User Research Gone Astray: The Case of Windows 8 Explorer
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Re: User Research Gone Astray: The Case of Windows 8 Explorer
#2Very very good article. Shit, in fact, the fact that I hurt my foot. But, other than that, not shit, but an excellent article. Not shit at all. Congrats.
Re: User Research Gone Astray: The Case of Windows 8 Explorer
#3The article asserts that MS completely got it wrong but it doesn't even attempt to persuade the reader with arguments as to why. To me it isn't obvious that adding a ribbon with the most frequently used features to the top of the explorer is a bad approach.
I think the ribbon was a mostly a success in MS Office, Notepad, MS Paint, Wordpad and so on. So why not also use a ribbon in the explorer?
Re: User Research Gone Astray: The Case of Windows 8 Explorer
#4There's a difference between making something more (vs less) accessible based on usage patterns, and making things impossible to do at all.
Disclaimer: I work at Microsoft, and as long as they don't touch cmd.exe or powershell.exe, the Windows org can do whatever they want to Explorer...
Re: User Research Gone Astray: The Case of Windows 8 Explorer
#5I wish they'd fix all the annoying little things they broke in Windows 7 before moving onto anything new.
In Windows XP, copying files over a network worked. In Windows 7, some "improvements" seem to result in abysmal file copying performance on a very noticeable proportion of machines/networks. The Web is full of such stories, and the best anyone has come to fixing them is basically random tweaking of low-level network parameters that no user should ever have to go anywhere near on the off chance that turning off something supposedly beneficial will fix whatever incompatibility or feedback loop is crippling performance on any given system.
On Windows XP, you could navigate folders in the tree in explorer by clicking once to expand and open a folder. In Windows 7, I have yet to find any way to avoid double-clicking or aiming for those dinking little triangles to expand each folder, which is not terribly efficient on a modern large, high-resolution display. Also, why do they hide the triangles unless you're hovering in the correct area with the mouse? Might a user not want to know which folders they can see in the tree also contain nested subfolders? Again, Windows XP did this fine, and the Windows 7 behaviour is objectively inferior in this respect.
Re: User Research Gone Astray: The Case of Windows 8 Explorer
#6When the F will people start seeing things from a non-power users perspective before writing such a rant?! At the very least, back up your post with some sort of an objective argument.
I know a lot of people who spend minutes looking for simple options that are hidden in menu entries. I think the ribbon is going to be of good use for such people who'd appreciate the most common use-cases/functions within the reach of a mouse-click.
Re: User Research Gone Astray: The Case of Windows 8 Explorer
#7I don't understand the complaint. The new interface clearly presents what options/actions are available with text names and pictures. Compared to hunting through various menus with only an action's name to determine what something does, this seems an improvment. I would agree that the Ribbon looks visually busy, but isn't it easier to scan through the Ribbon than search through multiple menus to locate an action, or to remember a option's location on the Ribbon than in a menu? Besides, a user knowledgeable of Explorer short cuts can hide the Ribbon for more usable space.
Useful information consolidated at the bottom of the new Explorer compared to the previous screenshot where the same information is either not present, or present in multiple places, feels like a good improvement as well.
With the push towards tablets and touch, doesn't the new Explorer make sense compared to interacting with the Explorer through menus, right click, or some other context sensitive input? I say this considering the Build keynote, where (I think) they mentioned that they believed in a future of even regular monitors being touch-enabled. Having main options clearly present and touch friendly works towards this.
Re: User Research Gone Astray: The Case of Windows 8 Explorer
#8The article assumes that Microsoft's goal is to empower and delight the user. This isn't really the case; their goal is to reduce support costs for corporate IT departments.
Many of Microsoft's strategies and tactics that seem nonsensical seem more sensible once you realize that corporate IT managers, rather than end users, are their customers.
Re: User Research Gone Astray: The Case of Windows 8 Explorer
#9When the F will people start seeing things from a non-power users perspective before writing such a rant?! At the very least, back up your post with some sort of an objective argument. I know a lot of people who spend minutes looking for simple options that are hidden in menu entries. I think the ribbon is going to be of good use for such people who'd appreciate the most common use-cases/functions within the reach of…
for such people
Except those people are quickly dying out - literally.
Also, by any metric, the visual layout and appearance are beyond terrible. There doesn't seem to be a logical grouping at all.
If this is the answer then someone must have asked the wrong question. (a button labeled "easy access"? seriously?)
Re: User Research Gone Astray: The Case of Windows 8 Explorer
#10When the F will people start seeing things from a non-power users perspective before writing such a rant?! At the very least, back up your post with some sort of an objective argument. I know a lot of people who spend minutes looking for simple options that are hidden in menu entries. I think the ribbon is going to be of good use for such people who'd appreciate the most common use-cases/functions within the reach of…
To the contrary, I'm looking at this very much from a non-power user's perspective. I think a ribbon is a reasonable application here, showing copy, paste, etc. by default. But look at all of the other functions located throughout the chrome. As the "lambasting it" link says, many of the options that are visible by default are used much less than 1% of the time, according to Microsoft's own data. "Invert selection"?
But more to the point is how the user research data is turned into a redesign in a seemingly mechanical way. "The button was used 10% of the time, so let's make it bigger next time." Without careful consideration, this can be a big mistake, and can miss opportunities for helping users with their tasks at a deeper level.