MIT Technology Review Review of Windows 8

[AWS]

MIT Technology Review has a very diplomatic article on Windows 8: http://www.technologyreview.com/review/511116/windows-8-design-over-usability/. The captions all over praise Windows 8 and that Microsoft has done the right thing.

Curiously the contents say that the Windows 8 interface &quotfares poorly on larger desktop computer screens&quot, &quotis clearly designed for ... having fun rather than serious work&quot, &quoteliminates more than forty years of usability research&quot,

&quotpresents far too little information ... resulting in the need to frequently pand and scroll&quot, &quotwell serves the needs of those nontechnical users who just want to watch Netflix, and go shopping&quot, &quotdoes a poor job of catering to knowlege

workers like me (the author)&quot, is &quota boon, maybe, for people with attention deficit disorder&quot, &quotlargely devoid of status information&quot, &quotdecreases usability&quot, &quotan unnecessary inconvenience for knowledge workers&quot,

and &quotis a puzzle you can't quite solve&quot. &quotThe waste of screen real estate becomes increasing evident as the screen gets larter&quot and &quotmany tasks become unnecessarily difficult&quot.

I didn't know that technical writers have to resort to such volumnous sarcasm to get published.

From their About Us page, I couldn't find out what the MIT stands for, but it does claim to be serious journalism by knowledgeable editorial staff goverened by a policy of accuracy and independence.

 

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