Discussion on: Desktops - User Interface - Simplicity of Design http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/customapps/desktops-user-interface-simplicity-of-design/ Fri, 16 May 2008 19:05:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=wordpress-mu-1.2.1 By: MargaretRouse http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/customapps/desktops-user-interface-simplicity-of-design/#comment-52 MargaretRouse Fri, 09 May 2008 12:40:44 +0000 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/customapps/desktops-user-interface-simplicity-of-design/#comment-52 Thanks for the shout out -- I was a trainer for many years and dealt with a lot of people who understood the logic of the file structure in Windows 95 right away and felt comfortable about poking around -- but there were always those to whom the computer would always be voodoo magic and their fear of "breaking something" paralized them. I don't think it'll be too long before Linux developers figure out a way to reach the second type of user and Linux on the desktop will even pass [A href="http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/overheard/overheard-linux-desktop-flunks-the-parent-test/"]The Parent Test.[/A] As for Vista -- I hadn't even considered it was the GUI that turned people off. I just asked my son (college-age) what he thought. He grew up on Windows 95/98...moved to a Mac two years ago, goes to a school where the computers run Vista and has friends that use Linux. His answer kind of suprised me. He said something like "I used to feel as if I could pretty much do anything and everything on our old WIndows computer and I really understood how everything worked. Now I'm moving around different operating systems and GUIs and it's like I'm barely literate in six different languages. I can do the basics, but I feel like I don't speak any of the languages fluently anymore." Thanks for the shout out — I was a trainer for many years and dealt with a lot of people who understood the logic of the file structure in Windows 95 right away and felt comfortable about poking around — but there were always those to whom the computer would always be voodoo magic and their fear of “breaking something” paralized them.

I don’t think it’ll be too long before Linux developers figure out a way to reach the second type of user and Linux on the desktop will even pass The Parent Test.

As for Vista — I hadn’t even considered it was the GUI that turned people off. I just asked my son (college-age) what he thought. He grew up on Windows 95/98…moved to a Mac two years ago, goes to a school where the computers run Vista and has friends that use Linux.

His answer kind of suprised me. He said something like “I used to feel as if I could pretty much do anything and everything on our old WIndows computer and I really understood how everything worked. Now I’m moving around different operating systems and GUIs and it’s like I’m barely literate in six different languages. I can do the basics, but I feel like I don’t speak any of the languages fluently anymore.”

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