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My sister and I bought my mother an iPad mini instead of Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire. I knew it was more expensive, but I wanted to make sure that my 70-year old mot

My sister and I bought my mother an iPad mini instead of Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire. I knew it was more expensive, but I wanted to make sure that my 70-year old mother was going to have a positive experience, and I knew that I could provide her with support for iOS device based on my knowledge of the iPhone and iPad. Meanwhile, I built a new PC and installed Windows 8. And it's a clusterfuck. They're so insistent on forcing the Metro UI on me, and it is so disorienting, that it took me 10 minutes to find the "normal" Windows desktop. The welcome to Windows 8 walkthrough was useless. Folks who just want to use Windows will be pissed. Folks who want an iPad experience will be underwhelmed. Frankly, I'm very happy with Windows 8 under the hood, I just don't think my mom would be.

skymt 14y ago
My mom recently bought a Windows 8 laptop, and she seems happy with it. She's a non-technical but experienced Windows user. Here's the entire Windows 8 tutorial I gave: "This is the start screen; it replaced the start menu. To get to the regular desktop, hit the Windows key. To get back to the start screen, hit the Windows key again. To run a program, either find and click on its tile or just start typing to search for it." That's actually all it took; she worked the rest out on her own. I guess the ease of the transition depends on how well the user can acclimate to visual UI changes, even if the underlying interaction patterns haven't significantly changed.
- adam74 14y ago
  You actually need to press windows-D to get to the desktop or click the desktop tile. After you on the desktop you can go back and forth between the two by hitting the windows key.
  - skymt 14y ago
    Thanks, that's good to know. I've never run into that quirk because the first thing I do on login is run some desktop app.
kenjackson 14y ago
I got my parents an all in one Toshiba for Xmas. It actually shipped with Win7, but I upgraded it to win8 before giving it to them (was much cheaper this way). I gave them a brief walkthrough and they love it. I was surprised at how much they took to the free Xbox music streaming, as they never used Pandora in the past. They're not power users so I told them to stay off of the desktop except for Office (I almost wish I could put RT on it). After they played with it an hour and installed a handful of apps, I asked if I could install some of their old apps and my moms response was, "I don't want mouse apps anymore". I thought that was a success. That said I'd be hesitant moving someone to Win8 if I couldn't get 15 minutes to walk them through it. Its a strength that in 15 minutes I can make most novices prefer it over Win7, but a weakness jn that I think they may be seriously confused if I did not walk them through it.

skymt 14y ago

My mom recently bought a Windows 8 laptop, and she seems happy with it. She's a non-technical but experienced Windows user. Here's the entire Windows 8 tutorial I gave: "This is the start screen; it replaced the start menu. To get to the regular desktop, hit the Windows key. To get back to the start screen, hit the Windows key again. To run a program, either find and click on its tile or just start typing to search for it." That's actually all it took; she worked the rest out on her own. I guess the ease of the transition depends on how well the user can acclimate to visual UI changes, even if the underlying interaction patterns haven't significantly changed.

adam74 14y ago
You actually need to press windows-D to get to the desktop or click the desktop tile. After you on the desktop you can go back and forth between the two by hitting the windows key.
- skymt 14y ago
  Thanks, that's good to know. I've never run into that quirk because the first thing I do on login is run some desktop app.

kenjackson 14y ago

I got my parents an all in one Toshiba for Xmas. It actually shipped with Win7, but I upgraded it to win8 before giving it to them (was much cheaper this way). I gave them a brief walkthrough and they love it. I was surprised at how much they took to the free Xbox music streaming, as they never used Pandora in the past. They're not power users so I told them to stay off of the desktop except for Office (I almost wish I could put RT on it). After they played with it an hour and installed a handful of apps, I asked if I could install some of their old apps and my moms response was, "I don't want mouse apps anymore". I thought that was a success. That said I'd be hesitant moving someone to Win8 if I couldn't get 15 minutes to walk them through it. Its a strength that in 15 minutes I can make most novices prefer it over Win7, but a weakness jn that I think they may be seriously confused if I did not walk them through it.