I’ve resisted adopting Windows Vista since it launched.  Not because I hate Microsoft (in my view they have the best development tools, period) and not because of bad press.

It’s more a case that I have no need.  Windows XP works great.  A Vistal OS would require additional memory, CPU power for any perceived benefits.

A pretty interface isn’t worth the system slowdown.  Not for me anyways.

I’m currently on a job where I’m using a laptop running Vista.  Worried about performance I pared back many of the visual settings.  Result?  Looks pretty much exactly like WinXP, but with one big downside… it doesn’t work like XP.

Case in point.  Windows explorer is now much more complicated to use.  I can’t figure it out.  Same goes for the Control Panel.

It’s not that the interface is inheritly unusable.  It’s that I have prior experience using similar tools.  As such, I have expectations about how things will work.  When those expectations aren’t met, I get grumpy.

It’s a lesson I’ve been on the sharp end of in the past.  You can’t simply design a system for perfection.  The prior experience of users (technical or otherwise) needs to be considered, no matter how dysfunctional it seems to the system designers.  The same goes for Office 2007.  The ribbon is a good idea, but I’m too used to Office 2003 for it to be effective for me.

If I struggle with these issues, what hope is there for a busy lawyer?  My guess is slim to none.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 24th, 2008 at 5:57 am and is filed under Design, Law firms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.