Grab a cup of coffee when uninstalling

I really don’t like uninstallers that take more than they should, which is probably about 30 seconds or less. I know that when I see the screen below when uninstalling a game or large application that I should do something while my computer takes like 2-3 minutes just to “gather required information”.

I have no idea what real information is required… you have the install directory, files, folders, registry keys, start menu folder, etc, so why not just delete them all quickly instead of using an uninstaller that takes forever. I’m glad that not all games and applications use this type of uninstaller and I am glad to experience a fast and easy uninstallation of those games/applications.

False Marketing

I’m sure we’ve all seen some form of false advertising before especially if we don’t know what products are been compared. In this case it was a comparison between some wireless routers/access points from Netgear.

The comparison tries to show how Wireless N is better than Wireless G, shown by the ticks. The fact is that this comparison is wrong and even on Netgear’s website from their Wireless G routers/access points you’re able to see that they have contradicted themselves.

1. According to the comparison, multiple PCs connected wirelessly isn’t function on Wireless G routers/access points. So all of you who have more than 1 wireless pc connected to a Wireless G router then unplug it right away! You wouldn’t want to use your router to it’s potential. (View the picture below of a Wireless G access point that shows more than 1 wireless device connected to the access point)
2. From the picture below of a Wireless G access point, the access point handles video conferencing so VoIP should be fine.
3. Wireless G is 54 Mbps which should equate to at least 1-2+ Mb/s with encryption enabled, so even if you had ADSL2+ heavy internet usage would not be a problem.
4. I’ll assume they mean multiplayer gaming on the internet. The Wireless G router/access point would only add about 5-15ms or so which shouldn’t be a problem for most games.
5. Any wireless router/access point should be able to support Networked or shared storage / large file sharing, the point that they missed is that the Wireless N routers/access points will be able to transfer these files quicker. See the below picture where for a Wireless G access point they have said that it can download large files.

So there you have it, 5 ticks which could have easily been applied to Wireless G which has been ignored by Netgear so that their Wireless N products would seem better to us, the consumers.

Signup to the unknown

In my last post I checked out the new Netgear site and have found at the bottom of each page a small Sign-up section with a field to fill in (which I assume is the email address) and then a Go button.

So would you like to sign-up to the unknown? What would you receive? How many people would sign up without knowing what they were signing up for? It just doesn’t make sense. When you do actually press the “Go” button you are presented with a sign up form to register to the Netgear Community with your email address filled in if you did actually fill it in and press Go .

A better sign up section at the bottom of each page should just be a link which could say something like “Sign-up to the Netgear Community”. Easy as that, we know what the link does and we can enter in all our details in the form it links to.

Clean Interface

So far I’ve focused on the issues I’ve had with software/webpages but recently have found a great example of a nice and clean interface for a webpage that I’m happy with.

I haven’t been to the Netgear website for a while and I do remember their old website design which wasn’t that spectacular. Now everything looks much cleaner and clearer. You’ve got the logo at the top, the menu just beneath it, the sitemap of where you are and then the product details. After the site map you have some white space which distinguishes the menu from the item. All the important options are given a orange button look so that you’re about to tell that these are things you should look at.

The product details shows you a clean picture of the product with a summary of the product and then to the right hand side you are given some ways you can learn more about the item. Your eyes are draw to the product image, then to the product name which is in bold and then to the model.

The product details and learning more about the product seems to be split just right so that every selectiong in the learning more section is only in one line and as you can see it’s not all just crammed in together, there is some whitespace between selections.

Below the summary, you’ve got the options to see the overview, specification and system requirements.

On the page there are just the right amount of options to select and end result is a page that actually looks good and is highly usable.

What existing page are you referring to?

So there I was updating my drivers for my Nvidia video card when I decided to take part in the survey. Now I’m not sure how long the survey has been there for but from reading the third question regarding their new beta download page, it might indicate it’s been there for a loooong time.

First and foremost, which existing driver download page was this survey referring to? Was it the years ago system they had which popped up when you selected a driver to download and then asked you to accept the terms and conditions? Who knows…

The fact is, if you don’t provide us with the page you are referring to then we’ll never know how good the existing download page was. So it’s kind of useless then isn’t it?

Just something else I’ve noticed is that in this question (3) the rating options left to right goes positive to negative and then the next question down (4) it reverses and goes negative to positive… way to confuse the user.

Let me quickly uninstall your application if I want to

Just about every piece of software if not all software that we install on our computers come with some kind of uninstall program which uninstalls that piece of software for us. Now to save us the user some time, normally included in the start menu for the software is a “Uninstall” option which allows us to quickly uninstall the software.

This is great as it reduces the time it takes us firstly loading up Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel (which can take quite a while if you have a lot of software) and secondly finding the software which we installed. Although recently some software/games which I’ve installed don’t include this Uninstall option in the start menu of the software. Maybe the software/game is so great that you shouldn’t bother uninstalling it as you’ll have no reason to use the computer anymore? I don’t know… that’s the best I could think of.

The next issue I have with some uninstallers is that they ask you to restart your computer. I mean it might be necessary for software which modifies your system files and restores them back to normal but for general software and games it’s not really necessary at all. Don’t waste the user’s time if it’s not necessary.

Don’t teach me one thing and then change what you taught

So I’ve just finished playing Stranglehold and I’m impressed, it’s was great game.

A slight usability to point out is when you start the game it goes to the introduction screen and stays there asking you to press Enter.

 

 

 
Okay, so I’m assuming that Enter is the key that we use from now on. I select Options with the keyboard and press Enter… and nothing happens. Hmm.. I think to myself, I’ll try pressing space and I find that it works.

So why not change the introduction screen to say press Space? You’ve taught me to press Enter but then want me to press Space? I should of been able to press Enter in my opinion.

 

 

 
 

The Exit Game from menu interface was a bit weird as it’s in a different font and colour from the rest of the selections. I don’t know why this is? Maybe so the user doesn’t accidently press it?

But what if you do accidently press it?

Well if you do it asks you if you want to really quit although not in a simple Yes or No, but actually having to select an option and then confirming that option. I’m not quite sure again why this is so, they could of easily had a Yes or No option.

Right click and not close

The first thing I’ll talk about in this blog is a pet hate of mine; it’s when you are closing applications by right clicking them on the taskbar and select the bottom option to close (which is closest to the taskbar). The problem is some applications don’t actually have the close option at the bottom but rather 1 or 2 up from the bottom. I’m so adjusted to quickly right clicking and selecting close on all other applications that in the other applications I do something that I didn’t want to happen.

 

An example is the Microsoft Internet Explorer F1 Help. You right click it and the bottom option is “About HTML Help”. Another example is VMware Server Console which has “Hide Controls”. 

Welcome

Welcome to the Voice of a User blog. In this blog, I’ll voice my opinions on interface, usability and design for applications, games and hardware in the technological world. I may also venture out if something catches my eye.