...and told him to open calculator. I had him start on the Desktop. He first looks for the Start button, to no avail. Looking confused, he thinks for a second, the just starts typing "calculator" on the Desktop. After that doesn't work, he starts clicking around until he accidentally grabs the top of the screen and pins it on the side. He then clicks in the empty space and makes it to the Start screen. Then, he looks for calculator in my pinned things, and after no success, he then types "calculator" again and successfully opens the program. His first comments "well, it will take some getting use to, but it's no big deal." I then show him how the Start button actually is there, just hidden. He affirms that yeah it's no big deal, just will take some getting used to.
Later, he was watching me use my PC, and I downloaded the Wikipedia app and pinned it. After that, I put down the computer and played some Xbox with him beside me. He's very interested in history, so he picks up the computer, and goes into the Wikipedia app. He asks me how to search in the app, and I showed him how to use Charms. After that, he was using it as if he had his whole life. He searches some Wikipedia, then when he can't find what he wanted there, he goes back to Start (using the hidden button) and hit the IE icon (which sends him to the desktop) and uses it to search and find things. I show him how he could bring up the recent apps menu to quickly go back to Wikipedia, and just like that he was going back and forth, actually using the computer, Metro apps and all, to do research.
I was actually pretty thrilled, because all it took was me showing him a few simple ways to use this new OS, and he was good to go. Keep in mind that before I put him through this little experiment, he said, and I quote "I'm not sure if I can open calculator, I've never really learned how to do things like that on older computers." I know, I know, and I'm not sure how he's avoided simple technology this long, but he has.
I did this little test to see for myself how real people would use this OS; I've seen the horrors on YouTube, and while they did seem bad, the author of the video typically was standing over the person, already "mad" about Windows 8, saying "see dad how stupid this is, this is what Microsoft thinks is good." Doing that to someone does nothing but discourage, and it's not fair. Mine was fair.
What do you guys think?
Later, he was watching me use my PC, and I downloaded the Wikipedia app and pinned it. After that, I put down the computer and played some Xbox with him beside me. He's very interested in history, so he picks up the computer, and goes into the Wikipedia app. He asks me how to search in the app, and I showed him how to use Charms. After that, he was using it as if he had his whole life. He searches some Wikipedia, then when he can't find what he wanted there, he goes back to Start (using the hidden button) and hit the IE icon (which sends him to the desktop) and uses it to search and find things. I show him how he could bring up the recent apps menu to quickly go back to Wikipedia, and just like that he was going back and forth, actually using the computer, Metro apps and all, to do research.
I was actually pretty thrilled, because all it took was me showing him a few simple ways to use this new OS, and he was good to go. Keep in mind that before I put him through this little experiment, he said, and I quote "I'm not sure if I can open calculator, I've never really learned how to do things like that on older computers." I know, I know, and I'm not sure how he's avoided simple technology this long, but he has.
I did this little test to see for myself how real people would use this OS; I've seen the horrors on YouTube, and while they did seem bad, the author of the video typically was standing over the person, already "mad" about Windows 8, saying "see dad how stupid this is, this is what Microsoft thinks is good." Doing that to someone does nothing but discourage, and it's not fair. Mine was fair.
What do you guys think?
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 8 Release Preview
- System Manufacturer/Model
- Sony VAIO
- CPU
- Intel Core i3
- Memory
- 4GB