journal

One of the craziest trends I witnessed in the web development world was that the end user doesn’t matter.  It’s usually, whatever the client wants, whatever budget allows, whatever new feature the programmer can add, etc.  No one ever said, well how would the end user feel.  Mainly because no one represented the end user in the slew of meetings and planning sessions.  Microsoft specifically was notorious for this.  Microsoft had a company full of programmers and not a designer in sight.  And as it grew, the programmers were in command of the ship and had steered it so far off course its now a serious internal problem to get it back.  Apple on the other hand, has designers at the helm and its success is showing.

So Microsoft decided that when it was time to revamp their OS they hired a team of UX professionals.  But even the UX professionals that they hired couldn’t control the onslaught of features coming from all of the teams of the teams that make up the entirety of the Microsoft platform.  The designers even seem to be focused on the redesign and the look rather than the improvement of the experience.  The overall push to make an OS that was better than anything out there created a slew of features that bombarded the user and forced him/her to relearn and upgrade their computers compounding the general annoyance of just being ‘new’.

Instead of focusing on improving core tasks and productivity gains, Vista designers choose to insert eye candy in the form of Aero.  And Aero itself actually compounds the annoyance factor by degrading performance.  Operating systems in general should be lightweight and easy to manage.  Vista should have included better window and desktop management, not a redesigned window. 

The Office redesign compounded the problems even further.  The Ribbon interface was a big leap taken at the same time Vista was being released.  It forces you to relearn how Office works entirely which is a big deal for any business trying to roll out the product.  The first rule in UX design is that software applications should never need to be taught.  A caveman should know how to use it.

The overall performance in Vista is poor, boot times are still too long, basic file copying takes forever, Outlook freezes up and doesn’t respond.  These problems should have been addressed before hitting the market.  A big sloppy OS will not make it in a world a light unix based operating systems.

And the biggest complaint in the UX field is used more in Vista than in XP, dialogs.  Dialogs and message balloons are everywhere telling the user in cryptic technical terms that they’re idiots.  The biggest complaint comes from the User Account Control.  Everytime the OS accesses information that  isn’t a part of your access rights, a dialog asks you for permission.  The OS should know my permission.  Why is it asking me for permission?

So in general, if you make any form of software for computers, if you’re in the software development field in any aspect, always consider the user.  Always consult your UX pro for guidance.  Their is an incredible amount of research and best practices when it comes to UX design and the general understanding and psychology of the end users.  In the end, your users will appreciate the time and effort you took to help them accomplish their tasks quickly and easily.