Microsoft recently launched a new program called "Windows Insider Panel" (Windows Experience Research Group) in a low-key manner, inviting some active Windows Insider users to directly participate in the user experience (UX) research of the Windows and Device Experience Team to obtain first-line feedback and help adjust and repair the Windows 11 interface and interaction design that has been widely criticized as "messy and inconsistent."
According to the content of a targeted email sent by Microsoft to some Insider users, invitees can join a dedicated UX research group and participate in a series of surveys and tests related to the future experience of Windows. Microsoft emphasized in the email that these studies will "help shape the future of Windows." After clicking the link in the email, the user will jump to the third-party "User Interviews" platform to fill out the questionnaire. First, they need to check the type of device they mainly use. The options cover Windows desktops and laptops, Apple notebooks, iPads, Chromebooks, Linux devices, iPhones and Android phones, etc. This range obviously exceeds the traditional Windows platform.
Subsequently, the questionnaire will ask about the types of tasks that users frequently perform on the computer every week, such as productivity office, software development, IT support, creative work, and heavy PC gaming. The questionnaire also lists a separate item to confirm whether the user performs software, website or application development every week. The next questions revolve around users' participation in the Windows Insider project, including the current channel (currently mainly the "experimental" and "testing" channels) and the channels where they usually provide feedback and discuss Windows usage issues and experience opinions. At the end of the questionnaire is common demographic information, including gender, current employment status, etc., which is used to enrich the portrait of the survey sample.
After completing the questionnaire, a confirmation page will be displayed, prompting the user that they have officially joined the "Windows + Devices UX Research" panel. Microsoft stated that when there is a research project suitable for this user profile, it will proactively contact you via email and invite you to participate in specific usability testing or experience research. Currently, the invitation to join this experience research group is not open to the public. Instead, it is sent to some eligible active Insider users via email. Users who want to participate need to pay attention to the relevant invitation in their inbox.
This move is seen as a realistic response from Microsoft to Windows 11 user experience issues. Compared with Windows XP and Windows 7, which have been widely praised, although the interface of Windows 11 looks more modern in parts, the overall experience has been criticized as being full of problems such as inconsistent styles and fragmented interactions. There is still no shortage of nostalgia for the Aero Glass style and overall consistency of the Windows 7 era on social media. After Windows 8 launched the touch-first Metro interface, it encountered fierce backlash for forcing changes in operating habits. Microsoft was forced to call back the traditional Start menu in subsequent versions. Now on Windows 11, there is a relatively "quiet but persistent" dissatisfaction, especially after Copilot was quickly and aggressively integrated into the desktop experience. Many users believed that it disrupted the original workflow.
At the same time, Windows 11 faces greater comparative pressure from macOS. In recent years, the number of macOS users has continued to grow, and Apple has launched a relatively more user-friendly MacBook Neo model. Against the backdrop of high global memory prices, the overall hardware price has become more cost-effective. Many users who switched to macOS began to emphasize the advantages of macOS in interface consistency, animation details, and overall experience polishing, which invisibly amplified the look and feel of Windows 11 with a messy interface and ununiformed design. Microsoft even commissioned a third-party organization to publish a comparison report, emphasizing that notebooks equipped with Windows 11 are superior to MacBook Neo in multiple indicators, trying to respond to this turning trend at the level of public opinion.
Despite this, Microsoft is not indifferent to the current situation, but is gradually cleaning up the "historical legacy interface" accumulated over the years. There have been previous signs that the classic Windows 95-era File Explorer "Properties" dialog box will be replaced with a modern version based on WinUI 3 and make up for the previously missing dark mode support. The old Win+R Run dialog has also received a new version, with better responsiveness and interface in internal testing. Microsoft is also promoting the migration of traditional settings items in the Control Panel to the modern "Settings" application. Although this process has been repeatedly questioned as "slow progress," the official has recently reiterated that it is systematically reducing the entry of legacy functions in the Control Panel.
Regarding the Start menu, which is most sensitive to users, Microsoft has tried five completely different design solutions in internal tests before finally settling on the current layout form, and will test newer category views and customization capabilities in the near future. However, for many users who are accustomed to older versions of Windows, the new Start menu is still considered to lack "soul" and the desktop experience always seems to be missing something. In the industry's discussion about the future shape of the desktop experience, "widgets" are regarded as an important direction: in the internal leaked video of Google's upcoming Aluminum OS, desktop widgets are placed in a prominent position, and macOS has successfully integrated desktop widgets into the system and received a lot of praise.
In contrast, the current widget experience of Windows 11 is basically considered a failure by the outside world. The main reason is that they are highly dependent on the WebView2 technology stack, which has large resource overhead and is relatively cumbersome, resulting in both performance and experience being compromised. Microsoft is aware of this problem and is gradually migrating core system elements, including widgets, to native WinUI 3 code, and turning off MSN information flows and advertisements by default, allowing widgets to return to a more purely functional positioning. However, when the Start menu will natively support customizable widgets is still one of the focus issues of many users and observers.
Regarding the newly established Windows experience research group, the outside world is also speculating on its specific research direction. Although the invitation email mentioned "shaping the future experience of Windows", it did not directly mention the so-called "Windows 12". Previous rumors about the "coming of Windows 12 AI subscription system" have also been falsified and were confirmed to be mainly caused by misleading AI-generated content. The report pointed out that Microsoft’s current focus is still on continuing to improve Windows 11 itself, and making “course corrections” to the interaction and interface of the existing system by collecting more representative real-life usage feedback, rather than launching a new major version of the operating system in the short term.
From a strategic point of view, Microsoft has moderately opened the core design and experience decision-making process to users through an invitation-only research group, which is regarded as a more pragmatic adjustment idea. In the desktop field, Windows is still the operating system with the highest share in the world, and its willingness to proactively incorporate community opinions into the UX decision-making process is rare for a system of this size. It is also considered a culturally difficult route for competitors such as Apple to adopt. As previously serious Windows 11 performance problems have been repaired and optimized, Microsoft has shifted its focus to sorting out experience consistency, interface coherence and interaction logic. This research group is regarded as an important signal that it has "really begun to systematically repair UX".