The Windows 8 'kick me' sign

Microsoft no doubt knew it was going to have to face a lot of flak over its new operating system. And here's some more.

Look on the flip side of Microsoft's new logo and it says "kick me."

I'm sure Microsoft knew there would be plenty of pushback from bloggers and early adopters in regard to its new operating system. That said, Windows 8's abrupt shift to touch does make it an easy target.

Add a usability expert to that group of Windows 8 skeptics.

That would be Raluca Budiu, a User Experience Specialist at the Nielsen Norman Group.

After reading her comments in an article at Laptopmag.com, I decided to follow up directly and ask her about the challenges users may face with Windows 8.

Read more at:
The Windows 8 'kick me' sign | Microsoft - CNET News
 
A very fair comment. Members should read the whole article through.
 

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Hi there
I enjoyed it too

The "Learning Curve" bit -- very true especially these days everyone wants an instantaneous OOBE that requires almost no effort for the users.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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davehc said:
A very fair comment. Members should read the whole article through.
All those who are moaning against anti-Metro poeple should read it. That would spare me time writing.
Redmondmag said:
they'll just whine a bit
And I promise I'll whine until they make the Metro UI optionable (fully avoidable and replacable by the normal Start Menu). I still can give them a second chance if they make it resizeable thought, but as a far second choice.
 

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LOL. Your sarcasm (moaning) was not lost on me.
But, I did mark that thread as solved, as I had got the response I need out of it. Whilst the thread became unreasonably long and lost the plot, the actual statistics on the thread were 11 for Metro and 3 very vocally against. There were another 4 who generalised and did not directly refer to the Metro/legacy start screen conversation.
Bear in mind, this particular forum - I am not denying there may be many others, but I visit several each day - has so far been the most virulent with comments on the Metro, and Windows 8 generally. Even the Technet forum had a very short dissenting thread on the subject. If those statistics are representative, then I don't believe it will turn any Microsoft heads.
I must say I am not a lover of the Metro, in particular its visual concept. But I do realise that it is not intended primarily for the desktop user, so I have adapted to it quite cheerfully, with the help of a third party program.
The Redmondmag article was actually reasonably supportive of Windows 8, with reservations, which we are all feeling.

addendum:
"And I promise I'll whine until they make the Metro UI optional" At the risk of starting another debate!! It is. The option is one click away. Yes, you need another third party to make it more useable. But, way back through the MS Os range, I have always found third party programs to make certain aspects of Windows more useable. Anyone who has not done the same is surely not exploring the full possibilities.
 

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daveh said:
"And I promise I'll whine until they make the Metro UI optional" At the risk of starting another debate!! It is. The option is one click away. Yes, you need another third party to make it more useable.
That's one click, and one third party app too many, when M$ could so easily, and at no cost to them, provide both and make everyone happy ... but they refuse. Is it not reasonable to call that mean spirited?

Nothing wrong with debate Dave. Go for it. Makes the forum interesting.
 

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It's been said before and I'll say it again: What is the big deal about not having the desktop load at startup--the one click to get there? If you have your desktop setup right, you will rarely need metro. Or is there something that I'm not understanding?
 

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They can complain as long as they like.

Win8 is there and it's working.

I also don't like all the features, but I don't think whining would help. You use what you like.
 

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It's been said before and I'll say it again: What is the big deal about not having the desktop load at startup--the one click to get there? If you have your desktop setup right, you will rarely need metro. Or is there something that I'm not understanding?

:sarc: I agree.. just one click to the desktop and you're all set. Two mouse clicks to bring up all of your application.. just like the old start button. No issues there, IMO.
 

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daveh said:
"And I promise I'll whine until they make the Metro UI optional" At the risk of starting another debate!! It is. The option is one click away. Yes, you need another third party to make it more useable.
That's one click, and one third party app too many, when M$ could so easily, and at no cost to them, provide both and make everyone happy ... but they refuse. Is it not reasonable to call that mean spirited?

Nothing wrong with debate Dave. Go for it. Makes the forum interesting.

That would be nice... but it's MS's ball and they get to make the rules I guess.
 

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They can complain as long as they like.

Win8 is there and it's working.

I also don't like all the features, but I don't think whining would help. You use what you like.

While whining /may/ not work. NOT whining will DEFINATELY not work :)

Someone pointed out somewhere else that MS has failed for /years/ to put a desktop UI on a phone, with all it's fiddly stupidity like menus and context items and scroll bars etc. Utter failure. Now they invent a decent Phone UI and what do they do? They do a complete 180 and try to forcea phone UI onto the desktop where it, similarly, simply does not belong. Stupid one direction, now stupid in the other.

If people DON'T stand up and say, "Hey stupid! Integrate it better! Make your phone apps run in windows (full screen, windowed, sized) as the /user/ wants so they don't consume an entire 24 in monitor's worth of space!", then they won't have any reason to do it. Or worse yet, actually think that everyone actually LIKES having all their apps full screen all the time and move towards killing the tradition desktop.
 

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Standard M.O.

If people DON'T stand up and say, "Hey stupid! Integrate it better! Make your phone apps run in windows (full screen, windowed, sized) as the /user/ wants so they don't consume an entire 24 in monitor's worth of space!", then they won't have any reason to do it. Or worse yet, actually think that everyone actually LIKES having all their apps full screen all the time and move towards killing the tradition desktop.

I wouldn't hold my breath.
Their modus operandi is to ignore user complaints. :(

They still haven't fixed the idiotic auto-scrolling behaviour in the W7 Windows Explorer navigation pane.
People were complaining about that (on the official MS blogs) during the W7 Beta releases.

The only things that MS cares about are:

  • Sales
  • Worthless telemetry
 

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