VIA Interaction

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Bill Gates on Usability

The Seattle Times unearthed a five-year-old email from Bill Gates in which Gates goes ballistic about his experience trying to download Microsoft MovieMaker from his company's Web site.

Among the gems:

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).

and

"This time I get dialogs saying things like 'Open' or 'Save'. No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do."

Working on large, complex Web sites can be tough, but every once in a while someone powerful sees the light and it gives one hope!

posted by Tim Beidel at 6/25/2008 05:23:00 PM

---