Nadeem started an interesting poll on the satisfaction of the new Skype 4.0 client for Windows some 10 days ago, click here to go to his blogpost and poll.I voted “For me it makes no difference”, because, I got used to it, and, besides some aspects I don’t like, there are some improvements also. How would you vote? Go to his page.
The only thing that is (in my opinion) really missing is an option for a very simple interface for beginners and less computer skilled people. Perhaps Skype can take some inspiration from the early years or from what they do for mobile devices?
6 comments:
Completely agree.
Need a 2-button-only-granny-proof version.
I like when people agree with me ;-)
Thanks.
But serious now, i really thought about my father when writing this. He had always been quite "on top" concerning new technologies (computers, etc.). But the last two years before he died (last year, age 80) he became too tired to learn new things. Therefore he wouldn't have been able to learn the new 4.0 Skype (and he had a Skype account - on a Mac!).
While I wouldn't say that 4.0 is perfect, I think it's clearly an improvement over 3.8 both for power users and others too.
For power users having lots of chats and things, the conversation list is a great way of handling them.
For grandma who wants to call her grandchildren, it's much easier for example to start a video call with the "video call" button. People have short memories, but on 3.8 is was way more complicated to enable video :)
Hello Vincent,
Thanks for the comments.
Power Users is a very small minority, and i know several who still dislike the new Skype 4.0.
Now, indeed there is a video button. But just pinch your eyes, and imagine you are half blind: where do you click? That is what older people experience: "where do i click to launch that call?".
For instance, when you open the main Skype window, you see like 10 bigger "buttons or looks-alike" and like 20 other places where you can "perhaps or perhaps not" click.
From all these places there are three concerning "calling":
1. Call phones (black phone lower left)
2. Call (green somewhere in the middle)
3. Add a telephone number (grey middle right)
For a beginner, which one does he use?
Not that evident in my opinion!
Thats interesting. A poll in an article with title "Skype 4.0 Disappoints Many. How About You?"
I think one of the pillars of accurate statistics is not to bias your audience before asking them a question.
Hello Cracker,
I agree COMPLETELY with your comment. But there are other reasons why this poll is not "scientific" or accurate: it are mostly heavy Skype users who will be interesting to participate (in my opinion) and the number of respondents is quite low.
I even have a comment about the colors: why is the "OVERALL IMPROVEMENT" red and the "I'LL REVERT" green? I would have chosen the other way around.
Anyway, bloggers are not often scientists, and are not often journalists ;-)
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