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0 pointsSilhouette14y ago0 comments

Of course it's organised.

Really?

Go to the page. Open the first menu, "Products". They've grouped Windows stuff together and Office stuff together. On the next column, there is everything from Surface (which one?) to Hotmail. On the column after that, we have products like "Partner network" and "Microsoft in the enterprise". This column also has "Cloud services", but Azure is in the final column.

Let's try another menu, "Security". There are only four options on this menu. Let's assume I'm someone who doesn't know what every Microsoft brand means, but my friend told me I might have a virus on my Windows PC. Does that menu give me the slightest guidance about which option I need? The names are completely meaningless, unless you happen to know that Microsoft Security Essentials isn't actually a guide to the essentials of security, it's the product with anti-virus functionality.

Which use cases exactly are you imagining are not supported by this "vast array of disorganised links"?

I know what I want to do, but I don't know the name of the Microsoft product or service that will help me.

I know what I want to do, but I don't know whether Microsoft offer a product or service that can help me.

In fact, just about anything except "Tell me about Windows", "Tell me about Office", or "I already know exactly which product or service I want, by Microsoft Randomised Brand Name(TM), tell me about the thing I've already found".

There is no sense of priority. No sense of leading a visitor interested in a particular area through what Microsoft has to offer. It's just a catalogue, with a lot of spurious entries thrown in and no descriptions for anything. It is empty.

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lusr14y ago· 1 in thread

You seem to be blinded by some serious Microsoft hatred. "Microsoft Randomised Brand Name(TM)"? "Office" is "random"? I suppose you think "Apple" or "Linux" or "Ubuntu" or "Sun" or whatever it is you are a fan of is less random? Another ridiculous statement.

Your friend told you you have a virus? Well if you know that means "Security" click on there, and, logically being unfamiliar with the 4 choices you pick the first one, "Security Home". Bang, right there in front of you:

    "Download Microsoft Security Essentials for free.  Help shield your computer from viruses, spyware, and other malware."

If you're too scared to click twice, or if the word "Security" is unfamiliar in the context of viruses, type "virus" in the search box on the home page. First result:

    "What is a Computer Virus | What Do Computer Viruses Do.  Have you ever wondered what is a computer virus or what do computer viruses do? Learn how are computer viruses spread and how to prevent them."

Second and third results discuss virus removal.

That's the only specific use case you mentioned and I had zero problems finding the correct solution. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to criticize Microsoft (the 3 hours I wasted yesterday trying to get ASP.NET MVC 4 working is one of them). But you didn't list one valid criticism with a specific use case. The rest of your post is a vague rant.

SilhouetteOP14y ago

I don't hate Microsoft. I am simply observing that their new design and information architecture are very poor in this specific case.

If you really can't understand that many of Microsoft's brand names are not literal/descriptive or why this creates a usability problem if much of the material on their home page is just links to such names without any explanation or context, there is little more I can say here.

However, straw man arguments about brand names in general or advice that boils down to "Just Google it" because the page doesn't contain any useful information don't exactly help your case.

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