Windows 8.1

[setishock]

I think it's more about change than laziness. If you were a Windows 95 user who suffered an unfortunate accident that left you in a coma for 15 years, you would have minimal issues navigating the UI of Windows 7 when you came out.

I have to agree with this train of thought and add if it works don't fix it.

The new interface forces users to re-learn how to use their computers. The interface is great if you're using a touch device, however if you're bound to a keyboard and mouse, it leaves a lot to be desired.

If used in a business environment Win 8 thrown at staff used to XP or Vista or Win7 can be disastrous. Time is money in any business and having to waste time training staff how to use a new operating system is time wasted. Some may never get the hang of it.

I just don't understand the logic of taking my cellphone interface and trying to make it work on my computer. I'm not lazy by any means but hesitant to throw in the towel on what I know works for me to blindly leap on the, sarcastically speaking, "New and Improved" bandwagon.

 

[BikerEcho]

Do you honestly think that right-click context menu is what people have in mind when they whine about the missing Start button?

can't believe you think i am that stupid. ofcause not. i was simply pointing it out.
i actually don't mind that there is no classic start menu. i can do everything i need from the right click menu.
and the search has been improved and looks good. so i don't mind really.

 

[strollin]

... The new interface forces users to re-learn how to use their computers. ...

I would go further than this and say that it requires users to actually learn how to use their computers (or at least learn how Windows works). It isn't re-learning if they never knew how to use their computer in the first place.

I see people on various forums whining about Win 8 but in reality it isn't that Win 8 is so bad, it's that they don't know how to use Windows.

As an example, a common complaint I see about Win 8 is that someone says something like, "I double-click on a picture file in a folder and it opens full screen and won't let me view the next picture in the folder." This is due to Win 8 defaulting to the Metro picture app instead of the Windows Photo Viewer. I tell people if they don't like the Metro app then set the default to use a different app (like Photo Viewer) but since they never learned how to use Windows in the first place, they don't have a clue how to do that so they have to be walked thru that process step-by-step.

 

[setishock]

But why do you have to jump through all those hoops?
See this is the point some are trying to make. Why all the changes from the default to some crummy app? People get use to an operating system working in one manner then have to learn all the nuances of another one.
And most people that use computers are in the class "End User". They are clueless what's under the hood. They want to just twist the key and it runs. The more complex you make an operating system the less people will want to use it. KISS works, trust me. The easier the front and back end is to use, the more users get attracted to it.
As far as I am concerned W8 got too complicated for "End Users" to understand. Folks like us don't have those sort of problems understanding how things work and what it takes to set it up.
Me? With what little time I've been involved in a system running W8, I don't care for it one bit. And it's not that I'm lazy or clueless. W8 to me is an experiment that's being run on us, at our expense, to see if the public will go for it. As far as I'm concerned the programmers at MS need to lay off the peyote button tea and switch to pot. More mellow minds make better programmers.

 

[strollin]

What could be simpler then having a big tile on the screen that all you have to do is touch?

For someone that is strictly an end user, the simplistic Start screen of Win 8 is just about as turn key as you can get. The problem is that they are used to something more difficult that they didn't understand in the first place.

I certainly don't know what the answer is, most people that have a Windows machine seem to be able to pick up on how to use an iOS phone or Android phone without too much difficulty. Why do they seem to have so much trouble with the Win 8 interface?

 

[BikerEcho]

to me win8 is kinda a miss match of 2 very different UI's bounded together in a cluster fuck.
i like most of the changes they have done in the explore side, but adding that Tablet UI is just one of the dumbest things MS have done.

---------- Post added at 08:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:57 PM ----------

if they want to make it easier to find your programs, then take lesson from Ubuntu's categorized menu

 

[lhamil64]

What could be simpler then having a big tile on the screen that all you have to do is touch?

For someone that is strictly an end user, the simplistic Start screen of Win 8 is just about as turn key as you can get. The problem is that they are used to something more difficult that they didn't understand in the first place.

I certainly don't know what the answer is, most people that have a Windows machine seem to be able to pick up on how to use an iOS phone or Android phone without too much difficulty. Why do they seem to have so much trouble with the Win 8 interface?

The problem with this is that you need a touchscreen for it to be intuitive. Most people have a standard laptop or desktop without a touch screen, so they'll have issues because it's a UI designed for a touchscreen being used with a keyboard/mouse.

In my opinion, they should have made Windows RT just the metroUI and the standard Win8 version just the desktop.

 

[strollin]

The problem with this is that you need a touchscreen for it to be intuitive. Most people have a standard laptop or desktop without a touch screen, so they'll have issues because it's a UI designed for a touchscreen being used with a keyboard/mouse.

In my opinion, they should have made Windows RT just the metroUI and the standard Win8 version just the desktop.

If someone is capable of clicking on an icon with a mouse, why is it somehow unintuitive/more difficult to click on a tile with a mouse?

 

[dale]

I'll give one concrete example: not problem with the Tiles, but with the Market. At the moment the only way to browse through the Market without a touch screen is by scrolling -- not with an up and down motion, but left and right motion with the mouse to mimic a swipe-like motion. There is also no good search function. Clearly the designers had touch screen (only) in mind. This has nothing to do with getting used to change or being lazy, but just that the target audience for the design (touch screen devices) and the actual target audience (touch screen and non-touch screen devices) do not match.

 

[BikerEcho]

no other OS i can think of is doing something similar to the Metro UI, and i think there is a reason for that.
i know it's simple... but it just feels tablet like.