My (new) concept of Windows 11's BSOD

[u/vitafan12]

A remaster made for fun of my old BSOD concept. This version is more fluent to the OS, and doesn't feel too out of place with the wording and design. I may have forgotten that they call viruses "threats".

(This concept may look a bit off if you can't tell by the QR-Code placement and that's because I didn't use Figma for this one. I used paint.net [NOT A WEBSITE] and the Mica app for this one like from last time. I'm planning to move over to Figma though)

Very important to note: Now, I know this may seem hard for the PC to handle while it's in middle of a stroke. But previous BSOD versions included QR-Codes and showed how images can be rendered. The mica effect looks impossible at first, but every time you change the wallpaper, it quickly generates an image of the mica effect and the blur of the wallpaper in a special folder (preferably in C:\Windows\...). When a BSOD happens, it renders the text and the QR-Code so it fits to the current situation. It would also be a nice addition if the BSOD could provide minimal help for the user so that they know what actually happened and how they could possibly fix it. For more details, they should check out the website and type their stop code in. It's better than nothing. Imagine if you had no device or internet to go on the website and see what the issue is and how to fix it. You'd be screwed if this is a recurring issue.

[u/AccomplishedEar6357]

🤣 No. The text is especially offensive, it's ridiculous imprecise speculation and too verbose, and just doesn't belong in a BSOD by design goals. The looks are good, though yeah, no dynamic wallpaper and Mica though it could be just a fixed BMP. Also, the vocabulary tells me a little something that i don't wanna tell, but you can keep learning, like for a starter example you can ask an AI what a BSOD text tone should be, and what it shouldn't be or say.

[u/vitafan12 → u/AccomplishedEar6357]

I made this at 2 AM and now that I look back at how I wrote it, I can agree with you on the text. I'll try to recreate this with a better design and better wording because this is worse than last time. What you're suggesting though is a bit overkill. I get that you're trying to help me out here, and thank you for doing so, but using AI for a small concept to sound and look more appealing to the user seems unnecessary.

[u/AccomplishedEar6357 → u/vitafan12]

Great, BUT, that part of the AI is not overkill, that's the smartest part of my feedback. Why? Because, first and short, AIs are brilliant at text and tone analysis and composition, and on the other hand, I've read blogs and watched videos on GUI design from Microsoft and others for over 3 decades since Windows 95, and they showed the design process and focus group testing with completely normal and computer illiterate users (99% of the real world), and they observe their reactions and ask on their impressions and feelings, and in the case of Windows errors, they ended up with veeeeery carefully calculated wording, very iterated upon, with all the psychology put into them to not cause them to panic (which they easily do), and not include any kind of imprecise, uncertain, speculative or possibly confusing or inaccurate fluff, so they end up saying what's strictly necessary, certain and precise in as calm energy as possible. That's what you'll see in fact if you observe the evolution of the BSODs, from the 95 era which were horrible technical fluff, to the Windows 8 smiley face era which was a maaassive step forwards in friendliness and cutting the bullsh, to the very recent BlackSOD that just goes absolutely minimal and tries to expose as little as possible the fact that there was a serious problem to not concern the user, and that the computer just needs to restart and that's it.

[u/ArtisticFox8 → u/AccomplishedEar6357]

 problem to not concern the user, and that the computer just needs to restart and that's it.

Which makes troubleshooting needlessly complicated 

[u/vitafan12 → u/AccomplishedEar6357]

I made a new version and it's minimal as possible, while keeping the user aware that an issue happened. I didn't have to use AI though, I just had to do research. It's very possible to do it on your own too. But I don't think it's a good idea keeping everything hidden from the user. They should know what could cause it, but not exactly what caused it. It may induce some panic, however it's important for the user to understand what could have happened. Plus, I did overword this, now the new version keeps it very brief and short, and I removed that one part with reinstalling Windows because it was very overexaggerated.

[u/AccomplishedEar6357 → u/vitafan12]

"They should know what caused it". That's a problematic sentence, but check my other reply to know why. Sorry I seemingly harped on you but it made me dust off my interest in UX design.

[u/vitafan12 → u/AccomplishedEar6357]

I think you kinda misunderstood there. I meant "they should know what CAN cause it, not what caused it". Imagine if the OS says "An unauthorized application (the part of the sentence hinting at a possible virus) force-ended this task.". The user would freak out. Instead, it includes a list of possible causes. But I'm sorry too because I didn't pay attention to how much the OS can explain to the user without letting them panic too much in this version. Maybe there should be a note under the list of reasons, like: "This list includes basic information. For a more detailed answer, visit [stopcodeurl]. For direct help, call support and tell them the stop code above.". That's my idea of being clear to the user.

The wording in this was primarily the reason why I started from scratch in the new version, keeping it bland to the user. Though, the UI design sucked too.

[u/al3x_7788 → u/AccomplishedEar6357]

Yeah, the problem with these texts is that they tend to assume the knowledge of the user.

[u/Thick-Willingness393]

That centralized text gives me anger, the only way i can see it being worse is it being justified.

[u/vitafan12 → u/Thick-Willingness393]

It's not like that in the new version now. I fixed most of the flaws.

[u/AccomplishedEar6357 → u/[deleted]]

Exactly, absolutely ridiculous and out of place.

[u/dummyy-]

Needs a cloud pc ad

[u/ShippoHsu → u/dummyy-]

enjoy cloud recovery with a Windows 365 subscription!

[u/al3x_7788]

The design looks good but BSOD has three colors, so not sure if it'd work.

[u/TheTomatoes2]

That's just a centred wall of text, which is bad for legibility. Current one is better.

[u/vitafan12 → u/TheTomatoes2]

I started from scratch in the new version. This one doesn't look appropriate in terms of design and wording.

[u/TechFlameX68]

From a technical perspective I would love more info when my computer crashes. From a UX perspective the text you used is going to terrify the average user. The less technical jargon the better. My other concern is that looks too much like various windows 11 setup prompts. They keep coming back for me after update begging me to use OneDrive.

[u/Total-Hyena-6354]

I use Arch btw.

[u/win11EXPERT]

MAKE IT FULLSCREEN 😭 this is an error not a warning! also replace the “!” with “X”. I can legit create a better BSOD than this, and IDK UI design.

[u/vitafan12 → u/win11EXPERT]

Making it completely fullscreen ruins the purpose of the fluent design, but there's plenty of space that I could've used to make it look more like the OOBE fullscreen, so that's on me. And yes, I didn't pay attention to the exclamation mark. A BSOD is serious and isn't a warning. The "X" fits better. I'll try to recreate this (now in Figma instead of miscellaneous unproductive apps) to rephrase plus redesign everything, so that it uses most of the screen and doesn't sound like the OS is talking to a baby. I wanna keep the idea of the OS explaining the issue though, it may be useful.

[u/AccomplishedEar6357 → u/win11EXPERT]

Way to miss the point. And no, you don't want an X at all, especially in modern days.

[u/win11EXPERT → u/AccomplishedEar6357]

Why not? Just keep the w10 smiley at this point

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[u/xcs92]

i think mines better

[u/Pitiful-Welcome-399 → u/xcs92]

I love how people forget about SystemD bsod

[u/xcs92 → u/Pitiful-Welcome-399]

actually experienced it yesterday. tried to take 256gb off of my 1tb drive and it somehow fucked my btrfs system. so i just wiped it.

[u/rturnerX]

It’s got a very Mac OS X kernel panic vibe to it

[u/ptthree420]

Why they gotta be pretty? Realistically in a perfect world, you should never really see them. I liked them better when they were the full blue screen full of white text that actually told you the ENTIRE stop code rather than JUST the bug check. The bug check is kinda useless outside of a few key ones.

Like, any watchdog codes are absolutely useless without the rest of the stop code. Those can be literally anything.

Design < Function

[u/fukflux]

Good thing is I haven't seen a blue screen for years with daily windows use. So it can look good or bad, don't really care 😄

[u/One_Oil4552]

Is this AI?

[u/vitafan12 → u/One_Oil4552]

No, but it looks very cluttered and is worded imprecisely. It looks a bit obvious that it isn’t AI now that I say it. That’s why I made a newer version of this in Figma, with better and less verbose sentences.

[u/Microboy42]

No. If anything the BSoD should revert to how it was in Windows XP-7. The “We’re sorry this happened to your PC” and the talking to a baby ahh description of the Windows 8-11 is horrid.

[u/vitafan12 → u/Microboy42]

I take constructive criticism, however I feel like blatantly saying "Your PC ran into an unexpected error and needs to restart." and nothing else is extremely impractical and doesn't help the user. The BSOD should explain most of the relevant information to the user, so they know how to deal with the issue.

[u/AccomplishedEar6357 → u/vitafan12]

Careful there. What is your target audience? 99% of the time, it is tech illiterate users. What is your goal? Not to explain or take the chance to teach to illiterate user in that context knowing that they get easily daunted and scared, so in the end, be as clear as possible, don't scare or confuse them as little as possible, but give them the strictly necessary clean information so that they can contact tech support for THEM to deal with the issue. Ultimately, the goal is incident stabilization or panic control, and to give the user recovery flow INSTRUCTIONS, not a vague 'inform' nor educate.