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…that there were usability problems with Vista. This is an illustrated tech support article explaining how to open the Vista box.

Others have written about the problems with the Vista (and Office 2007) box, as representative of Microsoft’s desire to do everything different this time around. What Microsoft has fogotten is, that if you are going to redesign something everyone already understands, the new design had better be so improved, that it overcomes the learning curve. This doesn’t do that. There is no improvement over a regular box, or even a DVD style case.

Perhaps there is a runaway problem of people having their Windows OS disks stolen from the packages in their homes and offices? If that’s the case, then maybe theres a benefit here. But I suspect its really more about trying to be clever, rather than really worrying about user experience.

If you are responsible for shipping packaged software, remember that if you have to post a tech support article about how to open the box, you’ve already screwed it up.

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  • I'm Bob Crosley. Since 1995, I've been involved in the web and software development as a developer, project manager, program manager and product manager.
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