The user friendliness of operating systems like Windows and
the Mac OS is highly overrated. Sure, users get a pretty
interface and point and click access to programs and
functions. I agree that in many ways a GUI is far easier to
use than the command line. And, an average person can quickly
master basic mouse skills. That is only part of the game. Far
too many people don't know how to perform fundamental
operations, like safely removing programs or simple file
manipulations.
I am constantly amazed to see an intelligent
Windows user who doesn't know how to select multiple files or
even do a drag and drop. Often, this ignorance is the result
of a lack of training. Workers are often cut loose with
little or no idea of how to use an operating system or an
application. Many who do have some knowledge haven't a clue
about time-saving features, or even about keyboard shortcuts
and using button bars. Far too many are expected to learn by
doing. But few take the time to even read manuals or Help
files.
Be Prepared for Problems
The bloat and crashiness of modern operating systems and
software compound the frustration users experience. Take the
32-bit versions of Windows, which are a bug-riddled mess.
There is the well-documented need for frequent reboots, and
crashes are hardly rare. The time you spend waiting for
Windows to perform tasks or to recover from crashes is
essentially lost. And how often have you had a word processor
and spreadsheet die on you, causing a loss of work? And how
many hours have you spent re-doing work that has vanished
into the digital ether? More often than you care to admit,
I'm sure.
The icing on the cake is a phenomenon known as "creeping
featurism". This is the tendency to load more features into a
program than anyone will ever use. The whiz bang of the new
comes at the expense of speed and elegance. The more features
an application contains the more resources it uses. And this
means it takes the program more time to carry out a task. In
the end, this means wasted minutes while you wait for
software to save, open, or modify a file.