Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

[JorgeA]

Microsoft Bob was born out of a short-lived fad too: The "living room" shell, that was somewhat hypy between 1994-1996 in consumer "multimedia" PCs (but got rejected fast). If the current MS leadership would have been in place back then, they would have replaced the Windows GUI with Bob.

 

Good point. And no doubt they would have done exactly that. 

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Uh-oh:

 

Microsoft will unify Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox into ‘one converged operating system’

 

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella has confirmed that the next version of Windows, probably Windows 9, will unify the Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox operating systems into “one single converged operating system.”

 

Have they really learned nothing??

 

OTOH, maybe the news is not quite what it seems:

 

Nadella’s “one operating system” ain’t new and won’t be one OS

 

 

As such, the idea that the allegedly confusing set of operating systems is going to go away is ill-conceived. The names may change, but the differences won't; the operating systems will look different and support different applications, and we're highly unlikely to ever see x86 desktop applications running on ARM Windows Phones. From the practical end-user perspective, there are going to be just as many Microsoft operating systems as there ever were.

 

As long as the Desktop survives in a fully functional form and the UI deficiencies injected into it by Windows 8 get fixed, I'm cool with that.

 

--JorgeA

 

[JorgeA]

Lest anybody think that Russian officials are heroes for giving asylum to Edward Snowden:

 

Russian government offers money for identifying Tor users

 

The Russian Ministry of Interior is willing to pay 3.9 million roubles, or around US$111,000, for a method to identify users on the Tor network.

 

[...]

 

The Scientific Production Association for Special-Purpose Equipment and Communications of the Russian Interior Ministry is offering a contract for researching methods of obtaining technical information about users and user equipment on the Tor anonymous network, according to an entry on the Russian government's procurement portal.

 

And then there's this winning combo of journalistic impartiality and euphemism:

 

It's not clear what Tor de-anonymization would be used for, but the fact that the tender comes from the Russian Ministry of Interior suggests that it could serve law enforcement investigations.

 

 

Wonder what Snowden might be thinking now of his protectors.

 

--JorgeA

 

[jaclaz]

 

If you work in the, umm, adult film industry, then you can classify all that video watching on your tablet as "research." 

 

And maybe one could get away with it also saying that he is "looking in the existing market to evaluate the possibility of entering that business"

 

 

jaclaz

[JorgeA]

 

...or a university professor could be using his tablet to review adult videos for an article in a "cultural studies" academic journal.  

 

(I remember reading once that researchers had discovered that the measurements of Playboy Playmates tended to change along with the state of the economy.)

 

@NoelC: see how easy it is to get "real work" done on a tablet? 

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

In anti-surveillance news:

 

How to defeat facial-recognition machines and look like a rock star

 

The National Security Agency revelations from whistleblower Edward Snowden have produced a cottage industry of companies providing technological innovations that seek to defeat the NSA surveillance state.

 

The bulk of this effort is focused on encryption services that secure all manners of online communications from the NSA's prying eyes. But what about privacy in the non-virtual world?

 

Brooklyn artist Adam Harvey has developed a low-tech solution to protect your privacy—fashioned even before the Snowden revelations—using makeup and hairstyles he says could defeat facial-recognition machines. Privacy enthusiasts must be willing to look like Marilyn Manson or a rocker from Kiss, but this method just might make you safe from the facial-recognition technology that is being embraced by everything from sports stadiums to the FBI.

 

[source]

 

--JorgeA

 

[JorgeA]

Google asks for what they deny to others:

 

Google asks judge to keep Gmail privacy case docs secret, because only Google is entitled to privacy

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Another way that government surveillance jeopardizes democracy:

 

Surveillance Programs Hinder Journalists, Lawyers, Report Says

 

Large-scale U.S. surveillance programs hinder the ability of journalists to communicate confidentially with sources and restrain lawyers from adequately representing clients, according to a report issued Monday by two advocacy groups.

 

[...]

 

"Journalists and their sources, as well as lawyers and their clients, are changing their behavior in ways that undermine basic rights and corrode democratic processes," it said.

 

[...]

 

Public officials are less willing to have contact with the media than they were a few years ago, the report found. The surveillance programs hinder government officials' ability to remain anonymous when communicating with reporters, as phone calls and emails leave a digital trace that could later be used against them. This climate makes it harder for journalists to obtain and disseminate information about government activities, the report said.

 

--JorgeA

 

[JorgeA]

Looks like even supposedly sedate academia is suffering from Metroitis:

 

Breaking Web Design Conventions = Breaking the User Experience

 

Our finding: Minimalist and hidden navigation unanimously frustrated users and prevented them from finding information.

“I'm a college grad, and I had a hard time with this site. It would be so much easier if things would be where you think they would be. You have to hunt for everything.”

To give an idea of some of the trouble that users encountered when completing tasks, here were a few pain points:

• Many participants were not able to find the list of majors that the school offered. One user found the list once, but was unable to retrace his steps to find it again.

• Several participants were not able to find the cost of tuition.

• Several participants did not realize that the university offered their program of choice. (Sadly, this is consistent with our other research on university websites, which found that 48% of visitors on university websites did not realize that their program of choice was offered at that university. Every student who leaves your site mistakenly thinking that you don’t have a program for her is a missed opportunity— one with an enormous financial impact.)

These results can be mainly attributed to 3 aspects of Bucknell University’s navigation:

• Deep hierarchy and vague categories. Sites with deep hierarchies are usually more difficult for users than sites with moderately broad structures, as we know from research in Human-Computer Interaction. A deep hierarchy usually ends up with more generic labels at the top. By reducing the top-level navigation to only two categories, the Bucknell site forces users to choose between two vague labels (Start Exploring and The Everything Directory), which have no information scent: users cannot predict what they will get when they click on either of these.

[...]

 

Although hiding navigation can be a reasonable compromise for mobile, it does not work well for desktop: it makes content less discoverable, requires additional interaction cost for the users to view their menu options, and it increases cognitive load because users must recall what will become available if they call up the navigation options.

 

[...]

 

Reliance on search as primary navigation. With the trend of minimalist and clutter-free design, sometimes it is assumed that users prefer to search above all else. But often that’s not the case. Typically, people use search if they know exactly what they’re looking for, or if they cannot find something through browsing.

After using the site for a while, one prospective student explained,

"I would much prefer to click two or three things rather than having to always go to search and hope desperately that what I need comes up in the results.”

Search should only be the primary navigation for a website if the site’s main function is to be a search engine. For example, Google, Bing, and job search boards can all use this approach. But in the context of an information-heavy site like a university, browsing is essential for increasing discoverability of content.

Unfortunately, Bucknell’s search engine was not even very helpful for those participants that tried it. A parent typed “tution” instead of “tuition” and the search returned zero results. A different user searched for the phrase “Cost of going Bucknell,” and again, received no results related to tuition.

After they finished the activities that we gave them, people told us what they would improve about the site.Everybody complained about the navigation; they all wanted to see more categories.

 

[...]

 

Horizontal scrolling was rarely utilized. We know that users don’t like horizontal scrolling. Here, users were not forced to scroll sideways to view the content (fortunately), and most users did not click the arrows to view the rest of the content.

 

Well worth reading through this whole analysis by someone who evidently knows what he's talking about.

 

--JorgeA

 

[jaclaz]

Monsieur de La Palice - again.

A crappily designed site is crappy. <- not "news".

 

Call me "old" as much as you want, but I would additionally expect a University site to show yutes^[1] in a §@ç#ing class or laboratory, while being §@ç#ing busy at studying, listening to lessons or doing experiments.

 

The images of a bunch of guys/gals standing on a lawn or walking by the seashore reminds me more of "fun" or "entertainment", something that may do well for a kid's summer camp , but not for a place where you supposedly have to work (and work hard) for several years, and where the result of this hard work is likely to affect all your life's career.

 

As a side note, I would not enroll for - say - English Literature on a site that has:

 

I'm a proud alum

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alum

 

 

jaclaz

 

^[1] See: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104952/quotes?item=qt0404568

Edited July 31, 2014 by jaclaz

[Tripredacus]

Reliance on search as primary navigation. With the trend of minimalist and clutter-free design, sometimes it is assumed that users prefer to search above all else. But often that’s not the case. Typically, people use search if they know exactly what they’re looking for, or if they cannot find something through browsing.

Horizontal scrolling was rarely utilized. We know that users don’t like horizontal scrolling. Here, users were not forced to scroll sideways to view the content (fortunately), and most users did not click the arrows to view the rest of the content.

Hmmm a Microsoft Partner website recently was redesigned and has both of these problems. First is the horizontal scroll. The site was designed for this specifically... but only for main navigation and header/langing pages. Any actual content (for example, a link to advertising guidance) is then in your usual vertical layout.

And that site also is built very poorly. It was designed to be a one-stop-shop for information but it ends up having links to things that LOOK interesting (at least to me) but you get access denied message. One instance there was some update regarding Office 2013 lifecycle and I wanted to read it, but could not. I email the website support and they say I don't have access to that (duh) and I should USE THE SEARCH FIELD to find things as apparently THAT is smart enough to show me what I can actually click on rather than the menus. :\

I typically don't mind people trying new page layouts or navigation designs, I was doing things like that when I was making websites. When it interferes with my ability to get where I want to go, then there is a problem.

[JorgeA]

Call me "old" as much as you want, but I would additionally expect a University site to show yutes^[1]

 

^[1] See: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104952/quotes?item=qt0404568

 

 

That quote is pretty funny -- and appropriate!!

 

 

The images of a bunch of guys/gals standing on a lawn or walking by the seashore reminds me more of "fun" or "entertainment", something that may do well for a kid's summer camp , but not for a place where you supposedly have to work (and work hard) for several years, and where the result of this hard work is likely to affect all your life's career.

 

As a side note, I would not enroll for - say - English Literature on a site that has:

 

I'm a proud alum

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alum

 

 

I wonder how long before some clever alum and his lawyer sue the University for misleading advertising:

 

Your Honor, my client was led to believe by the Defendant's promotional materials, that his academic career there would consist of camping trips and sunny days boating at the lake. Who reads words?? We allege that my client's attention was maliciously and deliberately misdirected by the visual elements that dominate the promotional materials. Imagine his shock and disappointment when, after committing to this institution, arranging for his student loan to be paid there, and foregoing opportunities to attend other schools that year, my client arrived on campus and suddenly discovered that there would be actual mental work to be performed at a desk! We therefore seek damages for pain and suffering, as well as punitive damages to deter such deceptive advertising in the future.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Hmmm a Microsoft Partner website recently was redesigned and has both of these problems. First is the horizontal scroll. The site was designed for this specifically... but only for main navigation and header/langing pages. Any actual content (for example, a link to advertising guidance) is then in your usual vertical layout.

 

 

In your view, what will it take for designers to consider their users' ease and convenience when they're working on a website?

 

IMHO there is too much of a "F-U, take it or leave it" factor in Web (and browser and OS) design nowadays.

 

--JorgeA

[NoelC]

Somewhere, someone thinks that "old" is bad and "new" is good (they've dropped the pretense of "...and improved").

 

It's actually HARD to improve on some of the things the previous generation invented.  So instead of doing hard stuff, Microsoft is trying to set fashion and do things differently, in the hope that a great many rebellious youngsters will eschew the old and adopt the new because it's not the old.

 

Just ALL the old stuff scrolled vertically.  There was only one other way to go.

 

They're forgetting that everyone actually does grow up, sooner or later, and that the world is actually run by adults.

 

Fashion has nothing to do with operating systems.

 

-Noel

[jaclaz]

Just ALL the old stuff scrolled vertically.  There was only one other way to go.

 

Yes and no.

 

There is only one other way to go if you adopt an "old" convention, induced by the "old" square/rectangular shape of the display, which is very "old" since it derives by the shape of a sheet of paper that derives from the shape of waxed or clay tablets....

 

In a square/rectangular shape it is instinctive to "move" on the Surface (pardon me the pun ) along either a horizontal or vertical axes.

 

If they really wanted to make something new, they could have made a hexagonal (or triangular) display.

 

This would provide alternative scrolling ways that might result attractive to a great many rebellious youngsters ....

 

If the idea is to innovate, then do really new things.

 

jaclaz