Why do you have to click Start to shut down?
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Why do you have to click Start to shut down?
1–10 of 23 posts
Re: Why do you have to click Start to shut down?
#2I actually knew someone who could not figure out how to shut down their computer because it did not make sense to them to click "Start" to shut down.
Re: Why do you have to click Start to shut down?
#3This goes to show the value of actually watching users when they sit down in front of your system. Even though 'Click Start to Shutdown' seems unintuitive to all of us programmers, the usability study showed that it's what people expected. You can't really fault the Windows designers for following the users existing mental model rather than trying to change it.
Re: Why do you have to click Start to shut down?
#4I actually knew someone who could not figure out how to shut down their computer because it did not make sense to them to click "Start" to shut down.
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Re: Why do you have to click Start to shut down?
#5This goes to show the value of actually watching users when they sit down in front of your system. Even though 'Click Start to Shutdown' seems unintuitive to all of us programmers, the usability study showed that it's what people expected. You can't really fault the Windows designers for following the users existing mental model rather than trying to change it.
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Re: Why do you have to click Start to shut down?
#6I actually knew someone who could not figure out how to shut down their computer because it did not make sense to them to click "Start" to shut down.
I hope they figured it out eventually, though? It is not that hard a skill to learn.
No offense, but I think there are a zillion other things that would be more important to simplify.
Hasn't Joel even argued that shutting down the computer should be unnecessary in the future anyway?
Re: Why do you have to click Start to shut down?
#7Is it really that unintuitive to click the start button to start the shutdown procedure?
Re: Why do you have to click Start to shut down?
#8I actually knew someone who could not figure out how to shut down their computer because it did not make sense to them to click "Start" to shut down.
I hope they figured it out eventually, though? It is not that hard a skill to learn. No offense, but I think there are a zillion other things that would be more important to simplify. Hasn't Joel even argued that shutting down the computer should be unnecessary in the future anyway?
It ain't the future yet. (Well, for most people anyway; I don't think I've restarted my computer in weeks).
Re: Why do you have to click Start to shut down?
#9I actually knew someone who could not figure out how to shut down their computer because it did not make sense to them to click "Start" to shut down.
Even if 99% of people are smart (or in this case, not dumb) enough to figure out a feature, that doesn't mean that you can guarantee that the other 1% will get it. I'm guessing this user falls in the < 1% category. Maybe it makes for a funny story, but it's hardly representative of a normal user. If 99% of your users figured it out, move on. If Microsoft waited for 100% of their users to figure out a feature, we'd still be waiting for the one guy staring at power button and wondering what to do.
Re: Why do you have to click Start to shut down?
#10This goes to show the value of actually watching users when they sit down in front of your system. Even though 'Click Start to Shutdown' seems unintuitive to all of us programmers, the usability study showed that it's what people expected. You can't really fault the Windows designers for following the users existing mental model rather than trying to change it.
Usability studies also show the cunning of the average user. It's difficult to know if what you have presented to them is good design or 'good enough' to allow _most_ users to cope. Combine this with people's knowledge that they are in a usability test, most people's desire to please authority figures and the natural skew to any process where you can affect outcome in your favour and usability studies become a mine field.
Windows is an exercise in 'good enough'. That's not a bad thing for a commodity OS. It doesn't mean that it should win any accolades though.