François Joseph de Kermadec over at ONLamp.com has written an article about the usability of the Mac and an anecdote about an acquaintance of his who recently switched to using Macs… He brought up an interesting point about the use of 'assistants' in MacOS X and 'wizards' in Windows:
"Some Windows or some Linux interfaces, for example, are full of wizards that get in your way instead of helping and this is mainly because they do not work with the user, because they try to replace the interface instead of introducing it to him. Apple does not believe in wizards : they believe in carefully designed assistants that give you a hand when you request it and introduce the real interface for you so you know what happens and how to change it later if you want."
He also suggested that Apple include some sort of tutorial with MacOS X to show users how to use many of the programs that are included with the computer:
"Wanna listen to some music right after unpacking your computer ? On goes an animated tutorial about music capabilities and one button to push to to to the iTunes music store or the built-in radio tuner : instant gratification or, in other words, a feel-good experience for the user. Wanna learn more about the internet ? On goes a movie to present the basics, while Mail and Safari launch."
I think this is a great idea! Having a tutorial open up when you first start the computer, with instructions on how to use iTunes, iPhoto, Safari, Mail and even the Finder would be great for users who haven't used MacOS X before. My girlfriend often has to ask me how to open a browser window or locate files on my machine, even though it seems perfectly simple to me. The reason she can't do these tasks is because she's used to Windows, and doesn't know the equivalent on the Mac. If there was a tutorial that could run, which could show and guide the user in using these apps, then I'm sure she'd be much more competent in using my computer.
I'm an avid Mac fan, and have been using them since the age of 2 (no, really!), but I use a Windows 2000 machine at work and have used Windows XP a fair bit as well, and one thing that I do like about it is the fact that if you plug a device in, a bubble will appear in the system tray that says "New device discovered: HP Printer" (or something along those lines). As far as I know, MacOS X doesn't do anything like that. Sure… In many cases the drivers are all already there, and it's simply a matter of going into the Print Center and adding the printer, but how is a casual user supposed to know that? My Mum inherited an old Pismo from my Dad (after he got a 17″ PowerBook… grrr), and had to ask me how to get the printer working. Shouldn't a casual (not power) user be able to do this themselves? In the current version of MacOS X, obviously not… A semi-transparent window notifying the user that so-and-so device has been recognised would be very handy. Asking them if they would like to configure it would be even better!
An example would be the computer recognising a Bluetooth phone in the vicinity. I'm aware that there's a Bluetooth Setup Assistant in MacOS X currently, but why should the user have to go hunt this down to setup their phone with their Mac? Instead, when the phone is recognised, pop up a window saying "New device: Sony-Ericsson Z600″ and then ask the user the question "Would you like to setup this device?". The Bluetooth Setup Assistant would then open, allowing the user to pair the phone with the computer. It could then ask the user whether they would like to enable the synching of data from your computer to your phone, and would show them how to do it in iSync. It could also display a short tutorial on how to transfer files to and from the phone. Applying this sort of process to new devices would make using MacOS X much, much easier, in my opinion.
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