There's another video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeeOkHjV7nM where he is asked to use a mac for the first time in his life. The guy has apparently used XP for many years and is a die-hard windows fan. Watch how quickly he is able to pick it up (with zero instruction) in comparison to Win8.
The Win8 start screen isn't hard to get to - if you know how. I'll have no trouble with it, you'll have no trouble with it, and anyone who is given a tutorial or basic training will have no trouble with it.
But I'll bet there's going to be millions of users who find themselves in the same situation as the guy in the video, and it's going to be a nightmare for any company who tries to deploy this to all their users.
For me the big take-away is this:
Important user interface elements should be visible on screen.
I'm troubled by the invisible UI stuff, including the hot corners. And I'm worried because knowledge of these features is required to operate the system at a basic level. That's kind of frightening. Not insurmountable, but frightening.
I think OSX's interface elements are more approachable than these hidden elements, given his(and most people's) prior experience. If you've used Windows, you're not going to be a stranger to drop down menus or desktop like icons (a la the dock).
And I agree that the invisible user interface elements will be a nightmare for IT people around the world. But to be frank, I don't want to restrict change to things that make IT folks happy ;) (Of course, I'm not a company worth a few hundred billion dollars whose livelihood depends on enterprise acceptance...)
I'm interested in seeing how long it will take for these 'new' UI concepts, where screen edges and corners are elements to be touched and modified, to sink into the general consciousness. It seems to have sunk into the OSX world rather quickly. Now it's time to see how the other 90% cope with it.
The Win8 start screen isn't hard to get to - if you know how. I'll have no trouble with it, you'll have no trouble with it, and anyone who is given a tutorial or basic training will have no trouble with it.
But I'll bet there's going to be millions of users who find themselves in the same situation as the guy in the video, and it's going to be a nightmare for any company who tries to deploy this to all their users.
For me the big take-away is this:
Important user interface elements should be visible on screen.