Handle With Linux

Are we suffering interface addiction?

windows user

I've been a windows user for a very big part of my life, just like the most people in the western world I guess. I've converted myself to a Linux user, and these days I administer a mixed windows/Linux environment.
Sometimes when I've been away from windows for a while, (I really try to avoid the windows machines,I have to do some maintenance now and then) I sit myself at the desktop I know from all these years.

mental reward

And sometimes when this happens I experience a slightly discomforting feeling: It feels nice, like my brain gives out some kind of reward for seating myself at the windows desktop. This pleasure is always very short lived because it's almost immediately replaced by the frustration of crippled and illogical design.

addictive features in interfaces

But still it's there for a moment, it's something that feels a bit like smoking a cigarette after trying to quit smoking for a few days. Only much less strong. This sensation made me think: "might there be some addictive feature to user interfaces, making it difficult to change operating systems?"
I know the brain is built in a way, that it gives us rewards for doing certain things. This is why gambling machines have so many lights. It's rewarding to your brain to look at such a machine.

the answer

A little googling brought me quickly to an excerpt from a book titled the humane interface printed in 2000 which states the following, and I cite :

"If I am correct, the use of a product based on modelessness and monotony would soon become so habitual as to be nearly addictive, leading to a user population devoted to and loyal to the product. Its users would find moving to a competitor's product psychologically difficult. Unlike selling illicit drugs, marketing an addictive interface is legal, and the product is beneficial to its users; in another way, it is just like selling illicit drugs: extremely profitable."

you'll find the complete text here:

http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/book/j_raskin_1.html

There you have it, this book states that it is possible to design an interface which has certain addictive features. And on the contrary to the author, in my opinion this doesn't have to be completely harmless to the user. This might be one of the reasons users are holding back from switching to a clearly superior, less costly solution.

vista adoption

If we look at the adoption of vista, it might even be showing the same problem. Vista is not being adopted by the users, and the massive changes in the interface might be playing a role in this.
I know there are many more reasons to think of why vista is not being easily accepted by the general public.
But wouldn't it be a great laugh if the addiction to the windows XP interface is killing microsoft profit?

Bad for Linux

It's bad for Linux also if this is true, you can't deny it slows down open source adoption if this has such an impact. But knowing such an effect exists is already half the answer. You need to be aware of your problem before you can help yourself ;-)

Think about it!

While it might sound strange at first, just think about it a while. How difficult do you think it is changing mobile phone brands? That's a small interface, still it's difficult to get used to a new interface.
Think about this the next time you give your children a windows computer, you'll be teaching them to use an operating system they will have very much difficulty letting go.

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