debuted on the HTC Touch Diamond in 2008.
TouchFLO 3D made Windows Mobile not only easier to use, but exciting to use. The main interface uses a sliding bar of icons along the bottom of the screen, which users can slide their finger along to switch between widgets and apps. Clicking on the Start button in the top left corner would now launch a full list of graphically-detailed icons to represent each of the phone’s apps, rather than just a long list of text entries. Oh, and it was 2007, so everything was d r i p p i n g in skeuomorphism.
Though I was way too young to have the resources to purchase any of HTC’s devices with this new UI design back in the day, I wanted one with every fiber of my being. I have always been a tech design junkie, and though I may have been 10 at the time, I was enamored of the transformation HTC had given Windows Mobile. The animations looked so smooth and so enjoyable to use. And the system created one of the earliest forms of multitasking on mobile devices; in 2008, TouchFLO 3D already allowed users to play music and use other apps simultaneously, which not even the iPhone could do yet. It was so quick and easy to slide between apps on the homepage. The phones even had HD screens to play full-length movies. Suddenly Windows Mobile seemed delightful to use, where it had once seemed like a system to dread.
TouchFLO 3D was not perfect, by any means. Though HTC had thoroughly customized many of Windows Mobile’s functions, some still couldn’t escape the utilitarian interfaces that the OS itself demanded. Particularly unfortunate was the unchanged version of Microsoft Office apps, which were really only suited to viewing documents (in a pinch, and if you really couldn’t find a computer to do it on instead).
TouchFLO 3D eventually evolved in HTC Sense UI, an even further refined and more intricately designed version of the sliding apps interface that landed on some of the last Windows Mobile phones before the OS became Windows Phone. One of these devices was the HTC HD2, offered on T-Mobile here in the states, and I recently bought one on eBay (bringing incomparable delight to childhood me).
The HD2 is still fun to use, and it feels high-quality even today, over 10 years past its launch. Though I am a software designer, I find that the physical feel and “heft” of a device are inextricable from the experience of using its software. Let me tell you, HTC did a great job on the industrial design of this phone. It feels incredibly solid, and its glass screen and metal battery cover still look and feel luxurious to me to this day.
The device feels slow to use, of course. It only has a 1GHz, single-core Qualcomm Scorpion processor from 2010. But its interface is still so enjoyable to interact with. HTC was on to a really great direction in user interface, and they had helped make Windows Mobile feel usable and approachable for the first time.
The success of TouchFLO 3D devices relative to other stock Windows Mobile devices was very telling from 2008–2010, which is why Microsoft decided to give the green light to their Windows Phone project, which completely reformatted the mobile version of their popular OS. Windows Phone dropped the skeuomorphism and fancy animations that HTC had brought to prominence and replaced it with a very simple, square-icon based UI that aimed to bring a further focus to media and social functions and give Microsoft a larger share of the smartphone market. Unfortunately, this attempt was ultimately a failure. Windows Phone lacked a solid intent or really differentiable identity. iOS had established itself as a media champion and the queen of ease-of-use, and Android had solidified its reputation as being infinitely customizable and offering the widest degree of functionality. Windows Phone marketed itself as still being Windows, but now also doing what everyone else did too. Familiarity was not enough to win them any significant market share, though. Windows Mobile had left a bad taste in many users’ mouths, and being the same as everyone else didn’t really raise any sort of value proposition, because Apple and Google were getting really good at their own respective strengths.
Windows Phone put up a good fight, but it was discontinued by Microsoft in 2017 as they turned their focus towards integrating their services with iOS and Android. In my eyes, the renaissance of the platform came when HTC put TouchFLO 3D in the hands of consumers, and offered a unique approach to productivity and media in tandem that no other manufacturer had done before.
I’m happy that I have my HD2 to play with as I look back fondly on how HTC brought good UX to Windows Mobile for the first time in 2008. Though TouchFLO 3D and Sense UI are now ex-UX for good reason, it doesn’t hurt to remember the good old times.
