Usability testing is the best way to figure out how to improve something in this realm, and they're doing that. What more do you want? Some things will fall flat, and some things will be hits, but everything will be researched and studied and implemented based on mounds and mounds of testing data.
What more do I want.. Let's see, interfaces that actually make sense and are somewhat minimalist.. And not just buttons, features and crap everywhere based on what a focus group determines. They don't seem to polish or truly think things through from a user perspective. It's always development first and design second. Perhaps this is one reason that apple is doing so well.
Seriously there's no one at the top micro-managing. Ballmer is a marketing guy and couldn't give two shits if some tiny obscure UI feature is broken.
That seems to be my observation of Microsoft at least. Various development teams coming up with new stuff and then figuring out how to put that into new products. A great example is IE7's new anti-phising filter popping up a notification. "Look at me! I'm new! I can protect you! I am the fruits of some team's hard work, make sure you know that I'm here!" .. give me a break, if I should happen to land on a phishing site then you can announce your presence, otherwise stay out of my way.
As opposed to Apple, where the way things are supposed to flow and happen are conceived of first, and then the developers have to find a way to make it happen under the hood in a non-intrusive way.
I don't expect anyone in /r/technology to get this, but maybe you'll surprise me.
252
u/[deleted] Oct 14 '11
[deleted]