November 22, 2012 at 10:33Erasing Borders
Translation of the article: Blurring of the lines by Dmitry Fadeyev (Usabilitypost.com).
Jacob Nielsen has published a condemning usability report for Windows 8. Key issues are highlighted below:
Nielsen concludes that Microsoft’s new operating system is terrible for PCs and weak for tablets, adding that the OS itself can be significantly improved on the tablet side with a few minor updates.
As for the desktop version of the OS, Nielsen is less optimistic:
A year ago, the author (UsabilityPost.ru, Dmitry Fadeev) already wrote about connecting two interfaces, Aero and Metro, and concluded that it was a mistake to try to combine mobile and desktop tasks into a single whole. Each interface was designed specifically for its environment, where it would work best, so it’s absolutely not worth combining them. Apple's strategy is to support two operating systems in parallel, iOS on mobile devices, and OS X on desktops. And this works exceptionally well for them, so this path would definitely not be risky for a company like Microsoft, especially looking at its competitor going in that direction.
Why did they do this? Why did they decide to combine the world of mobile and desktop devices into a single solution? There is a hunch about how Microsoft sees the future of mobile computers. Instead of considering tablets and laptops as separate categories, they see them as one, as progress and movement towards thinner, lighter and more mobile devices. Just as laptops outperformed desktop PCs in sales, they see tablets overtaking laptops. The device receives a touch screen, it becomes thinner and lighter, loses a permanent keyboard. This path suggests that the tablet is an evolution of a computing device, but not a separate category of mobile devices.
If this is really the view of the market that Microsoft decided to adhere to, then Windows 8 is the answer to this question. This is a system that manages even more mobile devices that are not tablets or laptops, but combine two into one. This is the OS, which assumes that most of the calculations and actions will be performed on powerful tablets with a detachable keyboard, rather than on laptops and desktop PCs, as is happening today. This is an OS that wants to please everyone, close all use cases and all markets. It blurs the boundaries between content creation and consumption, between mobile and desktop devices.
And this will work if the initial assumption that tablets are the evolution of a laptop is true. But this is far from the case. The difference is not in the desktop / mobile level, nor in the difference between a laptop and a tablet; it consists in the differences between professional use (content creation) and simple / entertaining use (content consumption). So far, tablets are not always used only for the consumption of content, but their limitations (small screen and lack of a physical keyboard) mean that this will be their main use case.
Personal computers will not die just because there are more mobile devices on the market, they will remain in order to play their part. There is a clear line between the devices that you use to create texts, programming, photo editing, 3D design, etc., and the devices on which you read, surf the Internet, watch videos or play games. And although the latter tasks can be performed both there and there, the former will always require a regular computer, and because of this, there will always be a need for an operating system that is sharpened for these tasks.
The path to creating the right OS is not to blur the boundaries between PCs and tablets, but to enhance the differences through a clear focus on the use of each category of devices. The desktop OS should take advantage of the large screen space and the ability to precisely click the mouse cursor. Mobile OS should be optimized for small screens and finger taps. Desktop OS should focus on advanced users and multitasking, mobile - on the consumption of content. The environment and technical parameters for them are different, the tasks are different, therefore the solutions must be different.
There is no point in porting a mobile-friendly user interface to desktop computers, just as there is no point in giving the tablet users a standard desktop interface. Each interface was built and optimized for its tasks, and each is controlled by different methods. All Microsoft is doing right now is handing out tablets to people who want a PC, and giving PCs to people who want to buy a tablet. Due to the fact that there is no single device on the market that works great for everything, there is no need to degrade usability by creating a hybrid UI.
Translation made by: pushev.ru .
Jacob Nielsen has published a condemning usability report for Windows 8. Key issues are highlighted below:
- creating cognitive costs due to the need to manage two different workspaces: the Metro start screen and the old traditional desktop;
- lack of multi-windowing in Metro applications;
- difficulty finding differences between buttons and tags in the flat Metro UI;
- low information density in Metro applications;
- the complexity of the differences between application dice that show too much content than the application itself identifies;
- complex, error-promoting gestures.
Nielsen concludes that Microsoft’s new operating system is terrible for PCs and weak for tablets, adding that the OS itself can be significantly improved on the tablet side with a few minor updates.
I hope on Windows 9 for mobile devices and tablets. Just as Windows 7 was “correctly done by Vista”, most likely the touchscreen version of Windows 9 will be “correctly made by Metro”.
As for the desktop version of the OS, Nielsen is less optimistic:
The situation is much worse on ordinary personal computers, especially for all the standard work of office workers. And this is Microsoft’s key audience, and in fact they didn’t give a damn about it, designing an operating system devoid of the basic PC functionality in order to work better on devices with a smaller screen.
A year ago, the author (UsabilityPost.ru, Dmitry Fadeev) already wrote about connecting two interfaces, Aero and Metro, and concluded that it was a mistake to try to combine mobile and desktop tasks into a single whole. Each interface was designed specifically for its environment, where it would work best, so it’s absolutely not worth combining them. Apple's strategy is to support two operating systems in parallel, iOS on mobile devices, and OS X on desktops. And this works exceptionally well for them, so this path would definitely not be risky for a company like Microsoft, especially looking at its competitor going in that direction.
Why did they do this? Why did they decide to combine the world of mobile and desktop devices into a single solution? There is a hunch about how Microsoft sees the future of mobile computers. Instead of considering tablets and laptops as separate categories, they see them as one, as progress and movement towards thinner, lighter and more mobile devices. Just as laptops outperformed desktop PCs in sales, they see tablets overtaking laptops. The device receives a touch screen, it becomes thinner and lighter, loses a permanent keyboard. This path suggests that the tablet is an evolution of a computing device, but not a separate category of mobile devices.
If this is really the view of the market that Microsoft decided to adhere to, then Windows 8 is the answer to this question. This is a system that manages even more mobile devices that are not tablets or laptops, but combine two into one. This is the OS, which assumes that most of the calculations and actions will be performed on powerful tablets with a detachable keyboard, rather than on laptops and desktop PCs, as is happening today. This is an OS that wants to please everyone, close all use cases and all markets. It blurs the boundaries between content creation and consumption, between mobile and desktop devices.
And this will work if the initial assumption that tablets are the evolution of a laptop is true. But this is far from the case. The difference is not in the desktop / mobile level, nor in the difference between a laptop and a tablet; it consists in the differences between professional use (content creation) and simple / entertaining use (content consumption). So far, tablets are not always used only for the consumption of content, but their limitations (small screen and lack of a physical keyboard) mean that this will be their main use case.
Personal computers will not die just because there are more mobile devices on the market, they will remain in order to play their part. There is a clear line between the devices that you use to create texts, programming, photo editing, 3D design, etc., and the devices on which you read, surf the Internet, watch videos or play games. And although the latter tasks can be performed both there and there, the former will always require a regular computer, and because of this, there will always be a need for an operating system that is sharpened for these tasks.
The path to creating the right OS is not to blur the boundaries between PCs and tablets, but to enhance the differences through a clear focus on the use of each category of devices. The desktop OS should take advantage of the large screen space and the ability to precisely click the mouse cursor. Mobile OS should be optimized for small screens and finger taps. Desktop OS should focus on advanced users and multitasking, mobile - on the consumption of content. The environment and technical parameters for them are different, the tasks are different, therefore the solutions must be different.
There is no point in porting a mobile-friendly user interface to desktop computers, just as there is no point in giving the tablet users a standard desktop interface. Each interface was built and optimized for its tasks, and each is controlled by different methods. All Microsoft is doing right now is handing out tablets to people who want a PC, and giving PCs to people who want to buy a tablet. Due to the fact that there is no single device on the market that works great for everything, there is no need to degrade usability by creating a hybrid UI.
Translation made by: pushev.ru .