Windows 8 UI 'strategic mistake'...

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DelJo63

So says Gregg Keizer @ Computerworld.com in this article

Windows 8 was a strategic mistake that fails novice and experienced computer users alike on both tablets and traditional PCs, a usability expert said Monday.​
Nielsen cited issues such as the dual UIs, and the human "memory load" that results; a lack of multiple windows in the Windows 8 Store touch-oriented mode; hidden commands; low information density; and error-prone gestures.​
Nielsen based his take in part on testing he conducted with a dozen experienced PC users, who were asked to complete tasks on both traditional PCs and on the Surface RT.​
But testing revealed that users had serious and persistent problems figuring out what Windows RT wanted from them, and were challenged by relatively simple chores. In one test, the participants were asked to compile a list of three recommendations for a night out, send those suggestions to a friend and acknowledge the reply.​
"That was enormously complicated on the Surface RT because of the single window model," said Nielsen, referring to the one-window-at-a-time UI for Windows RT apps. And even though the OS offers a split-screen mode, "None of our test users were able to make this work."​
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Read the story and draw your own conclusion.
 
Windows. 8 seems to have taken a macabre turn into a tale of woe and horror. One could dismiss this OS a exemplary of the old adage,"the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Well, save for the fact that there weren't any good intentions brought into play, certainly not in the area of foresight.

In the present tense, the M$ board of directors needs to snatch a page from the old, original Star Trek episode, "Mirror, Mirror", and assassinate their way into Captain Kirk's, whoops, I mean Ballmer's job.

Mr. Ballmer has all of the arrogance, and is at least as overbearing as Steve Jobs, but lacks any of his vision, or a speck of his talent.

The present, inept attempt, at turning a smart phone OS, into a viable platform for a professional work station OS, rivals that of Doctor Frankenstein's travails and failure.

I think the whole project went sideways, when M$ abandoned the good, true and loyal, customer base they had been courting for more than a decade. At that point, the demographic included, "almost everybody". Unfortunately, M$ suffered a psychotic break, brought on by excessive brain flatulence during a corporate group think session. This manifested itself with paranoid delusions of grandeur, with intent on iWorld domination, and embraced a new demographic, which now included everyone, even those legally brain dead, and on life support.

Simply put, they already were well on the way to a "fool proof" operating system. Fools such as I were at peace with our computers. Then inexplicably, M$ went of on a bizarre tangent and elected to court a wider category of mental defectives, "the imbeciles".

Well, as it appears to be turning out, you actually can make something, "fool proof". Windows XP achieved that lofty pinnacle. However, in targeting a new goal of being, "imbecile proof", M$ has seemingly rendered its new OS, "fool proof" in the meanest, most literal, and ironic sense of the word. I'm going to coin a more proper descriptive term for it, "fool repugnant", or in a bit of a lighter vein, "fool repellant" OS.

So, something that is "fool proof:, (in the ad-speak sense), has the handicap of being imbecile proof, (in the literal sense), and tragically, something that which is no longer imbecile proof, (in the ad-speak sense), no longer interests, appeals to, or is even accessible to the workaday fool.:eek:

So, where the educated and articulate "fool", might pride themselves on being, "great at multitasking". The ploddingly dull of wit, would likely find that one task at a time was almost too demanding.....and another Windows 8 customer reaches vestigial self awareness. That of seeing, and of course being infatuated with, his own reflection in the glass of his new Surface tablet. The little Windows 8 user that could, albeit just barely...!

I'd be willing to bet that many new tablet owners could sit for hours, looking at their own reflections without turning the damned things on. Afterwards of course, they'd be bragging to their friends about the, "astonishing battery life"!

Huxley predicted impasses such as this in "Brave New World". You couldn't send a Beta+ out to do a Delta-'s job, it wouldn't be feasible. They were trained for far different functions, or if you will, "castes" of society.
 
Simply put, they already were well on the way to a "fool proof" operating system. Fools such as I were at peace with our computers. Then inexplicably, M$ went of on a bizarre tangent and elected to court a wider category of mental defectives, "the imbeciles".
Having work in software development for decades, I envision this as an MBA or Engineering manager trying to impress by the gross assumption that ONE OS for all platforms is cheaper, easier and ergo the "right approach".

There's an adage in architectural design (aka buildings et al) that "Form (the look) follows function (how it works)". Couple this with software design principles like Use Case and the one size fits all approach SHOULD have been discarded immediately (but that assumes the principles were in play). Both of these principles work from the inside-out to show what the outside must be able to support. One example of the Win/8 failure to observe this is the use of the single window. The M$ operating system is/was called M$ Windows (plural), but as of Win/8 perhaps it needs a rename to M$ Window (singular).

If however there was a mandate from on high, then few underlings would dare to object or to critique this as undesirable with obvious adverse side effects.

SO, IMO the market place will chastise M$ management appropriately :grin:
 
I'm sure you'll poke about to discover it - - most adolescents do.
 
I'm sure you'll poke about to discover it - - most adolescents do.
I have often heard that older men have a "second childhood". What I didn't realize that there was a second adolescence as a prelude to it.

Thanx for the heads up.......!;)
 
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