My user feedback
I have given 11 users a demo system with the Win8 preinstalled for a week to get feedback on the user interface and productivity. After a quick introduction into the more un-intuitive parts of Windows 8 (eg how to shut down, get back to the desktop, get out of a full screen app, launching apps by just typing their name etc), I left them to it. Now the results came back:
- 100% hated it and refuse to use it again - a couple threated me with physical violence if we roll Metro out to the desktop (only half jokingly).
- Productivity plummeted, people were taking a lot longer to complete tasks as they couldn't multi-task as effectively with full screen apps. In 3 cases, users insisted they used their own laptops during the week as they had critical work to complete and could not do it in time on Win8.
- People were very confused by the lack of menus and the lack of a start button.
- People were still struggling with the shut down process even after 5 days of using it.
- The Metro desktop was a confused mess when people had installed all their commonly used apps.
- Computers ran slower on Win 8 than Win 7.
- Nobody used the Metro tiles at all as they were permanently hidden behind apps. We were requested to remove the live tiles from the desktop to try and speed up the machines.
- By day 5 (Friday), 100% of users avoided Metro completely and always used the classic desktop. Only one user tried to use Metro beyond day 3, and then he stopped and went back to classic desktop.
- No users found the touch interface useful in the desktop environment, as they found it unergonomic and not precise enough to operate a vertical desktop touchscreen at arms length for more than a couple of minutes.
I still have dual boot on my laptop, but I will not be upgrading to Win8.
