WINDOWS 8 – NEW USER EXPERIENCE

I have just finished listening to Windows Weekly Episode 307 where there was a general discussion about Win 8 including the reaction of inexperienced computer users to the new “tile interface”. The Windows Weekly team agreed that new users don’t seem to have the same aversion to the tile interface as some others who have used the desktop for years.

It just so happens that 2 of my friends recently bought their very first computers so I have first hand experience of how people with absolutely no previous exposure to computers react to the tile interface.

I will call them:

Subject 1   (S1)  – Male in his early 70s

Subject 2   (S2) – Female in her early 60s

Both bought different brands of laptops from a national retailer – mid range with Core i3, 4gb RAM and 500GB Hard Drives. They each also bought a $20 Microsoft wireless mouse and neither laptop has a touch screen. Neither bought MS Office but instead will use WordPad (They come from a generation that knows how to spell so WordPad will be fine.)

I was not involved in the S2 purchase but I was with S1.  S1 did not want to spend more than $500/$600 so a touch screen was not in the budget.

S2 chose Optus as her ISP and S1 chose Telstra as his.

I ended up being the “teacher” to get them up and running.

First up I have to say that, without question, both clearly favour the tile interface over the desktop. In fact they both never use the desktop apart from a couple of exceptions that I will detail later.This, I might add, put them both a little at odds with me as, after using Win 8 for over a year, I still tend to retreat too readily to the desktop.

When I say no previous computer experience, I mean just that. I had to start with lessons on how to use a mouse and generally how to use a computer.

BTW at this stage S1 is resisting using contractions like “BTW, LOL, LMAO” etc.  but I can see his resolve staring to waiver as he has no typing skills and relies on the laborious “hunt and peck” method.

In addition to the basics, the extra instructions for Win 8 can be summarised as “Corners and Charms”. They also needed to be shown how to use the Tiles (Right Mouse / Settings / Search etc.) and how to use the Store to get Apps.  I pasted a list of Win 8 Keyboard shortcuts on their laptops but I notice that in both cases they don’t use them, preferring instead to stick with the mouse.

S2 was the first to get her laptop. When I went back a few weeks later to see how she was getting along, she had progressed to the point where she was able to do most of what she wanted. Naturally she had some questions but was searching the net, sending and receiving Emails, getting her photos off her camera etc.. She had even installed the eBay App (which is something I have not yet done – I still go to the Desktop to access eBay on a browser).

She only had one main thing that she wanted me to do and that was to set up a Facebook account for her. She had not done this herself as there is no actual Facebook App and was not sure how to set it up via the desktop. ( At least I can’t see one – there are plenty of Apps for Facebook but not one that is actually Facebook.)

In any case she is now on Facebook and the most common response from family and friends who accepted her friend requests was “ welcome to the 21st century”.

The first thing that S1 wanted was to be able to access his Tatts phone betting account on the computer. He now knows how to access it to check up on “form” for the horses and to keep an eye on how much money he has in his Tatts betting account. But he said he will continue to go to the TAB to put his bets on. (I’ll give it 6 months at the most before the convenience of placing his bets on line with his Tatts account wins out over the TAB. Or I might be wrong – All the other punters gather at the TAB to swap tips so I’ll modify that to “betting on the computer wins out over using the phone”).

One of his first Emails was from another mate of ours who gave him links to various sites that cover Australian horse racing and I showed him how to add these to his favourites bar on his browser.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE TILE INTERFACE

I mentioned above that there were a couple of exceptions to 100% use of the tile interface.

These are:

E mail. 

This applies only to S 2 as she was given a POP Email address by her ISP, Optus. In both cases I set up a Hotmail Email address for Win 8 sign in and also as their main main Email addresses to use with the Win 8 Email App. However Optus still gives its subscribers a POP Email and they send their bills to this address. Therefore, in the case of S2, it was necessary to install the old desktop Windows Live Mail program just for this address. However, it was interesting to note that one of the follow up questions she had for me was to remind her how to use this program. She had no such problem with using the new “tile” Email App in Win 8.

PLEASE  Microsoft  fix the Win 8 App to accept POP Emails.I will probably set up the Optus Email to forward to her Hotmail next time I call – BUT I should not have to do this and she herself as a new user would not be able to do so.

It was interesting to note that while Telstra gave S1 an account sign in that looks like an Email address ( xxxxx@bigpond.com), there is no actual Email set up by default. Therefore I simply set up a Hotmail and input this to the Telstra/Bigpond account as the Email address.

Internet Explorer

I just cannot come to grips with the new IE. Also, most of the remedial questions S2 had concerned this browser. I solved the issue by installing Chrome on both laptops and making it the default. Both of them seemed to prefer a desktop browser particularly for things that the “tile” IE does not have like a Home button, a Back Button and a Favourites Bar – Problems solved!

SUMMARY

No matter what some people might say about the new tile interface, in this case it was really no contest. Not only do both of them not want to use the desktop, but when I start to explain it to them, I can almost see their eyes glaze over. If it can be done with the tiles, they really do not want to know.

BTW, after being shown once, neither one has any trouble finding and using the Power Button to turn the computer off which seems to be the main gripe from people who appear to have decided not to like Win 8.