Screenshots from Windows Vista Update
Jimmy sent me some screenshots of Windows Vista which exemplify my complaints about unclear labelling of buttons — a usability problem which occurs so frequently that I’ve named this whole blog after it. He was running Windows Update, which was installing a bunch of software updates:
It turned out that he didn’t actually want to install those updates now, so he hit the “Stop installation” button. Up pops a dialog box:
Now what does this mean? Does continue mean “continue stopping the installation”, or does it mean “continue the installation”? If we press cancel, will this cancel the request to stop installing updates, or will it cancel the installation process itself? And what does the red X button in the corner do? (The temptation to press X in cases like this is huge: I consider it to mean “shut up, go away, I don’t want to think about what you are asking me”.)
But there is still hope: a “Details” button, which will surely reveal the answer and tell us what button to press. So we click “Details”:
Oh, that was really useful. You know, we love hexadecimal numbers. Thank you, Microsoft!
But Microsoft are not the only offenders in this regard. Barbara Ballard is having similar problems with OpenOffice.
What’s even more frustrating is that the “stop installation” button doesn’t do what it says on the tin. It only stops installation of the current update rather than deferring the entire update session to a later time. After all why would I want to stop update kb…. when there is no indication of what that update actually does (and clearly I’d be a fool not to install all my windows updates like a good boy.)
In all, both dialogues are shoddy in their lack of useful user information (but at least they’re shiny…). Needless to say the vmware close button seemed the easiest way to extract myself from the situation.
Comment by Jimmy — Sunday, 25 November 2007, 14:37 GMT
Has anyone ever tried to figure out what that Hex code actually means? Personally, I think they make it up everytime someone asks for details of whatever kind. It’s a bit like “You wanted to know something that you don’t understand, so we’re showing you you will NEVER catch on, bwahahah!!1!”
Some years ago I tried to install Windows ME (somebody remembers?) on a box which had not enough disk space. At the very point Windows realized that it came up with the message “Not enough disk space. Fuck!” (No kidding!) That’s not ladylike, but at least it’s clear. Today it might maybe complain “Error 42F00BA5-DA171. What would you like to do? [Yes] [No]“…
Is somebody willing to do the test and call up Microsoft to ask for an explanation on that? If I still had Windows running, I would do.
Comment by Johannes — Friday, 30 November 2007, 23:17 GMT