Sinofsky gets it

[Jacob Munson]

Steven Sinofsky is the head of Microsoft Windows, and he gets it.  Not surprising, considering that he used to be the head of MS Office.  I like this bit, "[Sinofsky] showed a graph at [PDC] that showed the huge variety of graphics resolutions that Windows users were operating at, including a significant number with VGA-resolution displays. Folks in Redmond initially assumed they didn't really need to worry about such low-resolution screens."

I think this is a huge mistake that a lot of developers make...assuming that the customer is using the same hardware/software as you and your co-workers.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10402522-56.html

=====================
Jake Munson
Kuna, ID, USA
http://www.techfeed.net/blog/
http://www.cfquickdocs.com/
http://cfformprotect.riaforge.org/

[Mike Hedman]

One more reason to have a 3 monitor setup, primary and secondary and an old 17" running at 1024x768 to throw web pages and apps on to see how they look.

I snagged a screenshot from the Webcast....

 

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Thus spake the master programmer:
After three days without programming,
Life becomes meaningless.
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[Chris Brandsma]

I need to get ahold of the rest of the data.  But I did send that image off to my designers (who were trying to tell me that EVERYONE had HD quality resolutions).

For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/bsdg?hl=en.

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Christopher Brandsma
http://www.ChrisBrandsma.com
http://www.ElegantCode.com

[Mike Hedman]

What's also interesting, when you think of it:  How many "Average Joe" users actually wiped their system, installed Windows 7 and ran the beta, then wiped and ran the RC1 and RC2 before purchasing Win 7 went RTM?

 

I don't know of any average users who did that or any one of those steps.  I only know of developers who installed it via download, or MSDN.  Then again, I might not get out as much as I like to think I do.

 

I'm sure they did have a ton of regular joes who did it.  But I've got to imagine, that it was the more experience users who installed it.  The home system builders, etc. 

 

That leads to the conclusion that even more advanced users don't run HD resolutions as much as we'd like to think.

[Justin Kay]

I'd be interested to see how OS X telemetry compares....

On Nov 24, 2009, at 9:32 AM, Chris Brandsma wrote:

I need to get ahold of the rest of the data.  But I did send that image off to my designers (who were trying to tell me that EVERYONE had HD quality resolutions).

On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 9:13 AM, Mike Hedman <mi...@thehedmans.net> wrote:

One more reason to have a 3 monitor setup, primary and secondary and an old 17" running at 1024x768 to throw web pages and apps on to see how they look.

I snagged a screenshot from the Webcast....

 

<Win7ScreenResolutionStats.PNG>

Justin B. Kay

Director of IT

Northwest Real Estate Capital Corp.

jk...@nwrecc.org

208 947-7040

Housing with Pride, Life with Dignity

[Edwin R. Paay]

I wonder how many users have higher res monitors but choose to run then at low res.  When I was at URS I got one of the older developers a large monitor (23” 2448x1152?) capable of running high resolution and he chose to run it in 1024 X 768 mode because he could not see too well. 

 

As a side subject have any of you noticed that it is almost impossible to buy flat panels with a resolution greater than 1080?  It seems the consumer monitors are using HD TV panels to keep cost down (or perhaps so they work with HD TV tuners in native mode?)  I find this unacceptable for software development and I had to quickly snap up a couple of refurbished 24” HP monitors that also rotate because HP does not make them anymore that have 1920 * 1200 resolution.

 

It seems that high res monitors with greater than 1080 vertical resolution are now only sold as special purpose monitors at high prices.

 

So perhaps in future all software will need to be developed at one of the HD resolutions: 1920*1080 to 1360*768 etc. I don’t even see these listed in the graphic below…

 

Ed.

[Jacob Munson]

What's also interesting, when you think of it:  How many "Average Joe" users actually wiped their system, installed Windows 7 and ran the beta, then wiped and ran the RC1 and RC2 before purchasing Win 7 went RTM?

This has long been the basis of one of my beliefs about Windows.  Microsoft does beta testing...but who are the beta testers?  I'd bet most of them match your description above.  Also, they are NOT going to be annoyed by minor UI problems, and report them to Microsoft, because they are MS fans so they ignore the minor issues.  So these issues are not discovered until very late in their testing process (right before launch, or even after launch) when the rest of the world starts using the new Windows.

That said...I know that Microsft doesn't prevent the rest of the world from testing the new version, it's just that only some people chose to do so.  But I wonder if they do any usability testing.  We do this with our large projects here at work.  We find real customers, from various demographic targets, offer them a gift certificate to come in and test our website for an hour, and then record the feedback.  I wonder if Microsoft does anything like that.

[Chris Brandsma]

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2008/10/windows_7_usabi.html

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[Chris Brandsma]

You might also read up on what they do with bug reports:

http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/08/10/what-we-do-with-a-bug-report.aspx

[Jacob Munson]

I guess I should amend my original statement to the scope of pre-Windows 7 releases.  I have heard mostly good reviews of Windows 7, from all aspects, so I think they did it right this time.

On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 12:45 PM, Chris Brandsma <chris.b...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Jacob Munson]

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2008/10/windows_7_usabi.html

Also, after reading this article, I have to agree with this comment from a reader: "Not sure I would go so far as to say [Microsoft does] too much research. The problem lies in letting research, and users make the product decisions. No matter how much research you have, you (the designer) still have to make prudent decisions regarding target markets and appropriate attributes."

I have fought with that a lot here at work.  There are people on my team that want to run up to their desk after every bit of feedback during usability testing, and fix the "issue".  I sound like a broken record after a while saying, "We don't have to listen to ALL of the feedback we get from these sessions."  Instead, we look for trends and overall feelings.

[Jim McKeeth]

On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 11:40 AM, Jacob Munson <yaco...@gmail.com> wrote:

This has long been the basis of one of my beliefs about Windows.  Microsoft does beta testing...but who are the beta testers?  I'd bet most of them match your description above.  Also, they are NOT going to be annoyed by minor UI problems, and report them to Microsoft, because they are MS fans so they ignore the minor issues.  So these issues are not discovered until very late in their testing process (right before launch, or even after launch) when the rest of the world starts using the new Windows.

You should really try Windows 7 before you get all critical on Microsoft's testing methodology.  It is a great release.  Reminds me of the DOS 5 release - really solid and well thought out.  It is obviously well tested and designed. 

-Jim McKeeth
j...@mckeeth.org
www.Delphi.org - The Podcast at Delphi.org
www.McKeeth.org - Personal home page

[Beau Adams]

Thank you guys. Windows 7 was my idea!

 

*runs to avoid flying objects*

 

Beau

 

From: Jim McKeeth [mailto:j...@mckeeth.org]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 12:22 PM
To: bs...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [BSDG] Sinofsky gets it

 

On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 11:40 AM, Jacob Munson <yaco...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Matthew K]

FYI, free day at Sparks electronics is Jan 7th. http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/news.php?id=305 Nobody gives away a free physical thing. There's always a catch. So up front: you have to pay shipping. Other than that, it's open season. $100 max per household You pay shipping Limit of $100,000 in giveaways for the day Starts 9AM MST January 7th, 2010 Ends 11PM MST January 7th, 2010 (or when we hit $100k, whichever comes first) Rainchecks for popular items will be allowed

[Jim McKeeth]

They actually have really good prices.  I am looking at some of their kits for the 7th.  Thanks for the link!

-Jim McKeeth
j...@mckeeth.org
www.Delphi.org - The Podcast at Delphi.org
www.McKeeth.org - Personal home page

[Mike Hedman]

I like the rotary phone:

 

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?c=96

 

 

If I cradle the handset in my shoulder, does it count as hands free?

[Mike Hedman]

I woke up too late for this, but I was curious, did anyone here get in on this?

[Jim McKeeth]

Their site was very slammed.  I ended up just missing it.  I couldn't get on at first, and when I finally did I couldn't checkout before it ran out. 

-Jim McKeeth
j...@mckeeth.org
www.Delphi.org - The Podcast at Delphi.org
www.McKeeth.org - Personal home page

--

------------------

[adb]

Nope. Had my cart all prepped for days (and constantly adding/
removing)

Come the day of @ 9am MST, it was pretty much impossible to get to the
homepage with any regularity. About 1 out of 40 reloadings loaded a
page.

After about 2 hours of trickling orders (as monitored by the
occasionally loading homepage) they stripped out a bunch of niceties
to make things go faster and it went from $20k sold to $100k sold in
about 45 minutes.

Oh well. It was a nice gesture by them. And they made it clear this
was to both give back *and* test their servers. I think they
accomplished both.

-aaron

On Jan 27, 2:38 pm, Mike Hedman <m...@thehedmans.net> wrote:
> I woke up too late for this, but I was curious, did anyone here get in on
> this?
>
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 12:17 PM, Mike Hedman <m...@thehedmans.net> wrote:
> > I like the rotary phone:
>
> >http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?c=96

> >  <http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9017>

>
> > If I cradle the handset in my shoulder, does it count as hands free?
>
> > On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 2:16 PM, Jim McKeeth <j...@mckeeth.org> wrote:
>
> >> They actually have really good prices.  I am looking at some of their kits
> >> for the 7th.  Thanks for the link!
>
> >> -Jim McKeeth
> >> j...@mckeeth.org

> >>www.Delphi.org<http://www.delphi.org/> - The Podcast at Delphi.org
> >>www.McKeeth.org<http://www.mckeeth.org/> - Personal home page

>
> >> On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 1:08 PM, Matthew K <matt_...@rocketmail.com>wrote:
>
> >>>   FYI, free day at Sparks electronics is Jan 7th.
>
> >>>http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/news.php?id=305
>
> >>> Nobody gives away a free physical thing. There's always a catch. So up
> >>> front: you have to pay shipping. Other than that, it's open season.
>

> >>>    - $100 max per household
> >>>    - You pay shipping
> >>>    - Limit of $100,000 in giveaways for the day
> >>>    - Starts 9AM MST January 7th, 2010
> >>>    - Ends 11PM MST January 7th, 2010 (or when we hit $100k, whichever
> >>>    comes first)
> >>>    - Rainchecks for popular items will be allowed

>
> >>>  --
> >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> >>> "BSDG" group.
> >>> To post to this group, send email to bs...@googlegroups.com.
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> >>> For more options, visit this group at
> >>>http://groups.google.com/group/bsdg?hl=en.
>
> >>  --
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