Microsoft’s Vista Sold Poorly Because it Primarily Focussed on New Users
Microsoft, PC World and other large vendors are seemingly obsessed with winning over new users – the ‘one that got away’ strategy. Targeting new users is all very well, but what about the huge majority of people who use PCs every day and although not ‘expert’ – certainly understand how to use them. Even their adverts are cliché ridden, the experts are children and anyone above teen years is presented patronisingly as someone remedial – “Look at me, I just sent an email!”
Facebook has 250 million users and a huge number of them aren’t 7 year-olds, programming the home entertainment system. Most of them are just normal users who’ve been using a computer in the workplace for over 15 years and shouldn’t need to start at the beginning when a new operating system is released.
Touch Screens Have Operational Drawbacks
After Vista, part of me dreads what Microsoft has cooked up in the interim. There was much talk last time about ‘touch-screens’ in the workplace – and Windows 7 has touch support built in. Seriously. Has Bill Gates watched ‘Minority Report’? The computers in that vision of the future, seemingly drew inspiration from the distant past. Tom Cruise physically manhandling linked data on an enormous HUD, like he had a fat-burning DVD to shift. Just doing a few simple queries would have all but the fittest, catching their breath. No – the whole purpose of the mouse and keyboard shortcuts is that they require minimum movement to achieve a task. Switching to a touch-screen suggests aching arms held up to a screen – the amount of input effort would go up, as would errors from keying in. Compared to a mouse pointer or cross-hair, fingers are unwieldy and cumbersome. The Microsoft device that answers this problem is a horizontal screen called Microsoft Surface, which retails between $5-10k. I can’t see it flying off the shelves. The other option is a touch input device, where multiple gesture and pressure points can be clustered – rather like the chords on a piano keyboard. Which is fine – but yet again – the emphasis is to introduce something new and force returning users to start at the beginning again. I don’t want to learn a new input method, in the same way I don’t want to learn how to drive again, every time manufacturers release a new model of car.
Vista Sales Issues
I’m not alone here. Sales of Vista, didn’t so much stall, as never really achieve take off. There is tremendous resistance from users to upgrade, based on two factors. Firstly, that current users understand the idiosyncrasies of XP and know how to get a job done with that OS. Microsoft acknowledged this when the reintroduced it for retail on new PCs, a year after Vista’s release. The second factor is poor feedback from Vista adopters. The layout of files is confusing, finding everything through a ‘search’ window is not to everyone’s taste, having to re-affirm every time you run a program that you really want to run it (unless you turn that facility off). In fact – turning off lots of the default features of Vista is the best way to appreciate it. By any stretch of the imagination, this surely does not represent ‘successful’ software development?
It’s very easy to criticise, without offering another solution – so what am I proposing?
Solutions
Look at games software manufacturers. One of the reasons they’re so profitable is that they go to enormous lengths to both – entice new users AND pay attention to returning users, experienced in the genre. It’s not just three – beginner, medium and expert levels, but rich and sophisticated multimedia tutorials with interactivity built in (press the flashing button now) that walk you through the interface. Tasks are calved into manageable chunks and there’s a visual roadmap, to show how far you’ve progressed.
When I start using a new operating system I want to bring skills with me. I want my early settings to take note of what I already know and understand that I want to add to this, as I progress. Improvements should be tweaks to tasks, not concept sea-changes. Vista was a harsh business lesson in understanding that the core market of Windows is not the new user, but the competent, returning user. The ‘Without Walls’ adverts support Microsoft’s supposed vision of what users want – software with unlimited potential.
I beg to differ and don’t think this is what users want at all. They want the transition between an upgrade to be as short as possible, with some improved features added. In the same way that someone buying a new Ford has gained a modicum of insight and flair for driving the car, by the time they’ve driven it home from the showroom.
Patrick Seery Further articles @: Copyright © Patrick Seery You have permission to publish this article electronically, free of charge, on the condition that the author bylines are included, without alteration.
Paper Tiger Website Design
for Web Design, SEO.
My Computing Blog
No related posts.
