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+ - Recycling a single software UI makes Windows 8 a productivity eating "monster"->

Submitted by rtfa-troll
rtfa-troll (1340807) writes "Usability expert Jakob Nielsen has a detailed posting on Windows 8 Metro UI (sometimes called "Modern"). The article goes through the design mistakes which "strangles [the user's] productivity" and talks about the "Error-Prone Gestures" with "swipe ambiguity" included in Windows and discovered with only a limited level of usability testing. He then goes on to say that, whilst it is possible that 'Windows 9 will be "Metro Done Right"', "Windows 8 is Mr. Hyde: a monster that terrorizes poor office workers" and that the fundamental unsolvable problem is "the idea of recycling a single software UI for two very different classes of hardware devices." The saddest part of the article? Jakob is a well respected academic and when he previously criticised usability in iPad apps, one year later most of those apps had improved based on that feedback; reaction from Android was similar. In his criticism of Windows 8 he actually had to include a section "I Don't Hate Microsoft" through fear of being accused of being a "fanboy or a Microsoft hater". Will Microsoft listen or is it stuck in the echo chamber of it's online reputation managers?"
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