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I was manning the Ask The Experts booth at a 2007 Microsoft Launch event the other day when I heard an interesting story from another Microsoft MVP. He told me that his wife was really excited about a new feature in Windows Vista that made it a lot easier for her to work on her computer.

So I asked what the new feature was, thinking BitLocker? Complete PC Backup? New Group Policy settings for Power Management? Delta sync for Offline Files? Outbound firewall filtering? Dual layer IPv4/v6 networking stack? I held my breath and waited for his reply.

It was the ability to multi-select files in Explorer by using checkboxes instead of by holding down the CTRL key. I did a double-take and said, What? He explained that she used to feel frustrated trying to multi-select files in Windows Explorer by holding down CTRL and clicking each file with the mouse, because if she let go of CTRL and clicked something she would lose all her previous selections and had to start again. Being able to multi-select items using checkboxes made her more productive in the office and eliminated a lot of frustration working with Microsoft Windows.

That surprised me, but after I thought about it a bit, I realized I shouldn't have been surprised. Knowledge workers see computers very differently than IT pros do. For network administrators, the things that usually get us excited about Windows Vista are the things that are going to make our life easier such as enhanced Group Policy support for increased manageability, BitLocker Driver Encryption so we can worry less about stolen laptops, delta sync for Offline Files so that implementing Offline Files won't eat up too much bandwidth.

But ordinary users have the same needs as we geeks do -- keep my data safe, keep it available, make it easy to work with. Only they work with business data at a different level than administrators do, so the way they express their needs are different also. As administrators we need to listen to the needs of our users and see things from their perspective. What may seem like a trivial improvement to us may make life a lot easier at their end.

P.S. If you don't see checkboxes beside files in Explorer, open Folder Options in Control Panel, click the View tab, and select the checkbox labeled "Use check boxes to select items." Now if only they'd exposed this setting in Group Policy!

ITworld.com

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