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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: K-Menu/Xandros Launch
From:       Gav Wood <gav () kde ! org>
Date:       2002-09-22 15:18:59
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On Saturday 21 September 2002 9:06 am, Michael E. Peligro wrote:
> On Saturday 21 September 2002 02:35 pm, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > just curious: what's your source of information on this?
>
> PC Magazine October 6, 1998, article "Making Software Easier through
> Usability Testing" by Neil Randall, pages 285 -288, I quote (from page
> 288):
>
> <quote>
>
> "According to Microsoft, early prototypes of Windows 95 fell flat, with
> people finding it extremely difficult to make the conceptual switch from
> Windows 3.x. Participants had a great deal of trouble with seemingly simple
> tasks such as finding and opening Write (in the Accessories group). Testing
> revealed that people didn't actually work with the operating system, but
> rather with applications, and the Start button concept emerged from that
> realization."

i remember reading an articule summarising microsoft's usability lab saying 
that they thought the start menu was now not such a good idea (presumably 
since they decided that the general user's view is file-orientated, not 
application-orientated).

appartently they weren't allowed to change the start menu design due to the 
marketing people who decided it was now too great a trademark to drop.

of course this might all be unfounded, but it seems to make sense to me, 
especially after the start menu's change in xp where stuff like Internet 
explorer and outlook express (applications) are renamed to "Internet" and 
"Email" (tasks), and the extended file-orientation of the desktop (my 
pictures and my music were added to my documents folder).

gav
- -- 
Gav Wood <gav@kde.org>
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