On 28 Jun 2007, at 06:25, J. Landman Gay wrote:
Scott Kane wrote:
The way most Mac users interface with their desktop is very different
to how Windows users do it.
I'm interested in learning more about this, being mostly Mac-oriented
myself. Could you (or anyone) sketch out what you see as the
differences in behavior and general usage between the platforms?
Developers will tell you their believes, but users will tell you what
they need. I'd argue you should never ask other developers about their
UI preferences, but listen very closely to the stories they tell, about
when the users of their products "didn't get it". Because the user is
never wrong, it's always the product, and thus the developers (or the
deadlines) fault.
As an example, one of these silly stories is this:
A user gets told to move the mouse on the screen to the start button,
and the user lifts up the mouse, and positions it in the corner of the
screen. Programmers laugh at this behaviour, but it's a prime example
of diverging knowledge base, and therefore a fault of the product not
communicating how it works well enough (and also of the instructor
overestimating the knowledge of the user).
In my experience with "Normal" users, so not programmer, hardcore
gamers, or OS advocates, the usage does not differ much, if at all.
Users do not understand folders:
These users do not use folders, and do not want to use them. They have
Office (sometimes just Word), some pre installed browser and the e-Mail
application on their desktop. If you delete these
aliases/links/shortcuts, they'll call support.
Users do not understand files:
These users do double click files, and deem them broken if nothing
happens, or an application chooser pops up. They do not know what makes
a image file an image file, and they do not know or care for the subtle
differences between plain text and word documents.
Users do not understand any GUI object:
To the user everything is a file, or a button. So they double click
everything, or single click everything, resulting in unexpected
behaviour.
Users use what they have to, but not more:
These users do not want to use the computer, they want to get things
done. So they write their word documents like with a typewriter: Adding
spaces to intend, using existing documents as templates, and being
overwhelmed if these "templates" use invisible settings like document
wide font defaults that overwrite their own font settings.
So no matter which existing UI paradigm you use, these users will feel
uncomfortable, and not at home with it. On the other hand, you can sit
a user in front of a computer, and hold their hand in baby steps for a
few years (or much more, depending on age). After that, they will get
used to the GUI they are using, and then only despise other GUI
approaches, as these other OSes clearly are doing it wrongly.
But of course I am a developer, and you shouldn't listen to me.
Björnke
--
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http://chatrev.bjoernke.com
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