As someone trying to view this from the view of an end user, Windows 8 is...ugh.
I've had people on the kool-aid say that whenever something is new, people will complain. It's inevitable.
To a degree that's true. For the average user trying to use an office suite for basic tasks, there is very little difference in functionality between products like Microsoft Office and LibreOffice, for example. You can create a basic document in either one with similar functionality.
However, I worked in a place that tried to save some budget dollars by switching users to LibreOffice, and you'd have thought they were being asked to volunteer slicing off a limb with a chainsaw, judging from the grumbling and complaints we received. In the end, we relented and installed the latest version of Office.
Which they still complained about because the ribbon interface looked different. Fortunately they didn't complain as much (perhaps because it was, after all, MS Office, which they were complaining that they wanted back? I didn't pursue this curiosity as at that point.)
Change is disconcerting, especially when it's for users who don't care about your product, they just want to get the core task done. It's not a matter of using Office or LibreOffice, he or she wants to write a memo.
So when you make changes, they should be positive changes. Perhaps most important, they should be discoverable changes. Windows 8's new interface failed in some fairly fundamental functions in this regard. It's good to make changes that increase your productivity; when features for basic functionality are improved, people will generally like the changes. In our previous example of LibreOffice and MS Office, people didn't so much complain at first, they were simply wary. The complaints would roll in as they couldn't find things they were used to using; the discoverability of a feature was lacking. How do I create three columns of text? How do I create pagination so that it doesn't number the first page? What do you mean I have to remember to "save as" if I send this to someone else or else they can't read it? WHY DOESN'T THIS WORK LIKE IT DID BEFORE?!
When confronted with Windows 8, I had some tiles staring back at me. Okay, I can click them to run those things. Even though I wasn't sure why I needed to know, by default, the weather. Or certain news stories from those particular news outlets. The new Windows was offending my personal sense of style in this regard; I don't like cluttering my desktop with things I'm not using. Acknowledge, and move on; I will have to get used to it.
But...how do I shut it off? There's no start button! (Or Windows button, or whatever they wanted to call it at this point.)
No menus. Nothing that told me how to do anything. It was like the computer just expected to always be on, always running, perhaps go to sleep when it decided to (which was another hidden setting, as I was never asked about power consumption or power saving behavior.)
Oh...I'm supposed to move to a corner to get a task menu. Or "swipe" with my mouse.
It was almost like this was some kind of some kind of tablet, or touchscreen-oriented interface.
I heard from one Microsoft employee that this was an intuitive interface; if you want a particular program, you just start typing the name and Windows will search for it. "You use Spotlight on OS X, don't you?"
Actually, I do. There are some programs I will type into the search box to find. It's become habit. I also have often-used programs kept in the dock for easy launching. However, I came to use the spotlight function because it was a little magnifying glass symbol in the corner. You click it, and a search box drops down. If I don't know what I'm looking for, I can open a Finder window and there's an "Applications" folder through which I can peruse contents. I learned how to do these things in part because I was used to similar paradigms of desktop computer use; the search box, application folders, etc. The interface evolved, and I could feel my way around the interface to figure out how to achieve basic tasks.
Windows 8 just dropped me in the middle of a damn city without any kind of map. Swiping with a mouse? Really? With Microsoft's long history of bending over backwards for compatibility, you'd think they'd have more sense than to create an interface that is basically aimed point blank at the touchscreen market. Reading an article on how to use Windows 8's new interface, approached from the perspective of the average desktop computer user, is an exercise in "What the hell were they thinking?"
To be told that the intuitive thing to do is type the name of the program or document I want, after Windows has been evolving for years to abstract the user from the keyboard as much as possible, was a fairly ridiculous assertion. Yet that's exactly the kool-aid they are drinking now.
None of it makes real sense. Apple was approached with the question of touch screen systems, and Steve Jobs dismissed it, saying, "It gives great demo but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. it doesn't work, it's ergonomically terrible." And he's right! How long could you use an interface requiring you to point at the screen before your arm becomes tired?
Instead, Apple adopted the multitouch touchpad as a stand-in for the touchscreen, confining touchscreens to horizontal handheld devices like the iPhone and iPad.
And Apple was very careful in their approach to this. They created what started as a somewhat kludgy new operating system, OS X. The framework of something good was there, but it took many refinements and updates before it was really usable and elegant. It was well matched to the desktop and notebook market.
When Apple came out with the iPhone/iPod Touch and the iPad, they created an operating system matched just to those devices. The interface felt kind of like a relation to OS X in some ways, but it was targeted for use on a device with limited screen estate and meant to be navigated with your fingers, not a mouse and keyboard. Separate, but complimentary. You can see that Apple developers are taking steps to integrate the operating system cousins with the introduction of features like Launchpad.
Distinct, but related.
Microsoft, with Windows 8, decided to say, "Screw it...we'll create one interface to rule them all!" Windows 8 is definitely a tablet interface and it shows; apologists are already seeking ways to re-enable previous interface features to make Windows 8 more like Windows 7.
"All you have to do is install this application and you get your menus back!," they say.
When you're looking for applications to mimic that previous behaviors, and it's coming from people who are traditionally early adopters of technology, I call that a bad sign.
Let's pretend Microsoft is leading a charge on tablet computing. They now released their latest sensation, the Surface. The buzz was tremendous! I couldn't ignore it if I wanted to. Now tech adopters are getting their hands on the Surface and...well, I can't say it's definitely bad, but there are some that are scratching their heads.
It seems to have some of the sluggishness of a 1.0 release. Quirks, if you will. And I'll dismiss them as being the same pain points that you would expect when a competitor is having to play catch-up. The device will speed up. It will get refined.
But again with the fundamentals in interface...I found one user that is fairly well versed in using technology, especially Microsoft technology, who had trouble configuring his email on the Surface because it dumped him at a blank screen with no visual cues of what to do. He went to Twitter to ask for some guidance!
When it's a basic function that leaves your users scratching their heads, you didn't do your homework. Subtle features can have an excused learning curve. Your users should not be left derpin' around trying to figure out how to use a mail client if they are the kind of user that doesn't cringe when prompted whether they are using an IMAP or POP account in the average mail client configuration wizard.
Worse than that, Microsoft Surface is debuting with Windows RT...a lookalike to Windows 8, but it's not Windows 8. It's not compatible.
Huh?
So it looks like the new Windows, acts in some ways like the new Windows, but it's not entirely compatible with the new Windows...but don't worry, because another version of the Surface is coming out and it will run Windows 8!
If the average consumer wasn't confused before...
I was willing to write off a lot of this as just growing pains. It's hardly rare for Microsoft to get beaten to the punch with a new technology and have to play catch-up by copying a competitor and eventually, over the course of several releases, "get it" and steamroll the competitors. But I wondered to what extent they would go to copy the competitor, in this case, the Apple and their iPad.
Apple is a special thorn for Microsoft. After all, they basically defined the personal digital music player market in the "post walk-man" era. Microsoft tried to copy them by creating the Zune, and finally they cried uncle and killed that product line. Now Microsoft wanted to create their iPad killer. How far would they go to market it?
I saw people buzzing on Twitter about a new Microsoft store in Times Square. All full of people trying to get the surface! Take THAT, Apple hipsters!
I found a blog posting that discussed going to a Microsoft Store pushing the Surface. The author was obviously not impressed, and he included pictures of the store that illustrated how much Microsoft was trying to clone the Apple store design.
Really?
Is this how far Microsoft has sunk? Their formula for success was to nearly CLONE their competitor? And worse, they created a lesser quality clone?
I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. I saw a picture of the Surface's box and it looked vaguely familiar...
EDIT: This blog post by Brent Ozar I think eloquently summed up my issues with the Surface and Windows RT release. He may be looking forward to the release of the Intel-based Surface with full-blown Windows 8, but the description of it makes it sound like a stripped down notebook computer or touchscreen netbook without the keyboard. That doesn't sound like a great tablet experience to me except for particular use cases...I wonder if there will be a lightning connector that will allow him to project presentations along with using his presentation clicker on an iPad Mini? But then again that would only work if he doesn't have to use PowerPoint...
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