10 Years Ago on DF: ‘Chris Pirillo’s Dad Tries Windows 8’

Got a nice reminder on Twitter about this brief item I wrote 10 years ago this week, when Chris Pirillo published a video of his dad, a longtime Windows user, trying Windows 8:

Could be this has no predictive value regarding how regular people will think about Windows 8, but it’s an eye-opener regarding the risk Microsoft is taking by making essential UI navigation elements hidden until you hover the mouse in the right spots. People navigate with their eyes, not by scrubbing the screen with the mouse. It’s a few minutes long but worth watching for the payoff at the end.

Alas, “essential UI elements hidden until you hover the mouse” describes many of the changes to MacOS in the Alan Dye era of UI design. Or in some cases they may not be hidden, but just nonstandard, unlabeled, and lacking tooltips when you do hover over them, wondering what the heck they do.

★ Tuesday, 15 March 2022