Microsoft Vista: A Usability Problem

MICROSOFT VISTAA USABILITY PROBLEM?

Cate Huston

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

PopularityMore than 20 million copies in the first month

Double XP

Really?

Market Share

Counting

July 2007: Revenue predictions downgraded

85% to 78%


You Can Still Buy XPHP, July 2008: Majority of Business PCs come with a Vista Business License

... and XP Pre-loaded

Dell, October 2008: “Windows Vista® BONUS”

... also known as XP (and option to upgrade)

Netbooks

... can’t run Vista


I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC

Microsoft concerned about Mac comparisons from 2005

Apple capitalized on this with their “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” ads

Microsoft created some “bizarre” ads featuring Seinfeld and Bill Gates himself in response

Widely derided in the blogsphere


Usability Guidelines and Implications

Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?

Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?

Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?

Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?

Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

Utility, Neilsen: “It matters little that something is easy if it's not what you want. It's also no good if the system can hypothetically do what you want, but you can't make it happen because the user interface is too difficult”


Taking a Broader View of Usability

Strong business case for usable software

What about usability to the people who install and maintain?

Consumability: “a successful product should provide value quickly and painlessly after its acquisition”

Installation

Migration

Training

Testing


Quality Components of Usability: Learnability

Training

Length of time

Number of trainers

Big effect on cost-effectiveness

Deployment and Networking


Quality Components of Usability: Efficiency

Businesses invariably want to increase productivity

OS is not task orientated; difficult to measure and quantify the effect on productivity

Likely to vary dramatically, e.g. Search

Repair and Diagnosis

Set-up

Importance depends on stability of network

Cost


Quality Components of Usability: Memorability

Should not be a big issue, except for:

Long period of leave, sabbatical or maternity

If running two OSes in parallel

Increasing or fluctuating networks

Installation

Infrequent but rapid expansions


Quality Components of Usability: Errors

Does the average user know what the OS does?

Errors are likely to intimidate them

Support for errors, help desk etc

Business costs associated with this

Could cause delays in time-sensitive or business-critical tasks

Installation, Networking, User Errors


Quality Components of Usability: Satisfaction

Little impact on business costs


Quality Components of Usability: Utility

An OS does not do what users need, i.e. it has poor utility if:

Bespoke / non-standard software does not work

Peripherals do not work

It runs so slowly that productivity is impacted.

Can the vast majority of users can do everything they need to do?

Running a dual system


Quality Components of Usability: Implications

Usability problems compounded in this broader context

Peripheral Drivers

Running a Dual System

Distinguish between Business Usability and Cost effectiveness

Usability problems have implications to cost


Ubiquity

A computer in every home?

January 2007: 65% of Americans spent more time with their home computer than their spouse

By 2011 every 7-19 year old in England will have access to broadband internet at home

Broad spectrum of users

Hard to categorize


Home Users

What is an “average user”?

Basic level of computer literacy

Read and send email, use the web, write papers

Mostly used to access the internet

Cloud computing

Netbooks


Home Users: Problems“Complex” things

Error messages

XP

DRM

Need a new computer to run Vista

UK Times, 2006: “fewer than 5% of UK households would have a sufficiently powerful PC to run the full version of Ultimate”

Alternatives


GamersGames

Performance

Graphics Intensive

Graphics chip, video card, processor(s)

Modding

Sound and performance issues

Alternatives: consoles


Power Users“A power user is a user of a personal computer who can use advanced features of programs which are outside the expertise of "normal" users, yet is not capable of advanced, non application-oriented tasks like programming and may or may not be capable of system administration.”

Chris Pirillo: 52 minutes

Lots of software

Specific needs and expectations

Computer is “crucial” to work


Power Users: ProblemsPersonalized set-up

Time consuming

Applications and peripherals, not a programmer

Pirillo: “I can't live in Vista if the software that I use in my life for productivity does not work”

Feedback ignored, Pirillo: “Microsoft Windows completely abandoned its power users, period”

5 years of XP

Alternatives


BusinessesMany types of user

Wide range of computer-literacy levels

Broad set of problems

Problems compounded

Bespoke or industry-specific applications

The person who sets up the computer is not the person who uses it.


CostsDecember 2006: half the average business PCs would not run the lower end versions of Vista

6% would run Vista premium

RAM upgrades

Continental: configured to look like XP

Intel: “no compelling case for adopting Vista”

IBM: move to Linux

Some companies skipping Vista: not recommended


Pricing and CompetitionAmazon

Prices down by an average of 17.9%

Business: cut in excess of 30%

Speed up adoption after SP1

China: only 244 sold in the first two weeks

Governments move to OS because of pricing

India, France, Munich


Improving the User Experience

Windows 95

Iteration, rapid prototyping, user testing

“There’s a lot to like”

Security, power, performance, graphics, wireless networking, search...

But...

“Favoring security and IT controls over end user productivity”

High system requirements, User Account Control, secure desktop, networking, start menu design, versions and prices, lack of originality

Poor UI design, insufficiently thought through features and changes


Not Improving the User Experience

Software Protection Platform

Unscrupulous resellers

Server Outage

Mojave

Improve perception, rather than UE

“Vista Capable”

“$2,100 email machine”

Development has not progressed with expectations


Security

Secure Development Life Cycle

Conflicting reports

Norman: “The more thorough the demands of security, the less secure the result”

Compromises on security to improve usability

Avoid annoying the user to the point they disable it.


User Account Control“And take User Account Control (UAC), please. No seriously, please take it. And kill it. And stomp on its dead body. And then hang it on a flag pole as a warning to others”

Response to real problems

Toned down to reflect usability issues

Similar to the Mac security password prompt

Keep users safe, not punish


User Account Control Issues

Designed to “annoy users”

UAC can prevent applications from running

Is it usable?

Positive review: twice a day

Is it secure?

Social engineering

Invisibly secure


ConclusionsMany improvements, including in usability

Poor consumability

Poor perception spread virally

Lack of momentum above standard resistance to change

Competition and implications

Recession


Back to the Average User

Do we know who the average user is?

Does Microsoft?


References

Full paper and reference list available at: http://vista.kitty.letterboxes.org/


http://vista.kitty.letterboxes.org

http://vista.kitty.letterboxes.org

Microsoft Vista: A Usability Problem

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Transcript of Microsoft Vista: A Usability Problem