[dsego]

I was just uninstalling a program on windows. So I find the icon in the start menu, right click to open the menu and uninstall. That should run the uninstall process, right? WRONG! It opens the dated and derelict control panel. And it has a bunch of icons for all the programs I have on the computer. And the one I just right-clicked to uninstall? Not selected. Oh, but let's find it, where is it in that icon list? There is no search box to type in the name, I try typing to filter but nothing happens. I need to visually find it myself and select the icon. A new panel appears at the bottom with some nonsense info about the app. But how do I uninstall? Oh, the uninstall button actually appears at the top of the icon list, distant to the icon itself. Such and old ux paradigm, contextual buttons that appear in a random part of the interface (looks like a quick prototype by a programmer and they never bothered to get a ux person to design it).

Windows works for people because they are used to its idiosyncrasies. You know how people think their browser icon is to open the internet? It's the same with Windows, to most it's what makes the computer, they don't know otherwise. And these idiosyncrasies are taught in schools and universities in computer classes. How to use a computer has become how to do stuff in Windows and MS Office. Brings back memories from my childhood when I was the "computer expert", helping my parents and their friends fix problems in old Windows 98 and XP. At least the old windows ui was somewhat consistent.