Last Update: 09/11/06 16:18 GMT 

With any new software, the user has to go through a learning curve. When the software UI has changed significantly from a previou version its easy to get frustrated as you can't find the features you're used to, resulting in lost time hunting them down. Is training or self discovery the answer? Is it both? Is the answer something I've not thought of?

Over the years I've worked on many projects where the limiting factor in rollout velocity is clasasroom-style user training. The technical solution to migration/deployment is often highly automated and could migrate 100s of users/desktops per day, if only training had the same capacitty. I've often wondered if this classroom style training was really needed. It costs a lot of time and money, lengthens the project and the results are never validated; how many projects migrate two pilot groups, one who receive training and one who don't, then compare the number of helpdesk calls, user productivity and user experience between them?

Microsoft IT (the internal IT department) take the "do it yourself" approach: users can visit various intranet sites to self learn if they want, there are some regional classroom style training courses available, but rearely for beta software. As far as I know, few people take advantage of either. Granted, Microsoft are a company of largely tech-savvy users who should pick things up more quickly than some others, however most people I know feel training gets in the way of doing the job, and I know many many business people outside the IT department in customers feel the same. So, why do we continue to force business people onto training courses as part of a rollout? Perhaps we should let staff choose whether to take training?

Having installed Office 2007 on my XP laptop 8 weeks ago, and then migrated to Vista a few weeks later, I've gone through (to be frank, I'm still going through) a learning curve which is frustrating at times. Do I want training? No. Why? Because most training is generic, and will teach me stuff I already know or have discovered for myself. Other people will feel differently, so training should be available if users want it.

When Microsoft product groups go through product design, they put a lot of effort into the user experience (UX as they call it). The public are engaged in this process resulting in a range of user experience levels providing feedback. So, why do Microsoft change the UI of Windows in every release, and why did the Office UI change in Office 2007 so radically, when they know this will result in a steeper learning curve, and slower deployment? Simple answer: productivity. The changes come from studying how people use computers, then optimising the UI to speed up tasks.

I'd say that I can already do tasks more quickly in Office 2007 than in Office 2003, and day to day tasks on Vista (finding documents, browsing the web, working remotely and wirelessly in Starbucks) is about the same as XP, but system tasks (anything to do with the control panel) is still taking me longer compared to XP. Why? Because stuff has moved, which brings me to the point of this post: a list of things that have changed. Everyone is going to go through a similar "voyage of discovery" (others would call it pain), listing where stuff has gone might save you a few minutes.. I'll add to this post over time, feel free to add comments and I'll consolidate when I get a moment.

More to follow..

Kevin