168 replies to this topic 8 votes

[+Mephistopheles]

This is a video of Chris Pirillo's father trying to use Windows 8 for the first time:



(via ghacks.net, linked by Timan on IRC)

This is also the way many users will react to being faced with Windows 8 in its current state. Microsoft need to either change the Start Screen experience to make it more discoverable. Or force users through a first-run tutorial (and even then many users will struggle).

What are your thoughts? Discuss.

[notuptome2004]

umm Windows 8 will not be released until maby around November so i would assume right now Microsoft has a tutorial in the works as we speak . also ther is many videos how there showing how to use it now some from Microsoft

[migo]

Intuitiveness is a red herring. It's not about whether you can learn everything the first time you sit down to use a computer, but if you can remember how to do things after being taught once.

[johnporter29]

This was posted in another thread ... why do we get another flame bating thread about Windows 8? Isn't there enough already?

[+Mephistopheles]

johnporter29, on 12 March 2012 - 09:31, said:

This was posted in another thread ... why do we get another flame bating thread about Windows 8? Isn't there enough already?

I didn't know it had been posted in another thread. Does it warrant a thread of its own? I believe so. Flamebait? Not really.

[+Blank]

Mephistopheles, on 12 March 2012 - 09:33, said:

I didn't know it had been posted in another thread. Does it warrant a thread of its own? I believe so. Flamebait? Not really.

didnt you hear? If you don't agree that windows 8 is awesome then you're a flamebating troll, who doesnt understand technology, afraid of change, and is just like all the people who said windows vista was horrible.


If you have to read a tutorial or watch a video on how to do basic tasks on anything, then its not intuitive at all.

the way windows is now is far more intuitive. You can easily find your way around the desktop.for example, all this guy would've had to do to open the start page in windows 7 and previous versions is to click the start button/icon. Simple. I know he could've simply hit the windows key on his keyboard, but that's not really being too intuitive now is it?
We all know that button is only there to screw up our full screen games

[Mohitster]

Intuitive or not? Not! Not in its current state.

[migo]

Nothing is intuitive. Apple hasn't released any intuitive products, they just released their tutorials as 30-second ads. Which is actually pretty brilliant marketing, as it acts as if you already have it.

[morden]

when I sat before my girfriends MacBook pro the first time no one told me of hot corners, so I was struggling... for 5 minutes approximately - on the OS with the "ultimate user experience" and which "just works"

when I sat before Windows 8 I was struggling... and again, for 5 minutes

anyone who says it's difficult is either too old to learn ANYTHING or hates the design so much that even trying is out of the question - like the asses I saw who won't even try a console's controller 'cause mouse and wasd is so holy for them they can't even imagine some other idea can work

so: I can belive that someone does NOT LIKE Win8 and does not want to buy it and use it; that's quite fine, I hate the design of OSX and would never want a mac, i don't care about Linux distros either - and no harm done; but if someone says that it is UNLEARNABLE or the learning itself causes pain or an irreal amount of time then the person in question is either very old or very unintelligent or simply exaggerates 'cause of the hatred toward the OS

[+Vice]

This video just proves everything I've been saying so far in all the Windows 8 threads on here. Normal people won't understand how to use it.

[freedomx]

In certain aspects I believe windows 8 is trying to apear to be intuitive and easy to use os but I think that its going to take a lot more than a few clicks to make it feel that way, don't get me wrong I think its faster booting and the improvements under the hood are good but in relation to the over all use and flexibility of using the os its not up to scratch. I think my windows removing the Start orb they want it to make it more fluid but by doing so its lacking functionality in my opinion off course.

[johnporter29]

bAsKeT cAsE, on 12 March 2012 - 09:41, said:

didnt you hear? If you don't agree that windows 8 is awesome then you're a flamebating troll, who doesnt understand technology, afraid of change, and is just like all the people who said windows vista was horrible.


If you have to read a tutorial or watch a video on how to do basic tasks on anything, then its not intuitive at all.

the way windows is now is far more intuitive. You can easily find your way around the desktop.for example, all this guy would've had to do to open the start page in windows 7 and previous versions is to click the start button/icon. Simple. I know he could've simply hit the windows key on his keyboard, but that's not really being too intuitive now is it?
We all know that button is only there to screw up our full screen games

That is not what I was implying by my post. The intuitiveness of Windows 8 has been discussed to a pulp in at least 2 other threads on here, why do we need another thread that what will just end up been same. That's all I was trying to say.

On topic: I believe once everybody sits down in front of Windows 8 for themselves, forgetting everything they have read on here or been told by others, that they will actually realise that Windows 8 isn't as bad as people make out to be.

[+devHead]

This video should be shown to Sinofsky and the rest of the Windows Dev Team. Why in the world remove the familiar Start button and make it so you have to hover your mouse in corners to discover how to access the rest of the UI. That's just retarded if you ask me. To say nothing of the fact that it was still jarring to me to be switching between the Start screen and the Desktop, even after a week of using it. I don't know; maybe I need to give it a couple of months. But making nothing discoverable and the Start screen having no visible cue of how to return to it from the Desktop unless you hover your mouse in the bottom left corner (but why would you ever do that? the Start button is no more) or in the top right hand corner to display the 'Charms' bar (a UI feature that has never existed before and gives no indication on first use that such a thing even exists). Kind of insane.

[+unabatedshagie]

bAsKeT cAsE, on 12 March 2012 - 09:41, said:

didnt you hear? If you don't agree that windows 8 is awesome then you're a flamebating troll, who doesnt understand technology, afraid of change, and is just like all the people who said windows vista was horrible.


If you have to read a tutorial or watch a video on how to do basic tasks on anything, then its not intuitive at all.

the way windows is now is far more intuitive. You can easily find your way around the desktop.for example, all this guy would've had to do to open the start page in windows 7 and previous versions is to click the start button/icon. Simple. I know he could've simply hit the windows key on his keyboard, but that's not really being too intuitive now is it?
We all know that button is only there to screw up our full screen games

Problem is "normal" users like him and many others don't use the keyboard for things like that. They use the mouse for almost everything. Like selecting text, you or I would probably hold shift and use the arrow keys to select text where as they will take their hands off the keyboard and use the mouse to select the text then press the delete key.

I've heard people say "use Alt+F4 to shutdown windows" as their reply when people say the shutdown button is hidden but IMO most "normal" users don't even know that Alt+F4 can be used to close programs let alone access shutdown when the desktop is the main focus.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

Quote

Now who' put this on?
The Microsoft.
They are trying to drive me to Mac

But seriously, just hit the Windows key on Keyboard. That is what you are supposed to do when you are lost