Does Anyone Really Care About the Start Menu?

[mitchellvii]

I think THE LESSON in all this is that you have to learn how to "boil the frog".

The old saying goes that if you want to boil a frog you can't throw him in a pot of boiling water because he will jump out. You have to put him in a pot of warm water and slowly heat it to boiling and he won't notice he is getting cooked.

With Windows 8, Microsoft thought they could throw users into a pot of boiling water and impose big change on them quickly. I believe MS has learned their lesson and with Windows 8.1 they are attempting to "boil the frog slowly", giving us the Start Button we knew but transitioning us to the Modern UI. This is smarter and will probably work. Windows 8 was completely new and scary. Windows 8.1 is part familiar and part new, comforting and yet still exciting. People can deal with that.

 

[mitchellvii]

This guy is just one more loud mouth baby with a type writer. either way he had a story to write - 1 complain about the type of start button they provided, 2 say MS caved if they brought back the old start button and menu, or 3 complain if MS did nothing about the start button. BUT i do love the old uncle comparison. reminds me of my grandpa and his favorite chair. He had this really old chair he like to watch his shows in with a giant pile of news papers he would read next to it. Than one day we surprised him while he was out and got him a brand new chair and cleaned up the news papers. Put both of them in the garage to get ready for garbage pick up. The next day i went over to his house to see how he liked the chair and to help him take the old chair and news papers out to the curb for trash. When i got there i saw the chair with a tarp over it out by the curb and he was standing in the doorway. As I walked thru the door I said gramps your are 80 why didn't you wait for me to help you bring the chair out to the curb. With a smile on his face he said "Thats not my old chair" and proceeded to walk in the living room sit down in his old chair and grab a news paper from the old pile of news paper that was back next to it. Than said" The store is coming to pick up and take the new chair back in an hour":smile:

But that is the point of effective marketing. Rather than saying people are "stupid and childish" (they are), you accept they are "stupid and childish" and package your product to appeal to stupid, childish people. You pull, you don't push. Think of motivation like a rope. Try pushing on a rope sometime and see how far you get.

It is easier to change your product than human nature.

 

[pallentx]

But that is the point of effective marketing. Rather than saying people are "stupid and childish" (they are), you accept they are "stupid and childish" and package your product to appeal to stupid, childish people. You pull, you don't push. Think of motivation like a rope. Try pushing on a rope sometime and see how far you get.

It is easier to change your product than human nature.

That depends on how many people are being stupid and childish and how many actually like what's happening. Apparently MS felt that there was a significant amount to respond, but not so many as to actually change directions.

 

[jnjroach]

Heh...Heh


Actually I like the Start Screen....but for the whiners here ya go...

 

[Omni]

The only reason I'm pleased the start menu button is back is because I can access the right click menu with touch. Was annoying needing a mouse to access it before.

 

[mitchellvii]

Heh...Heh

Actually I like the Start Screen....but for the whiners here ya go...

I have always been amused by those who refer to anyone who disagrees with them as a "whiner" - name-calling has always been the last defense of the weak debater, especially when the marketplace has just shown that you, in fact, hold the minority opinion.

 

[mitchellvii]

That depends on how many people are being stupid and childish and how many actually like what's happening. Apparently MS felt that there was a significant amount to respond, but not so many as to actually change directions.

Well you clearly missed the point of my entire comment.

What MS realized is that they still want to guide people to a Modern UI future but they need to do it gradually instead of all at once because THAT is how people change, hence the "boil the frog" analogy. MS' error was that they forgot to think like the 80% of users who are non-technical.

 

[jnjroach]

Mitch it was all in fun dude....

 

[mitchellvii]

Mitch it was all in fun dude....

King Lear, 1605:

"Jesters do oft prove prophets."

- Shakespeare

 

[mace2442]

Does anyone really care about the start-Menu: Yes.

I do work in the consulting/deployment field and the feedback from our Customers are 100% clear.
Put the start-menu back or we won't upgrade.
If it would have been one customer, that would have been one thing but when the number of customers (ie Companies, agencies and so on -not users) passes a 100 and all of them says the same thing.
Then it's time to understand that yes, they do care and they do care a lot. MS got half the message when they put the button back but and they seem to have got the message that most Corp users care more about the desktop and a classic gui.
We have done a lot of case studies on W8. None of the customers have chosen W8 after that. The costs for retraining the users has always been higher than the cost reductions coming with W8.

If the changes in 8.1 will be enough to boost the sales of W8?
I'm not so sure, we'll have to wait and see

 

[jnjroach]

I work with many Global SI's and one of the largest is currently doing a Windows 8 deployment of 400,000 seats (Global Deployment), multiple devices per user...

 

[mitchellvii]

I work with many Global SI's and one of the largest is currently doing a Windows 8 deployment of 400,000 seats (Global Deployment), multiple devices per user...

Global rollout of Windows 8 by a major Corp so soon and with it still full of bugs? Are they suicidal? We don't even know what the final version of 8.1 will look like. The CIO should be fired.

Just because a company is big doesn't mean they can't be complete idiots.