This is a tale, of
Windows 8.1 and general usability. I do
a fair amount of usability research and testing
and a lot of software from the OS all the way up to the user applications
all suck…
A lot of software,
has a fair amount of tradeoffs, compromises; what have you, as it gets designed
and
Developed. Groups, like marketing, upper management will
sometimes throw in there two cents
And call it
branding, or enabling consistency across products.
But in the end, it
kills usability for the user that’s actually trying to use that
software/application. For me, I have
noticed a few things that have trended; one is, less is more. Simple clean
whenever and wherever possible whether that’s a UI element or an API. Making it
as simple and as easy to use as possible should be a primary goal. Another is, the least amount of clicks for
the user. While that seems
Obvious both Windows
8.X and recent Gnome both suffer from this over design where things that used
to be one click are now two or three.
And lastly, don’t bolt up the UI so much; more advanced users cannot do
anything with it.
Both the Windows and
Gnome teams both wanted to change the paradigm of how users would use and
interact with the computer. But in doing so, they sometimes made tradeoffs in
the name of "design"
That would seem
"cool" but served no usability function. It was all to align the
platform with some
Larger goal that may
or may not have made sense.
And what happened in
both cases? User backlash caused both the windows and gnome teams to make
changes. Which in both cases should have been there from the get go. For windows, the damage is such
That people do not
even want to touch a Windows 8.x machine, it's like it has some sort of taint
on it.
What people who are
not operating system geeks, (like me) do not realize is that Microsoft has got
really
Hard core about
security, and stability etc.. For all the software they write across the
board. For windows going back to vista;
the under the hood stuff has been undergoing major changes to improve things.
So, NOT using the latest Windows OS (if you’re a Windows user) actually hurts
you in the long run. As, power management, security etc. have all gotten a lot
better.
Its, the UI of
Windows 8.x that’s sorta messy and that…
is fixable by the user (somewhat)….
Starting in Windows 8.1 You can boot directly to the desktop the setting
is in: (taskbar properties) there are a couple of settings in there that you
can play with. In fact, there are personalization's in a few different areas
that you can Play with the biggest one is a an app called "default
programs" this is the mother of all useful apps. With it you can remap any
app to something else for example install VLC, and in default programs tell It
to use VLC for all content it can handle. Bang, now anytime you run a video
file VLC opens. You can do this with almost anything.
Those couple of
things, makes 8.1, way better. The other thing I do is; I do not use the
Microsoft account
I created another
one and disabled the Microsoft account, and for file syncing stuff I use google
drive.
Google Chrome +
Google drive + lastpass is very good….
There are many other
things you can do to change up, Windows 8.1 to your liking. You do not have to
use the "metro" apps, there are plenty of other apps such as chrome
apps, adobe apps etc… that you can install.
I spend virtually no time in metro…. To
search for an app I just use: (windows key + S), to get to the desktop (windows key + d), and for
windows file explorer (Windows key +e)
You will be surprise
how just a few little things can really make a huge deal….
-Nex6
