Blurring the boundaries
Translation of the article: Blurring of Dmitry Fadeyev (Usabilitypost.com).
Jacob Nielsen published the Windows 8 Condemnatory Usability Report. Key issues are highlighted below:
Nielsen concludes that the new Microsoft operating system is terrible for the PC and weak for the tablets, adding that the OS itself can be significantly improved on the tablet side with a few small updates.
As for the desktop version of the OS, here Nielsen is less optimistic:
A year ago, the author (UsabilityPost.ru, Dmitry Fadeev) already wrote about connecting two interfaces, Aero and Metro, and concluded that it was a mistake to try to combine mobile and desktop tasks into one. Each interface was designed specifically for its environment, where it would work best, so you should not combine them at all. Apple's strategy is to support two operating systems in parallel, iOS on mobile devices, and OS X on the desktop. And it works exceptionally well for them, so this way would not be exactly risky for a company like Microsoft, especially looking at its competitor going in that direction.
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Why did they do it? Why did they decide to combine the world of mobile and desktop devices into a single solution? There is a conjecture about how Microsoft sees the future of mobile computing. Instead of treating tablets and laptops as separate categories, they see them as one unit, as progress and movement towards thinner, lighter, and more mobile devices. Just as laptops surpassed desktop PCs in sales, they see how tablets overtake laptops. The device gets a touch-screen, it becomes thinner and lighter, loses a permanent keyboard. This path suggests that the tablet is an evolution of the computing device, but not a separate category of mobile devices.
If this is indeed the view on the market, which Microsoft has decided to adhere to, then Windows 8 is the answer to this question. This is a system that manages even more mobile devices that are not tablets or laptops, but two in one. This is the OS, which assumes that most of the calculations and actions will be performed on powerful tablets with a detachable keypad, rather than on laptops and desktops, as is happening today. This is an OS that wants to please everyone, to close all use cases and all markets. It blurs the boundaries between content creation and consumption, between mobile and desktop devices.
And this will work if the initial assumption that the tablets are an evolution of a laptop is true. But this is far from the case. The difference is not in the desktop / mobile level, and not in the difference between a laptop and a tablet, it is the difference between professional use (content creation) and simple / entertainment use (content consumption). While tablets are not always used only for content consumption, but their limitations (small screen and the lack of a physical keyboard) mean that this will be their main use.
Personal computers will not die just because there are more mobile devices on the market, they will remain in order to play their part. There is a clear boundary between the devices you use to create texts, program, edit photos, 3D designs, etc., and the devices you read, surf the Internet, watch videos or play games. And although the latter tasks can be performed both there and there, the first ones will always require an ordinary computer, and because of this, there will always be a need for an operating system tailored for these tasks.
The path to creating the right OS is not blurring the boundaries between PCs and tablets, but reinforcing the differences through a clear focus on using each of the device categories. The desktop OS should take advantage of the large space on the screen and the ability to precisely click the mouse cursor. Mobile OS should be optimized for small screens and finger presses. Desktop OS should focus on advanced users and multitasking, mobile - on the consumption of content. The environment and technical parameters for them are different, the tasks are different, therefore the solutions must be different.
There is no point in porting user interface optimized for mobile devices to desktop computers, nor is there any point in giving tablet users a standard desktop interface. Each interface was built and optimized for its tasks, and each is controlled by different methods. All that Microsoft is doing now is distributing tablets to people who want a PC, and giving PCs to people who want to buy a tablet. Due to the fact that there is no single device on the market that works perfectly for everything, there is no need to degrade usability by creating a hybrid UI.
Translated by: pushev.ru .
Jacob Nielsen published the Windows 8 Condemnatory Usability Report. Key issues are highlighted below:
- creating cognitive costs due to the need to manage two different workspaces: the Metro start screen and the old traditional desktop;
- lack of multiple windows in Metro applications;
- the difficulty of finding differences between buttons and labels in a flat Metro UI;
- low information density in Metro applications;
- the complexity of the differences between the dies of applications that show too much content rather than identify the application itself;
- complex, error-promoting gestures.
Nielsen concludes that the new Microsoft operating system is terrible for the PC and weak for the tablets, adding that the OS itself can be significantly improved on the tablet side with a few small updates.
I hope on windows 9 for mobile devices and tablets. As well as Windows 7 was “correctly made Vista”, most likely the touchscreen version of Windows 9 will be “correctly made Metro”.
As for the desktop version of the OS, here Nielsen is less optimistic:
The situation is much worse on ordinary personal computers, especially for all the standard work of office workers. And this is Microsoft’s key audience, and in fact they didn’t care about it, having designed an operating system devoid of the basic functionality of a PC in order to work better on devices with a smaller screen.
A year ago, the author (UsabilityPost.ru, Dmitry Fadeev) already wrote about connecting two interfaces, Aero and Metro, and concluded that it was a mistake to try to combine mobile and desktop tasks into one. Each interface was designed specifically for its environment, where it would work best, so you should not combine them at all. Apple's strategy is to support two operating systems in parallel, iOS on mobile devices, and OS X on the desktop. And it works exceptionally well for them, so this way would not be exactly risky for a company like Microsoft, especially looking at its competitor going in that direction.
')
Why did they do it? Why did they decide to combine the world of mobile and desktop devices into a single solution? There is a conjecture about how Microsoft sees the future of mobile computing. Instead of treating tablets and laptops as separate categories, they see them as one unit, as progress and movement towards thinner, lighter, and more mobile devices. Just as laptops surpassed desktop PCs in sales, they see how tablets overtake laptops. The device gets a touch-screen, it becomes thinner and lighter, loses a permanent keyboard. This path suggests that the tablet is an evolution of the computing device, but not a separate category of mobile devices.
If this is indeed the view on the market, which Microsoft has decided to adhere to, then Windows 8 is the answer to this question. This is a system that manages even more mobile devices that are not tablets or laptops, but two in one. This is the OS, which assumes that most of the calculations and actions will be performed on powerful tablets with a detachable keypad, rather than on laptops and desktops, as is happening today. This is an OS that wants to please everyone, to close all use cases and all markets. It blurs the boundaries between content creation and consumption, between mobile and desktop devices.
And this will work if the initial assumption that the tablets are an evolution of a laptop is true. But this is far from the case. The difference is not in the desktop / mobile level, and not in the difference between a laptop and a tablet, it is the difference between professional use (content creation) and simple / entertainment use (content consumption). While tablets are not always used only for content consumption, but their limitations (small screen and the lack of a physical keyboard) mean that this will be their main use.
Personal computers will not die just because there are more mobile devices on the market, they will remain in order to play their part. There is a clear boundary between the devices you use to create texts, program, edit photos, 3D designs, etc., and the devices you read, surf the Internet, watch videos or play games. And although the latter tasks can be performed both there and there, the first ones will always require an ordinary computer, and because of this, there will always be a need for an operating system tailored for these tasks.
The path to creating the right OS is not blurring the boundaries between PCs and tablets, but reinforcing the differences through a clear focus on using each of the device categories. The desktop OS should take advantage of the large space on the screen and the ability to precisely click the mouse cursor. Mobile OS should be optimized for small screens and finger presses. Desktop OS should focus on advanced users and multitasking, mobile - on the consumption of content. The environment and technical parameters for them are different, the tasks are different, therefore the solutions must be different.
There is no point in porting user interface optimized for mobile devices to desktop computers, nor is there any point in giving tablet users a standard desktop interface. Each interface was built and optimized for its tasks, and each is controlled by different methods. All that Microsoft is doing now is distributing tablets to people who want a PC, and giving PCs to people who want to buy a tablet. Due to the fact that there is no single device on the market that works perfectly for everything, there is no need to degrade usability by creating a hybrid UI.
Translated by: pushev.ru .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/159727/
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