Usability evaluation of Windows 11

by LIU LIU

Introduction

Windows 11 is the latest operating system released by Microsoft, succeeding the popular Windows 10 and designed to provide a more intuitive, efficient, and modern user experience. Windows 11 debuted on June 24, 2021, and was officially released on October 5. It marked a new era for the Windows operating system, introducing several new features and improvements. However, Windows 11 has not performed as well as it should have. According to StatCounter, windows 10 holds a staggering 71.64% of the Windows operating system, while Windows 11, released for 2 years, only holds 23.61%. Given the overall mixed reviews of Windows 11, its market share is understandably low. At the time of its release, the operating system received a lot of criticism for its improved start menu and taskbar, which lost some of the features of Windows 10. It was heavily criticized for its higher system requirements.

User Experience Problem and suggestion in Windows11

Taskbar

The taskbar is essential to the operating system's interface to increase productivity and improve the user experience. It is usually located at the bottom of the screen but can also be placed on other edges according to the user's preference.

1. Strange initial position

When you enter the Windows 11 system, the first thing that comes to your eyes is the large desktop wallpaper, followed by the app icons centered in the taskbar and the System Tray in the lower right corner. Humans are visual creatures, and they often have a first impression of things when they meet them for the first time. As mentioned in Reflections on Symmetry[1], people like things perceived to process more smoothly. This means that if a pattern or object is visually symmetrical, people are more likely to process that information, which may result in more positive emotions. This is exactly against the layout settings of the taskbar in Windows 11. the centered icons and the rightward leaning System Tray. This is precisely against the layout settings of the taskbar in Windows 11. On the other hand, We cannot underestimate the power of default that people tend to stick to the defaults, which means that even if the defaults are wrong, most people will still suffer in silence. Even if we can align the icons in the taskbar to the left in the settings, their feelings are sacrificed for people who are not skilled in personalizing their computers, which may make them feel frustrated or even give up using Windows 11.

This problem violates the usability heuristic: Consistency and standards.

Figure 1

Recommendation：

This problem can be solved by defaulting the icons in the taskbar to the left. Adding some commonly used options for setting the taskbar is recommended for those who are not proficient in adjusting their personal preferences using the settings. For example, right-click on the taskbar to bring up a pop-up menu containing options to modify the icon arrangement, modify the taskbar's position, and so on.

2. Unable to move the taskbar to the right side of the screen

Many people who used to use Windows 10 often chose to move the taskbar to the right side of the screen. Still, when they used Windows 11, they found that when they went to Setting-Personalization-taskbar alignment, there was no option to move the taskbar to the right side of the screen, but only to the bottom and left side. This dramatically affects users' efficiency, who need to use the taskbar and browse data frequently, thus wasting their time.

This issue violates the usability heuristics: Flexibility and Efficiency of Use.

Figure 2

Recommendation：

This issue can be resolved by adding the ability to place the taskbar on the right side of the screen.

3. Software icon prompts are not obvious

The icon of the software being used is located in the taskbar, and when the software receives a message or changes its status, the icon blinks. However, in Windows 11, although the prompts exist, the color is too light for users to quickly identify it; as shown in Figure 3, the light yellow color is unnoticeable against the white background. The inability to detect and deal with the notification in time will cause great trouble to the users when using it. When users try to adjust the prompts or find other ways to enhance the prompts, they find that it is not adjustable. The only way is to adjust the background color of the taskbar, which can make the yellow color more prominent, and not all users want to change the background color. On the other hand, Windows 11 is incompatible with some software, leading to users receiving messages without prompts.

This problem violates the usability heuristic: Visibility of System Status and Flexibility and Efficiency of Use.

Figure 3 On the far right is the Software icon prompt.

Recommendation：

This problem first needs to be solved for the APP compatibility problem to ensure that the user can receive timely information alerts, and secondly, to provide a way to adjust the color of the prompts to easily observe the prompts for this purpose.

File operations

People often use copy, cut, paste, and other functions for file operations.

Confusing file operation menu

When people try to operate a file, they right-click it to bring up the menu, as shown in Figure 4. The five icons at the top are confusing, and the user can't tell what they are doing by the icons. When one tries to click on show more options, an older style menu pops up, and it's clear that the text between the two menus and the typography is very different, with one modernized and the other in the older style of Windows 10. If users want to use their downloaded software to decompress files, you can clearly see that the first menu is not this option; only when you click to show more options can you choose the software you want to use in the second menu. When I try to personalize it, I find it impossible to change it.

This problem violates the usability heuristics: Recognition Rather than Recall and Consistency and Standards.

Figure4  First menu(left) Second menu(right)

Recommendation：

Firstly, for the five unlabeled function icons, it is recommended to give text under the icons, e.g., add the text 'cut' under the first icon. Secondly, Put all commonly used operations on files in the first menu., e.g., the unzip tool you installed in the first menu. Finally, harmonize the style of the first and second menus.

Conclusion

Windows 11, as a mature system, is good enough in terms of functionality, but it could still use some UI improvements to enhance the user experience. In this blog, I have found some flaws in the UI, such as the default centered taskbar icon, the inability to place the taskbar on the left side of the screen, and the problem with the menu for file operations. Of course, there are a few issues that I should have pointed out due to space, such as the split between the Control Panel and Settings styles, the need to jump between the two, and the fact that the Control Panel ignores the Dark Mode setting. If these issues could be resolved, more users would likely choose to use Windows 11, both those who have never used it and those who are still using Windows 10.

Acknowledgments: 

I need to state that I used Grammarly to make the grammatical corrections.

References

[1]Thimbleby, H. (2002, May). Reflections on symmetry. In Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (pp. 28-33).