Timeline for Studies showing significant usability differences between Windows and Mac OS X?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 19, 2013 at 22:27 | comment | added | Michael Lai♦ | I think that due to the different design philosophies behind the two platforms, you will find that the results are biased on two different counts: the pre-existing prejudice or preference for one over the other, and the particular tasks or features that the platform supports better. I think an interesting test would be to see how many people change over from Windows to Mac (and vice versa), and what the impact of the change has been. | |
| Sep 15, 2012 at 14:32 | history | edited | Benny Skogberg |
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| Sep 19, 2011 at 0:55 | comment | added | DA01 | If it's measurable research, then peer-reviewed academic literature carries weight. | |
| Sep 18, 2011 at 17:11 | answer | added | Todd Sieling | timeline score: 2 | |
| Sep 16, 2011 at 12:27 | comment | added | JohnGB♦ | To quote Don Norman: "Academics are paid to be clever, not right". A peer-reviewed article doesn't make it a right article, just one that other academics thoughts was clever. | |
| Sep 13, 2011 at 10:49 | comment | added | PhillipW | There are organisations out there who have produced various reports. Try googling 'Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Mac / PC' TCO will cover more than the user interface. And at least some of this research will have been done by commercial organisations - so it won't be free. | |
| Sep 13, 2011 at 4:50 | comment | added | JoJo | The tests would have to be done on toddlers who never touched a computer in their whole lives. Anyone over 5 years old will have become accustomed to one operating system and will have a biased loyalty towards that system because of familiarity. By the way, OS X sucks sweaty balls because it lacks many keyboard shortcuts (window maximize) for people who want to bypass Fitt's Law for mice and get their work done fast. Now you know which OS I'm loyal to. | |
| Sep 13, 2011 at 1:20 | comment | added | DA01 | I think a proper test would be difficult if not impossible to undertake. People are used to one or the other (or both) already so there'd be so much bias in the test results based on habit. | |
| Sep 12, 2011 at 21:05 | comment | added | Jonathan | Personally I'm at a loss for where to start because there are lots of little differences, and it depends a lot on context (personal vs enterprise, for example). One thing that could help narrow the question would be to define certain topics and what the "Windows way" or "Mac way" is, and ask for research about that. For example, some topics could be "Window management" or "Connecting to a new wifi network". | |
| Sep 12, 2011 at 20:46 | history | asked | Jay Hacker | CC BY-SA 3.0 |