OS X Lion: Macs' beginner-friendly days are over

They will however find the App Store, they will see the Mission Control Dock icon and they will recognize the window resizing controls. They will also find use for the ubiquitous autocorrect and full screen apps.

All things told, Lion is a departure from Microsoft Windows paradigms, and thus will give switchers a somewhat harder time. But in general, I think it is a lot cleaner and more discoverable than its predecessors.

I think this was the point. Much of the effort in Lion seems to be around exposing useful, but esoteric features, that were present in previous versions. My perspective is that Apple wants everyone to be able to get more from their Macs, not just the elite power user set. Mission Control and full screen apps really make the case for virtual desktops. Spaces were basically lifted whole from Linux desktops, but they now actually feel well integrated into the Mac experience.

Just because someone is not an advanced user, it doesn't mean that they should not get advanced features.

For example, they point out that application-wide gestures are two finger and system-wide gestures are three finger. This strongly assumes that people know the difference. Based on convos I've had people don't. "Which version of Office are you using?" "XP". "Office XP?" "Umm, Windows XP?". "OK, that's the version of Windows. What is the version of Office?" "The whole computer is XP". They were using Office 2003.

I actually think the handling of background apps running state handling would be one of the best things to port from iOS to Mac. There are obvious large hurdles, though.

--EDIT-- I guess you're talking about resume but the issue is having apps still running after all windows are closed. I see people who leave all office applications open just because they were working on a document, spreadsheet, and slideshow in the last week. Apple needs to encourage more developers to focus on quick launch times and quitting applications like the App Store does when windows are closed.

Well that's the whole point: they shouldn't need to know the difference. The system should take care of that and beginning with Lion it will.

> As another example, let’s say someone who’s never used Expose or Spaces accidentally activates Lion’s new full-screen feature in Safari. Apps that go full-screen create a new Space to live in, and, obviously, they fill the entire screen. I don’t know about your parents, but the phrase “how do I get out of this” rings in my head just thinking about it. So does the needlessly lengthy phone call that would follow.

So you tell them "swipe left or right with three fingers" and then they'll know. Software doesn't need to be immediately and completely obvious to everyone in every situation. What's important is that basic concepts are universally applicable once they're learned.

And keep in mind that discoverability does not mean every possible action needs to be visible at first sight. Swiping should become immediately clear once you fool around with the trackpad; the feedback is obvious, immediate and pleasant.

> Use another app, and the same gesture could mean something completely different.

I don't think the slight differences in the minutiae of swiping gestures (one finger, two fingers, three fingers,...) is that big of a deal. There is (or should be!) immediate feedback and the actions are always (or should always be!) nondestructive. It should not take long for anyone to figure things out.

Granted, there is always the problem of especially older people being less... "playful" in how they approach new technology. Most often that stems from a fear of breaking things. Which is exactly why it's so great that we're finally on the right track with the latest trends towards "care-free" computing environments: autosave, unlimited undo, auto resume, automatic backup and synchronization etc.