Switching between environments increases the interaction cost of using multiple features.
When users can’t view several windows simultaneously, they must keep information from one window in short-term memory while they activate another window. This is problematic for two reasons. First, human short-term memory is notoriously weak, and second, the very task of having to manipulate a window—instead of simply glancing at one that’s already open—further taxes the user’s cognitive resources.
Icons are supposed to (a) help users interpret the system, and (b) attract clicks.
Yes, big photos are nice. Yes, spacious layouts are nice. But you don’t have to be a fanatic follower of Edward Tufte to want a bit more “data ink” on the screen.
As a result of the Surface’s incredibly low information density, users are relegated to incessant scrolling to get even a modest overview of the available information.
Aesthetics should not trump getting the information across.
Error-Prone Gestures
The tablet version of Windows 8 introduces a bunch of complicated gestures that are easy to get wrong and thus dramatically reduce the UI’s learnability. If something doesn’t work, users don’t know whether they did the gesture wrong, the gesture doesn’t work in the current context, or they need to do a different gesture entirely.
The underlying problem is the idea of recycling a single software UI for two very different classes of hardware devices. It would have been much better to have two different designs: one for mobile and tablets, and one for the PC.
Windows 8: Disappointing Usability for Both Novice and Power Users
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