{"id":1027,"date":"2008-01-16T20:33:57","date_gmt":"2008-01-17T01:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/01\/16\/bad-user-experience\/"},"modified":"2008-01-16T20:33:57","modified_gmt":"2008-01-17T01:33:57","slug":"bad-user-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/01\/16\/bad-user-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad User Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may have heard of this new-fangled thing from Microsoft called Silverlight<\/a>. Well, I decided to take a look at it the other day, and when I tried to install it, I was greeted with this unfriendly screen:<\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

Well, actually it’s not very<\/em> unfriendly, but it certainly was unhelpful<\/em>. Why did the install fail? Why couldn’t Microsoft Silverlight be installed on my computer?<\/p>\n

I had to click on “More information” to find out that the reason the install failed was because I already had Silverlight installed<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Fair enough, but why couldn’t it just tell me that? Isn’t detecting that the software you’re installing is already installed a basic function of installation programs?<\/p>\n

It turns out that I had gotten Silverlight somehow when I was browsing Microsoft’s website in Internet Explorer – which of course lets you install Silverlight right then and there. When I later went back to the site in Firefox (my browser of choice after all), it prompted me to install Silverlight again – I guess Silverlight doesn’t work in Firefox? So I downloaded the setup file, and the result was the screen you just saw.<\/p>\n

In this day and age, there really is no excuse for this sort of thing. The installer clearly knew<\/em> that Silverlight was already installed on my computer – the “More information” link took me directly to a page that told me so, so the information was there. Why it didn’t just tell<\/em> me is beyond me. As far as a user experience goes, it would be better to get a screen that says “You’ve already installed Silverlight” instead of a scary screen that says “Installation failed.”\u00a0 I mean, “failed” is such a strong word… a scary word.<\/p>\n

Microsoft should know better – it does know better<\/a> – and I can only hope that someone over there will think twice about the user experience they’ve created.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if this sort of behavior looks familiar – like, maybe, it is something your<\/strong> installer does – you might want to think twice about your user experience, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may have heard of this new-fangled thing from Microsoft called Silverlight. Well, I decided to take a look at it the other day, and when I tried to install it, I was greeted with this unfriendly screen: Well, actually it’s not very unfriendly, but it certainly was unhelpful. Why did the install fail? Why… Continue reading Bad User Experience<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[90,62,97],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-commentary","tag-microsoft","tag-software","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-gz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1188,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/07\/02\/windows-still-works-for-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":1027,"position":0},"title":"Windows Still Works for Me","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I ran across this story from Ernie the Attorney today about a lawyer who was having trouble with Windows and got some rather strange advice from a \"Windows zealot\" in a discussion group: The Windows zealot tells him that if he switches to a Mac just to avoid those problems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2008\/07\/start-menu-1-150x150.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1331,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/09\/18\/microsoft-admits-what-went-wrong-with-vista-and-how-they-fixed-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":1027,"position":1},"title":"Microsoft Admits What Went Wrong with Vista, and How They Fixed It","author":"Keith Survell","date":"September 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When I first read this headline, I turned and looked to see if any flying pigs were going by my window. 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Namely, the idea that it could be an \"upgrade\" at all. There apparently is no upgrade path from any Windows 32-bit edition to any Windows 64-bit edition. 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