Microsoft has overhauled its gestures in Windows 8 Consumer Preview. A lot of work has been focused on ensuring the relevant mouse and keyboard equivalent of touch gestures work better than the company’s Developer Preview build. There are seven key gestures in the new OS:
If I appreciate anything about iOS and especially iPad, it's that Apple has introduced gestures slowly to the consumer consciousness. When the iPad first came out, there were no fancy three-fingered or four-fingered gestures as there are now. First things first: realize that consumers have been used to point-and-click interaction, and therefore ease them in slowly to gesture-based interfaces by keeping the gestures they need to know minimal.
Microsoft is taking a huge risk in introducing "seven (7) key gestures in the new OS." That's seven more than the previous version of Windows, which has precisely zero.
There's something to say about thinking long term and developing a path to get from Point A to Point Z without trying to shortcut things.
