Categories: Software Part 1: Making Software Easier Through Usability Testing Part 3: Talkback: Tell us about usability gaffes you've found Related Stories: 1999 Software Sneak Preview Next: Programs that take over the foreground

Continued from Introduction

Installing a program in Microsoft Windows 95, 98, or NT is quite easy. Simply put the disk in the CD-ROM drive and wait for the installation dialogs to appear. Or if that's not possible, find the Setup.exe file for the package and launch it. But significant usability issues present themselves once you've started. First, the dialog (shown in Figure 1) typically asks you what type of installation you want: Typical or Custom (sometimes offering more choices such as Complete and Minimal). The dialog box tells you a tiny bit about the implications of each type--Minimal is for notebook installations, for example--but not nearly enough. Even experienced users want to know, without choosing Custom, how many more selections they'll be expected to make, and how much of the program they don't install if they select Typical or Minimal. Simply showing the difference in required disk space isn't sufficient.

Figure 1: The installation dialog from Microsoft FrontPage 98 offers only minimal information, forcing users to guess at the right choice.

This is a crucial part of the process, because there's a very good chance that selecting Typical or Minimal will result in a novice user never knowing all the available features or an experienced user spending far more time than necessary. All that's required, from a usability standpoint, is a button labeled Details. When clicked, this button would yield an explanation of what each installation type does and does not do. Ideally there would be explanations for novice, intermediate, and experienced users. Figure 2 presents a real-world example of a dialog with a Details button.

Figure 2: This dialog from FrontPage 98 offers a Details button that opens a text document explaining what happens next.

Some usability issues occur during the installation process, but the most unnerving appears at the end. Normally, the last thing that happens is that a folder containing the program's icons will open automatically, ready for action. Even here there should be an explanation for novice users, reminding them how to access the program in the future (Start | Programs | etc.). Many programs do something much worse: They tell us to restart Windows for the installation to be complete.

Now there are technical reasons for the restart; primarily it allows Windows to load the dynamic link libraries (DLLS) needed to run the program. But if you're running multiple programs, you're connected to your Internet provider, and you have three or four browser windows open with essential research information, this request is intrusive in the extreme. Restarting Windows means shutting all these programs down and then starting them up again after reboot, and who knows if you can even get a line into your ISP at that point, let alone get your screen set up exactly as you had it?

Netscape Communicator installs this way, as do many other programs, but the worst offender is Microsoft itself. Install almost anything from Microsoft and you'll have to restart Windows--nothing less than a usability failure. To be sure, install programs always warn the user to shut down all programs before installing the new one, but that too is an intrusion. Many of us have installed new packages without exiting all running programs or having to restart, so the whole procedure is questionable.

Next: Programs that take over the foreground

Published as Tutor in the 10/20/98 issue of PC Magazine.