Microsoft’s recent demo of Windows 8 unveiled a big change – an entirely new interface. Clearly inspired by the Metro UI currently used by Windows Phone 7, the demo of Windows 8 featured colored tiles that display information such as emails, stock activity and the user’s calendar. As with WP7, these tiles can be customized by the user to show whatever content he or she demands.

Windows 8’s new interface arrived alongside an announcement that the new interface would focus on apps developed with HTML5 and JavaScript, a change that should make cross-platform app development easier.

Touch gestures are central to the new tile interface. Besides the standard swipe-to-navigate and pinch-to-zoom gestures, Microsoft showed off touch-based “snap” multi-tasking that allows users to have multiple applications on-screen simultaneously and control the amount display real-estate available for each.

Although the new user interface was a central part of the Windows 8 demo, Microsoft made it clear that this is not a replacement and in fact switched between the tiles and the more traditional Windows desktop multiple times. Moving from one to the other appeared smooth, and the presenters stressed that they are not designing Windows 8 as if it has two separate interfaces, but instead working on synergy between the two. This means that both interfaces work with both touch and keyboard/mouse input.

What do you think of the current design of Windows 8?  Are you excited by the possibilities or totally appalled?  Let us know what you think in the comments.

Source: All Things D