Influential Tech Guru Scores Windows 8’s Total Make-Up
One more bad publicity for Microsoft's Windows 8 as Yahoo! News reported that influential gadget reviewer Jakob Nielsen will wait out for the next version of the operating system, judging the freshly rolled out OS as lacking the punch for a compelling PC experience.
Tests conducted by Mr Nielsen apparently convinced him that Windows 8 is not the answer longed for by the ailing PC sector. The new product, in fact, represents a step-back for Microsoft in the same vein that Windows Vista reverses the gains of XP before it.
And it took Windows 7 to correct that fiasco, Mr Nielsen noted, so he'll do the same as many did when Vista started showing crankiness - skip Windows 8 and hope that the software giant will push out the upgrade soon.
According to software specialist Jared Spurbeck, writing for Yahoo!, Mr Nielsen's recent assessment of Windows 8's usability was aided by 12 volunteers, whose familiarity and competence on the Windows environment were best described as 'experience'.
These testers were overwhelmed with confusion in initial navigation of Windows 8 as Mr Nielsen instructed them to attempt some amount of manipulation on the OS "such as changing the Start screen's background colour."
What looked like as simple tasks turned out to be a notch difficult for individuals who have spent great amounts of time on earlier Windows versions, Mr Spurbeck reported.
These same experts returned feedbacks ranging from criticising the OS' interface as being overly simplistic that users can easily lost their way to faulty functions and features such as "tapping in places with unexpected results, running apps that didn't work ... and new swiping gestures that were often hard to figure out."
Mr Nielsen dismissed the 'Live Tiles' as too distracting while the Start screen designed by Microsoft engineers for Windows 8 "feels like dozens of carnival barkers yelling at you." Swiping on the same screen is not intuitive at all, he added.
In short, Windows 8 has successfully obliterated features that PC users have traditionally regarded as the platform's core benefits and the same is true with the version of the OS running on tablet computers, Mr Nielsen said.
Right now, Mr Nielsen is under the impression that nagging issues associated with Windows 8 will not be fixed by upcoming tweaks and patches, with many likely to forego this latest Microsoft creation that could comprise of general and enterprise customers.
Notwithstanding this bleak appraisal, Mr Spurbeck noted that the tech guru in Mr Nielsen had alerted global consumers on the less-than stellar build and functions of the Kindle Fire, first released by Amazon last year.
But the tablet delivered the goods for the giant online retailer and is now on the second upgrade cycle. It is likely that Microsoft will also enjoy the same respectable run.