There's more to it too
There are more problems with this new era of UI mentality from MS, too, the more I think about it.
>>> ...philosophies drawn from “Wayfinding” (signage in airports, train stations and other public places)...
But a computer monitor is not an airport, train station, or any other public place. It is not a 3D environment that needs to be negotiated by a traveler. It is a flat 2D environment with limited space and needing clear distinctions between controls (interactive) and displays (content).
>>> ...and moving type (The opening titles to Hitchcock's North by Northwest are apparently seminal so we've popped them in below)...
Come again? This, and the reference to animation, is surely cause for concern. Are we going to have ticker-tape style title bars? Vertically moving text, a la movie credits, on windows instead of a scroll bar? Eh?
As to animation...
>>> ...Mainstream developers will therefore need to come to terms with content-centric interfaces and the elements they offer, one of which is animation. Moving images, he said, even offer the chance to tap into users' primal instincts as we are attuned to interpreting fast-moving objects in peripheral vision as worthy of attention (if only to avoid being eaten by an approaching predator)...
Sorry, now I am not in a train station, but needing to watch out for the hungry lions?
Moving images in the periphery on a computer screen says one thing to most people: annoying advertising to be ignored. Static content should be static. If you have to resort to animation to "get attention", maybe something is fundamentally wrong with your 2D monitor GUI design!
Beyond that, animation has been used for legitimate purposes in Windows for a long time, from the simple file copying movie to the window minimize/maximize action. So what new is he on about?
>>> ...Developers must therefore strive to “present the information well enough it can form the user interface.”
Confusion of controls and content again.
>>> ...good design for Windows 8 apps, or any other, starts with decisions about what an application is intended to achieve, rather than just how it will look and behave.
Well that's a nice idea but it rather contradicts everything said prior.