It's been a while since my last post. Unfortunately, college is beginning and I'm already noticing, even in the first weeks, that it will take me much time that I had before for personal hobbies and studies. But what I really want to talk about now is my little adventure of the last two weeks.
With my most-of-the-time-speding town moving to the capital Lisbon, living away from home to study without a computer would be impossible. I knew it would, so I bought a notebook and what's important to this post is that my choice fell in the MacBook.
The thing is, I had never, ever, used MacOS X. Was I crazy for choosing something in which I had zero previous experience? Well, I guess the answer depends of the kind of thing where I fell into, to be more precise, depends of the difficulties that the system will impose to me as user that follow my own logic to do tasks.
This is really the most important thing about usability: logic. Whether the system has logic, and whether system's logic equals our own logic - the user's logic. A true usable system is made always keeping in mind the logic that the user will use to reach the tasks he wants to perform.
An example not to follow that I want to give is in Microsoft's Windows. How much sense do you think it makes pressing a button named "Start" to accomplish a task named "Shut down" ? I think even the most Australopithecus logic wouldn't choose a button with the buzzword Start to accomplish something that will do exactly the opposite.
But let's get back to MacOS X. In these two weeks I had the opportunity to appreciate a system that really was made for intelligent people, because intelligent people follow logic to do things, and not a discovery based on a try and error cicle that can lead to unwanted results and bad methods of thinking and using computers. In a nutshell, MacOS X makes sense in the things and in the way they're done, although some require a little imagination that, in my opinion, the typical user wouldn't follow, like dragging an application to a folder named applicattions to install it. Hey, imagination?! Why did I say that? It makes sense after all. Well, this is another important aspect about the judgments made about operating systems or concurrent technologies, our mind has to be completely free of previous vices or bad ways of thinking when it comes to evaluate something new and different. A user wouldn't find such method of installing intuitive because is mind is probably already full of Potatoes' Logic (yes, as logic as potatoes) and bad methods of thinking of other (bad) technologies that blind him of seeing the logic underneath.
In a nutshell, I'm truly satisfied with the choice I made and if you've some Apple computer in consideration for a possible buy, but never used MacOS X, don't be afraid, it'll be a great experience. And remember, you've intelligence, follow it.
See'ya.
With my most-of-the-time-speding town moving to the capital Lisbon, living away from home to study without a computer would be impossible. I knew it would, so I bought a notebook and what's important to this post is that my choice fell in the MacBook.
The thing is, I had never, ever, used MacOS X. Was I crazy for choosing something in which I had zero previous experience? Well, I guess the answer depends of the kind of thing where I fell into, to be more precise, depends of the difficulties that the system will impose to me as user that follow my own logic to do tasks.
This is really the most important thing about usability: logic. Whether the system has logic, and whether system's logic equals our own logic - the user's logic. A true usable system is made always keeping in mind the logic that the user will use to reach the tasks he wants to perform.
An example not to follow that I want to give is in Microsoft's Windows. How much sense do you think it makes pressing a button named "Start" to accomplish a task named "Shut down" ? I think even the most Australopithecus logic wouldn't choose a button with the buzzword Start to accomplish something that will do exactly the opposite.
But let's get back to MacOS X. In these two weeks I had the opportunity to appreciate a system that really was made for intelligent people, because intelligent people follow logic to do things, and not a discovery based on a try and error cicle that can lead to unwanted results and bad methods of thinking and using computers. In a nutshell, MacOS X makes sense in the things and in the way they're done, although some require a little imagination that, in my opinion, the typical user wouldn't follow, like dragging an application to a folder named applicattions to install it. Hey, imagination?! Why did I say that? It makes sense after all. Well, this is another important aspect about the judgments made about operating systems or concurrent technologies, our mind has to be completely free of previous vices or bad ways of thinking when it comes to evaluate something new and different. A user wouldn't find such method of installing intuitive because is mind is probably already full of Potatoes' Logic (yes, as logic as potatoes) and bad methods of thinking of other (bad) technologies that blind him of seeing the logic underneath.
In a nutshell, I'm truly satisfied with the choice I made and if you've some Apple computer in consideration for a possible buy, but never used MacOS X, don't be afraid, it'll be a great experience. And remember, you've intelligence, follow it.
See'ya.