It has occured to me that the Mac interface, our Desktop, has one major barrier to Windows users. It might even be a trivial thing, that could be fixed in short order. So trivial, that I wonder why Apple hasn’t fixed the problem.
A typical Windows user, thinking about using a Mac, will come to the Mac Interface to check it out, and be immediately put off. Its such a simple thing, but because Windows users find their navigation ques different than we Mac users do, they feel unwelcome, and they might not even know why.
Its the placement of the simple things, like the tool bar on OS X that runs across the top of the screen. You and I know thats the ‘right’ place for it, and we don’t even think about it. But the Windows user is looking for it at the bottom of the screen, and it feels awkward for it to be anyplace else.
The same is true for the close/hide/expand buttons on our document windows. For us, they are in the ‘right’ place at the top-left of our documents. For the Windows user, they are searching for it at the top-right of the page, aren’t they?
Then there is the Dock, which is either showing or hidden at the bottom of the screen. People new to the Mac interface either love it or hate it, right away.
The final thing that puts off a typical Windows user who is checking out the Mac, is the one button mouse. Most of us Mac users either have always used the one button mouse, or we have gone and bought ourselves a real, two button Mac mouse with a scroll wheel.
Windows users are looking at the Mac. It is more secure, and stable, and it has a beautiful interface. But the little, almost unnoticed disorienting things are probably putting them off.
How hard would it be for Apple to provide a Windows mode for OS X? To make the tool bar easy to be relocated at the side or the bottom of the screen?
How difficult would it be to add the code function in Apple’s OS to provide document buttons that could either be at the top-right or the top-left of the page?
And when will Apple provide us with the option of buying a Mac with either a one or a two button mouse?
These are minor gripes, I know. And for the typical Mac user, they are meaningless. But for the potential Windows user, wanting to migrate to the Mac, I think they represent huge barriers for them to overcome.
More to the point, these ‘minor’ things have nothing to do with the stability and the usefulness of the Mac interface. Such things should be easily fixed and made available to the Mac user, regardless of his previous computing orientation. Apple should do this. They would sell a lot more Macs if they did.
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