Is Planet Earth ready for Windows 8?

Hype surrounding the imminent launch of Windows 8 has so far been dominated by reviews and expert opinion. But, with an estimated 70% of the world’s computers running Windows, we wanted to know what real consumers think of the operating system and how they will cope with the learning curve when they upgrade.

We observed 14 typical users as they interacted with Windows 8 for the first time. All were experienced with Windows, and covered a wide range of ages and ability levels. In sessions lasting from 20 to 30 minutes, we asked them to perform basic tasks such as browsing websites, using social media, sending emails and viewing photos.

If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to preview the system the first thing you will notice is the new user interface (UI) which includes a new style of full screen application and a new Start screen (pic below). Microsoft refer to this as ‘the Modern UI’.

It’s certainly a radical departure from the existing interface and has the potential to create an easier and more engaging experience. But it comes with a huge learning overhead, which we think is likely to slow down adoption of the new system. It may even present an opportunity for competitors to steal market share.

While our participants found the Modern UI fresh and attractive, the radical changes it introduces caused all of them significant problems. At the end of their session, none of our participants felt confident using the new interface.

One participant told us:
“I feel like a baby again. I can’t do anything, not even my very simple list of things like launch Internet Explorer, type in the address, open something in a tab and go to that tab and read it.”
 

No buttons, menus or toolbars

One principle of the new Microsoft design style is ‘Do more with less’. Designers are encouraged to ‘Solve for distractions, not discoverability … Create a clean and purposeful experience by leaving only the most relevant elements on screen so people can be immersed in the content.’

This approach leaves the interface largely free of the input boxes, buttons, menus and toolbars that are familiar to Windows users. Instead, the Modern UI puts the emphasis on the data that the user is interested in, and asks them to interact directly with that data (by tapping, clicking, etc.) to produce the result they want. It also moves common actions into what are called ‘app bars’, a ‘charms bar’ (pic right) and ‘hot corners’ that users must reveal to use.

These changes left many of our participants confused and not knowing how to complete the most basic tasks. They missed important features because they weren’t sure how, or even if, they could interact with them. For example, several participants did not realise that text fields were editable when writing emails or when sharing content from the charms bar.

Users that couldn’t find the new charms bar struggled with basic search tasks such as finding new apps to download in the store. “That wasn’t a natural place to go look for search. If I was using a friend’s computer, I’d get frustrated.”

The app bar was also a challenge for many participants. In the Modern UI version of Internet Explorer users must right click to reveal the address bar and their tabs, whereas our participants expected these to be available all the time and did not expect to right click to reveal the app bar. “If I was on here clicking things, this would disappear and then I’d have to click back to get the bar back.” “I was going to move onto keyboard shortcuts next, but the last thing I was going to think of would have been the right click to bring that up.”
 

Harder to switch between full screen apps
In the Modern UI, most apps are full screen. As there is no longer a ‘tray’ showing the list of running apps, our participants found it difficult to get an overview of what they were doing when moving from one full screen app to another. ”Sometimes you feel like you can lose things when you come out of them. You don’t know where they go. On normal Windows they are down [at] the bottom.”

Users who could not find the ‘hot corner’ that revealed the app switcher (pic above left), were often stranded with no clear way to escape the current app. “I’m not quite sure how you get back to the tiles. I want to go back to the colourful thing and I can’t seem to … [eventually finds the start button] That was very tucked away in the corner, not very easy to find!”

Closing the current app was also a problem. To close an app the user must drag from the top of the screen to the bottom. At some point in their session, most participants asked: “Where is my X in the corner?”
 

Users must combine the Modern UI with the old Desktop UI
In Windows 8, moving to the Modern UI or sticking with the traditional desktop UI is not an either/or choice. For regular tasks, users must move between the two. The Start screen and the built-in apps follow the Modern UI, while Office and most other apps remain in the Desktop UI. This requires users to keep both interface and interaction styles in mind at the same time.

For example, at the Start screen, if a user inserts a USB drive and responds to the prompt to browse the files on the drive, Windows 8 switches from the Modern UI to the Desktop UI and opens a traditional file explorer window.

And the Desktop now appears as a specific ‘tile’ on the Modern UI Start screen. Several of our participants struggled with the concept of having their familiar Windows apps such as Microsoft Office appear behind the Desktop tile. “So you’re going to have to launch one app in order to launch another. You’re just going to confuse people.”
 

A bold and brave move
Microsoft has always exercised caution when introducing new concepts to previous versions of Windows. They have worked hard to make sure that new features are easy for existing users to understand and adopt. Our findings suggest that the Modern UI breaks this pattern.

There’s no doubt that this is a bold and brave move but people are going to need to set aside time to get to grips with this new interface. Repeated across around 500 million worldwide Windows users, the back of our beermat tells us, by the time every user has switched to Windows 8 there will be at least 300,000 man-years of learning curve time expended. That’s quite a suck on Planet Earth’s productivity.

So the question is not whether Windows 8 is a better product than previous versions of Windows (we think it is). The real question is how the world is going to feel while it learns its way around. Presumably Microsoft is braced for impact, and they probably have shoulders broad enough to wear the storm of frustration Windows 8 is about to whip up. We expect that there should be some lively commentary on social media from newly minted Windows 8 customers. It should be interesting viewing!
 

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24/10/12 Jan Srutek said:

Great research insights John. I'd love to see someone do a comparative study between Windows 7 and Windows 8 with people using a computer for the first time.

24/10/12 Thomas said:

Very interesting post. Just to clarify a few points though: - Did the participants use the demo video at the start of a clean OS install? - Was this with a keyboard and mouse rather than touch? I presume so as you discussed the hot corners.

25/10/12 John said:

Hi Thomas. The participants didn't watch the introductory video. In our experience from other research few people do that with upgrades. They expect to be able to get started and learn as they go. And we used a typical laptop with keyboard and mouse, although some users were more familiar with using a trackpad on a laptop and preferred that.

25/10/12 Fabien said:

If the only tutorial Microsoft has built in is a "please skip me video", they missed quite a few tricks. Wouldn't be hard to have short animation/bubble appear right on the UI at the first launch: for example opening the charm bar with some intro copy. Oh, and they rely way to much on the windows key to get back to the home screen. Took me forever to figure that one out, for such a basic thing.

25/10/12 Derek said:

I would love to see the research parameters to get these results from "typical"" users of Windows. Is Win 8 different from Win 7, without a doubt, but I really don't see Win 8 being anymore different than a desktop user shifting to a mobile platform...OR the shift from Dos to 3.1 to 95.

25/10/12 Matt Radbourne said:

Hi Fabien, I agree that some kind of visual indicator on the main menus would help. Microsoft had to do this when they introduced the taskbar and Start menu in Windows 95 so I'm surprised that they've been so bold this time. Funnily enough, the top page in Google for "windows 95 click here to begin" is an article on how to switch the feature off

25/10/12 Matt Radbourne said:

Just to expand on John's point: When we were conducting the research, we were able to give respondents a bit of context by asking them to imagine that they were using a friend's computer. We also asked for reactions to using Windows 8 in a work environment. These are both situations in which the user might not get to see the intro screen.

25/10/12 Shaun said:

Was there a paper written up? This sounds mostly anecdotal and less scientific. Maybe I misunderstood the purpose of the article but it sounds consistent from what other reviewers have found

25/10/12 Steve said:

"I'd love to see someone do a comparative study between Windows 7 and Windows 8 with people using a computer for the first time." And I'd love to see a study comparing Windows users choosing between Win8 and Mac OSX 10.8.

25/10/12 Mark G said:

Hating windows 8 with a passion. Thankfully I took a backup of Windows 7. Going to restore that. £30 and a day wasted..

25/10/12 Elley Jones said:

Whilst it doesn’t mention in our blog post, I was equally curious as to how users would get on if they had seen the introductory demo so actually organized for one participant to be leant our laptop for a week. However even and after watching the introductory demo you get when you set up a new user account, and their initial thinking that they’re “reasonably good at computers”, they still found it “very baffling”. Like the rest of our users, they said that they were left to discover important features “by trial and error“ or even “complete accident “and that they “could have done with some tips”. So I agree Fabien, lets hope that Microsoft do get a bit more creative in ways to educate users about some of the great new features, because at the moment it really does feel like they’re introducing too many new fundamental features and concepts without actually properly introducing them.

26/10/12 Chris said:

I will be skipping this until you can set the traditional desktop as the default and don't have to use the metro interface. 90% of what I do requires 3+ windows to be open at any time (indeed it is why I use a large monitor and indeed a product called windows...). The whole additional step to get to the functionality I use is a deal breaker as the Americans say.

26/10/12 Julian said:

Just asked my IT guy if we would be changing to windows 8. A resounding NO! Guess this falls under intuition versus familiarity debate, can something new & innovative be be intuitive if it moves away from the users mental model?

26/10/12 Mike P. said:

Last night I went to Best Buy (in the US) right before closing and bought one of their last Windows 7 laptops. That says all I need to say.

27/10/12 Louise Dorich said:

I just love it, if you are a Google user for some time you will like Windows 8. You can return to your desktop whenever you want there is no problems. On the new desktop all the tiles come to life as soon as you click on , and you have all of your facebooks messages and notifications in one glance, your emails Hotmail,google etc... all chat lines at one glance and many many more. It's the greatest Windows I ever saw, Installed it on my 3 computers and even my hubby of 78 yrs old loves it. So I am sold and I will recommand it to all.

27/10/12 Paul Marsh said:

Interesting post John, thanks for sharing the info. One of the big problems Microsoft face is there is two versions of Windows 8 of which is basically Win7 + WinRT. However, they really want to push WinRT (as they make more money from those Apps, and available on more devices) so they don't talk about 'Windows desktop' aka Win7 UI. So if we do choose to ignore the Win7 UI, known by MS as 'legacy' (which isn't available for ARM devices) then we're faced with a new consumer world, yes consumer NOT enterprise. MS have focused on the 'Surface' style market, NOT existing desktop users since it's a dead market. This has resulted in the WinRT UI (as seen in this post) becoming the focus of Win8, and becoming interchangeable terms. Now I've used Win8 for some time now (desktop and touch device but not WinRT only) and I wouldn't move back to Win7 - I like it. However, I feel MS have made a few big mistakes. 1) By focusing marketing on WinRT, 3rd party devs have written for 'Surface' and not different devices, and rarely desktop - I blame MS for this 2) Lack of interactive support for new users - I hate to say it but even a re-invention of Clippy would be a help. It is difficult to learn the new tricks as it is more of a Yoda problem of 'unlearning'.3) Poor quality apps, really related to (1), apps that don't correctly support keyboard, snapview, large screens, etc. should be prevented or at least categorised as such. Even MS apps like Skype or those bundled are often poor and don't follow their own guidance. 4) terrible marketing - they have failed to get across WHY they have made the changes. For example let's look at multi windows - the 'names on the tin' and why it now has limited support. The bulk of users are full-screen people. Yes they'll be lots of shouting from the wings about massive monitors, but MS are after the money now - ignoring the minorities (for now). Every now and gain you want to 'pin' apps next to each other, perhaps to copy info, perhaps just keep monitoring/chatting whilst doing your main task. The problem is that when you shrink the 'minor task' it's often a horrible compromise. You don't have the real-estate, often end up nudging scrollbars back and forth - just doesn't quite work. In Win8 you have up to 3 apps showing. Those running in the smaller 'snapview' now know the users intention, "please reduce yourself, you are now a minor task". The app now has a chance to provide you with a dedicated minor task UI. It's a good idea, not saying it works all the time but from a dev point of view it's great. Win8 is littered with these good ideas but for whatever reason MS just present them in a sort of 'work it out for yourself'. I'm sure if users were shown a set of 'look what we've done to help you' tutorials their experience, such as in this post, would be massively different. Oh BTW, you don't close apps in WinRT, it's basically a phone OS. Another example of not conveying a good change

30/10/12 chris b said:

i hate to say it the very concept of this new metro app start screen baffles me, im an experienced windows user, and it took me 10minutes to work out how to get the conventional desktop setup we are all used to, i wont b using windows 8, not unless they make a patch or service pack that allows the normal desktop to be shown on boot up instead of some stupid abstract app menu

31/10/12 paula said:

I can't believe how slow everything is now with Windows 8. Every app requires a good few minutes to load..

11/11/12 Bob M. said:

I have used every o/s from Microsoft since DOS. Recently upgraded my XP laptop with Win8. I had hoped Win8 to be the best of all of the past, perhaps even better than MAC O/S, but instead, it's a poor show. A bit like XP with a new UI façade to chase techies away. I expect that Microsoft will come out with a new version very quickly, like earlier they did with 98, Millennium, 2000, XP, Vista etc.. I work in IT. On my PC I need loads of sub directories/ videos/ code / technical stuff etc. The new Windows 8 appears to be mainly written for non-tech dummies. With a bit of effort however I created a reasonable working desktop screen. I'd prefer If a user could choose an opening screen, rather than having to pass via the new UI. Another problem I have is that I have a F: partition and 'Search' can't find files that I know are definitely existing there in some sub-directories. Only good thing I can say about Win 8 is that it starts and works reasonably fast. That said, my next move will have to be to load up Linux to get access to those files that Win8 can't see. Most likely, my next buy will be a Mac book.

21/11/12 Matthew Hall said:

@Mark G - why did you hate it "with a passion"? What was "wrong" in your opinion? @Julian - In my experience, many IT folks give that initial, knee-jerk reaction resounding NO (!). Too bad they don't have an open mind to at least check it out; did they back up their "no!" with any reason(s)? BTW: I am NOT a M$FT / Windoze employee.

22/11/12 Matt Radbourne said:

I would be interested to hear an IT guy's point of view. When I presented some of our findings at Untapped event (London) this week, I spoke about the steep learning curve. I should imagine that this would be one of the main considerations for IT departments that are rolling the software out to different types of employee. From my experience, many IT staff use more than one monitor so, for use within IT departments, I would expect the new multi-monitor features of Windows 8 to improve administration and monitoring tasks that they often do.

29/12/12 Adrian said:

IT departments take in great consideration the 'change management' factor. First, the product has to be more productive than the last one, and the switch should be the least impacting as possible. In my experience, there will be a slow adoption of this new UI, unless MS provides a copy of Win8 that mimics the win95-win7 interface. MS should probably have the Overton Window in mind when setting strategy :-)

29/12/12 Adrian said:

Also, I get the feeling that MS did not allow for feedback from a disparate set of IT departments. It does not seem that they have collaborated with other corporations, instead they bulldozed (again). I hate to say this, since I have family in Redmond, WA, but this is the kind of serious actions that push companies into adopting Linux. Also, the amount of malware for MS is staggering. In my opinion, they should focus on security and stability more.