Presentation I gave on a paper I wrote on Vista. Was the disappointment due to usability issues?

1. MICROSOFT VISTA
A USABILITY PROBLEM?
Cate Huston
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

2. Popularity
More than 20 million copies in the first month
Double XP
Really?
Market Share
Counting
July 2007: Revenue predictions downgraded
85% to 78%
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

3. You Can Still Buy XP
HP, 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

4. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

5. 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”
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

6. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

7. Quality Components of
Usability: Learnability
Training
Length of time
Number of trainers
Big effect on cost-effectiveness
Deployment and Networking
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

8. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

9. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

10. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

11. Quality Components of
Usability: Satisfaction
Little impact on business costs
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

12. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

13. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

14. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

15. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

16. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

17. Gamers
Games
Performance
Graphics Intensive
Graphics chip, video card, processor(s)
Modding
Sound and performance issues
Alternatives: consoles
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

18. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

19. Power Users: Problems
Personalized 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

20. Businesses
Many 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.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

21. Costs
December 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

22. Pricing and Competition
Amazon
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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

23. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

24. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

25. 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.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

26. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

27. 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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

28. Conclusions
Many improvements, including in usability
Poor consumability
Poor perception spread virally
Lack of momentum above standard resistance to
change
Competition and implications
Recession
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

29. Back to the Average User
Do we know who the average user is?
Does Microsoft?
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

30. References
Full paper and reference list available at:
http://vista.kitty.letterboxes.org/
Tuesday, October 13, 2009