Windows 8's learning curve to be addressed

Microsoft: Windows 8's learning curve needs addressing - Neowin

Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Tami Reller has been speaking to The New York Times in relation to Windows Blue (Windows 8.1), the next big update to Windows 8 that will be released later this year. According to Reller, Microsoft acknowledge that Windows 8's learning curve is an issue, saying that it's "real and needs to be addressed," while she mentioned that some aspects of Windows 8 will be made easier to learn in Windows 8.1.

Reller didn't specify exactly what will be changed in Windows Blue – she mentioned more details will be unveiled during and in the lead up to BUILD 2013 – although she hinted the tutorial will be adjusted. "We need to help [users] learn faster,” and that's not being accomplished by the poor tutorial in Windows 8 that only shows new users how to open the Charms menu.

One aspect of Windows 8.1, which at this stage is only rumored to be coming back in the update, that should abate the steep learning curve is the Start button. Although the accompanying Start menu will likely not be returning, the visual familiarity of the Start button will make it easier for people to make the jump without getting lost, as currently Windows 8 doesn't feature any visual clues about how to return to the Start screen from the desktop.

Despite the learning curve of Windows 8, it continues to sell relatively well; Microsoft announced several days ago that they've sold more than 100 million Windows 8 licenses. Expect to see more information in relation to Windows Blue in the coming weeks, as Microsoft has promised to reveal more info ahead of BUILD including pricing and packaging specifics.

 

[SIW2]

A very un-intuitive system may seem intuitive to some because of familiarity with something similar

That is not what intuitive means.

It means instinctive.

 

[sygnus21]

1) It is hard to believe they released it like this. Unintuitive with low discoverability.Finding out where MS have bizarrely hidden things is an annoyance for many.

2) Once they know where they everything is - now comes the biggest problem. They realise it is worse for use on a regular pc.

3) I expect the most loathed feature is forcing the start screen.

I'll go with two of these 3....

1- Why in gods creation do I have to start here!

2 - Where in f**k is that damn setting!!!

Can't really say it's worse for use on regular PC, though some thing have changed, I just see it as different... once you find it. I will say the "Search" feature works really well... provided you know what you're looking for.

Even though I'm starting to get used to 8, the two I list still annoys the heck out of me.

 

[alphanumeric]

I'm running 8 on my laptop, IMHO intuitive it isn't. I haven't seen anything I would describe as awe inspiring either. I haven't resorted to any third party utilities in an attempt to make it look or work like 7. I have spent a great deal of time customizing things to try and make doing things more efficient. Change can be good as long as it isn't change just for the sake of change. It's not windows 7 and that's fine. I just wish they had made up their mind on what it was supposed to be? To me it seems half done. It frustrated the hell out of me when I had it on my desktop PC's. The touchpad on my laptop supports gestures which makes things tolerable on my laptop. I still have wtf were they thinking moments though. Anybody I have shown it too has given me that "don't want" look.

 

[legacy7955]

I still have yet to speak with anyone in the circles I frequent, who actually likes it. Not a one, and I speak with IT people all across America and Canada.

And I speak with people who are the target demographic of a consumer operating system, and very few actually don't like it. Everyone else is either indifferent to it or they like it better than 7.

The target market must be fairly small, and MS refusing to pay attention to their huge primary market is a disgrace frankly.

But yet again all this would be a NON-issue IF MS would not have been so arrogant as to not let the customer have a choice of which UI they wanted to use as the default, of course giving the customer the ability to change that choice if they wanted to at any time.

Cokie

Since there isn't a lot familiar about it, there is hesitation and resistance

No.

It is not just because it is different.

It is being rejected because it is worse.

When it comes to productivity and ease of use on traditional laptops and PCs the excellent desktop UI is still far and away the BEST interface there is, period.

 

[XweAponX]

What do they MEAN, Learning Curve?

According to Reller, Microsoft acknowledge that Windows 8's learning curve is an issue, saying that it's "real and needs to be addressed,"

This wo-man thinks we are all as stoopid as she is?

Sure I had to learn a couple of things, but for the most part, MOST of the stuff I tweek around with is... EXACTLY where it was in Windows 7.

 

[sygnus21]

What do they MEAN, Learning Curve?

According to Reller, Microsoft acknowledge that Windows 8's learning curve is an issue, saying that it's "real and needs to be addressed,"

This wo-man thinks we are all as stoopid as she is?

Sure I had to learn a couple of things, but for the most part, MOST of the stuff I tweek around with is... EXACTLY where it was in Windows 7.

That's you. We're enthusiasts who like to tinker. For the non-enthusiast, it's totally different.

So yes, there is a learning curve, especially when you consider the masses who are just learning Win 7, now along comes a completely new UI. Totally different from previous versions of Windows, especially now that the Start Button is gone.

Anyway no one is saying it's rocket science, but it's still a learning curve.

Anyway I find the "issue" a bit amusing - On one hand Microsoft made it seem like the OS was easy to use, now there's a "learning curve"

Anyway I do agree there's a learning curve; slight as it may be.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Had an executive who didn't have a pdf reader installed and was using the built in reader. After about 30 minutes of trying to figure
out how to print, he came to me. I showed him devices in the charms bar. He was a bit shocked that this basic function was so unintuitive.

Lol! This is an executive? The first thing I suggest you teach him is where the help files are. It amuses me that he spent 30 minutes trying to figure it out, then came to you wasting your time when all he had to do was look in the help files.

There's good reason why items have been moved. Charms bar is the new menu system allocated for touch, but works well with other input peripherals. "Devices" is another innovation of the Charms Bar menu.

Use the charms

Devices
You'll mainly use the Devices charm winkey:+K) to set up printers and print documents, but you can also use it to sync info with your phone and stream video to your wireless TV. Open the charms and then tap or click Devices to see all the devices you’ve connected to your PC at any time.

Help files made easy even an exec can follow them.

 

[Lee]

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! Funny thing this learning curve. . .who decided there is even a problem learning to use a computer. . .Oh, techies made that decision. Isn't the learning curve the same as who trained the trainer?

 

[Coke Robot]

What do they MEAN, Learning Curve?

According to Reller, Microsoft acknowledge that Windows 8's learning curve is an issue, saying that it's "real and needs to be addressed,"

This wo-man thinks we are all as stoopid as she is?

Sure I had to learn a couple of things, but for the most part, MOST of the stuff I tweek around with is... EXACTLY where it was in Windows 7.

You'd be surprised...

 

[Coke Robot]

I'm going to take screenshots of the Microsoft Touch Mouse tutorial for Windows 8. The tutorial starts automatically once you update the drivers in Windows 8, and lo and behold, it shows you HOW to basically use Windows 8. It's something that Windows 8 should had shown FROM THE START.

 

[Coke Robot]

OK, these are some of the screenshots of the Touch Mouse tutorial. Note, these aren't ALL the bits of it, as I took screenshots of the relevant parts.

 

[pparks1]

unsure why I find gestures to be so overrated. I have no interest in them.

 

[XweAponX]

What do they MEAN, Learning Curve?

That's you. We're enthusiasts who like to tinker. For the non-enthusiast, it's totally different.

So yes, there is a learning curve, especially when you consider the masses who are just learning Win 7, now along comes a completely new UI. Totally different from previous versions of Windows, especially now that the Start Button is gone.

Anyway no one is saying it's rocket science, but it's still a learning curve.

Anyway I find the "issue" a bit amusing - On one hand Microsoft made it seem like the OS was easy to use, now there's a "learning curve"

Anyway I do agree there's a learning curve; slight as it may be.

Allrightlythen: So the point is, Microsoft was toting this thing originally, as being Super-Easy to run. In other words, it hasn't quite worked out the way MS said it would, haha.

But I'm as enthusiast as anyone, I do heavy manipulation on a daily basis. And my manipulations and tweekings say that most of the important stuff is exactly where it was in 7, even Vistshi'ite and XP.

Ive even gotten my hands dirty by lookin into the bloody foogin guts of the Metro interface. But as Metro is far from important to me, most of those investigations have to do with removing it completely

 

[EMINENT]

Add me to the list that like it and isn't whining that I can't figure it out with a learning curve issue.

I have and like 8 on the desktop and Surface.
I like that on desktop I don't have a dumb taskbar always there. It's set to be hidden.
I like that I don't have a stupid start button on the taskbar to get me to my start menu of most used apps. I like that hidden too. It's just a wee bit to the left of where it use to be. That's right in the left corner with a single click like the old start button.

How complex?!

Seems like MS really needs to dumb it down!

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
A lot of this is going a bit OT with 5 button mice tutorials etc etc.

The SIMPLE FACT and it's so OBVIOUS that even the most idiotic marketing person on the planet should have realized is that you have two sets of basically different (and largely) incompatible users -- mobile (Tablets / phones etc) for which the metro type interface is probably just fine and Desktop users who run windows Classic applications and need a proper DESKTOP type of OS.

There is nothing wrong in Ms designing a SINGLE OS which serves both sets of users - but it should then run in modes suitable for BOTH sets of users -- I don't even think it should be an EITHER OR type of process - but perhaps a boot option which could be set to default and then changeable if the user wanted to switch modes at the next boot.

Perhaps also there should be a way of selecting and running Metro apps from the Desktop for those users who want to run a metro app from time to time from the desktop without having to re-boot the OS.

Surely before any product is let "Out of the door" rigorous testing should be done -- and with "Normal, non power and non I.T dept. users" too -- or has with the advent of hugely off shored I.T operations -- this type of proper testing become too expensive to do and is just abandoned for "Cost efficiency". So the whole Learning Curve issue should have been discovered LONG before NOW. !!!!!

I'm always hearing from my I.T support colleagues that a lot of off shored code often has to be almost totally re-written before it's put into production rendering the whole idea of these remote operations totally Bonkers in the first place.

Maybe Ms should bring this stuff back to places like the USA where on the whole stuff is properly designed and tested before it's released. I shudder to think what the old Apollo Moon project would have been like had it been designed on today's mode of operations rather than on good sound robust old fashioned Engineering principles - and remember most of the people who worked on those incredible projects were under 25 too -- so it's also nothing to do with "imbecilic youth" either.

So Ms BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD and do it properly this time.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[DavidY]

Had an executive who didn't have a pdf reader installed and was using the built in reader. After about 30 minutes of trying to figure
out how to print, he came to me. I showed him devices in the charms bar. He was a bit shocked that this basic function was so unintuitive.

Lol! This is an executive? The first thing I suggest you teach him is where the help files are. It amuses me that he spent 30 minutes trying to figure it out, then came to you wasting your time when all he had to do was look in the help files.

OK then - how do you get to the Help files from Reader?!

(Incidentally I see that the Print option has now appeared in Reader on a Right-click - I'm pretty sure it wasn't there before and MS have added it during an Update.)

 

[jimbo45]

Had an executive who didn't have a pdf reader installed and was using the built in reader. After about 30 minutes of trying to figure
out how to print, he came to me. I showed him devices in the charms bar. He was a bit shocked that this basic function was so unintuitive.

Lol! This is an executive? The first thing I suggest you teach him is where the help files are. It amuses me that he spent 30 minutes trying to figure it out, then came to you wasting your time when all he had to do was look in the help files.

OK then - how do you get to the Help files from Reader?!

(Incidentally I see that the Print option has now appeared in Reader on a Right-click - I'm pretty sure it wasn't there before and MS have added it during an Update.)

Hi there
just because a guy is an executive of an organisation doesn't mean to say he / she has to have any knowledge of computers other than basic tools such as I'd assume - on how to create and interpret a spread sheet or read a power point type of demonstration.

(Of course if the guy was say a senior executive at Ms then I would be surprised if he couldn't use Windows properly --even Windows 8).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Ray8]

There are so many Microsoft executives leaving of late, they probably all failed the basic Windows 8 user test.

 

[DavidY]

Lol! This is an executive? The first thing I suggest you teach him is where the help files are. It amuses me that he spent 30 minutes trying to figure it out, then came to you wasting your time when all he had to do was look in the help files.

OK then - how do you get to the Help files from Reader?!

(Incidentally I see that the Print option has now appeared in Reader on a Right-click - I'm pretty sure it wasn't there before and MS have added it during an Update.)

Hi there
just because a guy is an executive of an organisation doesn't mean to say he / she has to have any knowledge of computers other than basic tools such as I'd assume - on how to create and interpret a spread sheet or read a power point type of demonstration.

(Of course if the guy was say a senior executive at Ms then I would be surprised if he couldn't use Windows properly --even Windows 8).

Cheers
jimbo

No argument from me on any of that.

Sadly I'm neither a senior executive, nor am I clever enough to work out how to get to the Help files from within Reader... does anyone know? Is it even possible?

 

[Rickkins]

unsure why I find gestures to be so overrated. I have no interest in them.

Oh, I have a gesture specifically for metro. Wanna guess what it is.....????