OS X Lion: Macs' beginner-friendly days are over

Re:OS X Lion: Macs' beginner-friendly days are over by astral303 on Monday July 25, 2011 @05:15PM (#2804673)

However, that's a difference that can be picked up experimentally and can start making sense: "two fingers keep me in the browser, three fingers throw me out of the browser and go somewhere else." You don't get punished by using the wrong gesture (unless it's a web page in Safari that doesn't support back and forward movement): if you use three fingers in one direction, three fingers in the other direction will get you back.

Your contrast of versions of Windows and Office is an apples and oranges comparison. People don't know that difference because it doesn't matter and there is no reason to even discover that difference.

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Re:OS X Lion: Macs' beginner-friendly days are over by kenjackson on Monday July 25, 2011 @05:22PM (#2804710)

How can you say there's no reason to discover to discover the difference between apps/system yet argue that they'll notice they jumped from one app to another? And as web apps approach the look and feel of native apps this will become harder to understand.

As you point out, the distinction isn't necessary for many novices. Yet Apple is making the distinction a fundamental aspect of their gesture model.

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Re:OS X Lion: Macs' beginner-friendly days are over by astral303 on Monday July 25, 2011 @05:51PM (#2804848)

I don't think that you can equate knowing that you have 'Office XP' vs 'Office 2003' (which is a difference that I maintain is inconsequential in daily use) to the difference of seeing your screen move off sideways onto another kind of application. Even if there is no application in another screen, that's still a difference that you at least will experience and wonder about.

Sure, web apps are getting closer to native apps and that's a great point (why is switching between web apps that much different than switching between spaces). However, most web pages still tend to look much like a web page and I maintain that people will discover the concept of different applications by associating them with what comes up once they click the dock icons (iCal, Mail, Settings).

Another point is that if this distinction is useless to novices (e.g. they don't use the gestures or they don't "get it"), then the more experienced users can pick up on this, and take advantage of this knowledge. Just because it's a fundamental aspect of the gestures does not hurt the novice aspect.

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