Your user experience is blocked by a firewall
By Eddie Lopez. Tuesday, 18. July 2006, 04:31:58
While struggling through yet another futile attempt to get a home network up and running with my D-Link router (There's not enough my.opera hosting space to hold the number of posts I could write on this horrible user experience), I kept getting confused by this winXP security menu:
..On the surface, the first menu(on the right for those not familiar) seems pretty user centered. You got the obligatory, and easy to undertand stoplight metaphor in conjunction with the checkmarks/"X", and the shields. All the trappings of a decent, easy to learn interface. It's the fact that you can't really do much with that menu that makes this confusing. More importantly, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to.
You have to click on "Windows Firewall" at the bottom there (which throws me every time I see this screen after a long period of time), only to be presented with the dialog on the left. So much visual "weight" is given to the "Security Essentials" section that I assume that's where I need to be to handle my firewall... but all for naught! ("turn around please"*) I have to find the other firewall control on the same screen.
I propose the following, hastily manipulated image instead. You can throw some of the descriptive text in there if you'd like as well...
My "advanced" button I pasted there would lead you to the "Exceptions" and "Advanced" tab from the first screenshot above.. as well as the "Recommendations." Anyway, the key is, the bulk of time, I just want to turn it on or off quickly, and I rarely mess with the "advanced" options, but apart from that, the original interface seems shattered. In the first image above, what's the difference in the average user's mind between "Security Essentials" and "Manage Security Settings for:"? Isn't it essential to manage security?
*Yeah, that's Spaceballs
..On the surface, the first menu(on the right for those not familiar) seems pretty user centered. You got the obligatory, and easy to undertand stoplight metaphor in conjunction with the checkmarks/"X", and the shields. All the trappings of a decent, easy to learn interface. It's the fact that you can't really do much with that menu that makes this confusing. More importantly, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to.
You have to click on "Windows Firewall" at the bottom there (which throws me every time I see this screen after a long period of time), only to be presented with the dialog on the left. So much visual "weight" is given to the "Security Essentials" section that I assume that's where I need to be to handle my firewall... but all for naught! ("turn around please"*) I have to find the other firewall control on the same screen.
I propose the following, hastily manipulated image instead. You can throw some of the descriptive text in there if you'd like as well...
My "advanced" button I pasted there would lead you to the "Exceptions" and "Advanced" tab from the first screenshot above.. as well as the "Recommendations." Anyway, the key is, the bulk of time, I just want to turn it on or off quickly, and I rarely mess with the "advanced" options, but apart from that, the original interface seems shattered. In the first image above, what's the difference in the average user's mind between "Security Essentials" and "Manage Security Settings for:"? Isn't it essential to manage security?
*Yeah, that's Spaceballs
WIDGETIZE
Kenneth Maage # 18. July 2006, 06:42
I think this is a case of the left hand not knowing what the right foot is doing. The screens were probably handled by two different departments because of some internal company structure. That's what happens when you Get Big™
[1] A term used in the psychology to describe what the brain is paying attention to. It's "...the taking possession by the mind in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought." William James, Principles of Psychology, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention
Lagged2Death # 22. July 2006, 13:39
I believe there was a time, back in 2001 or so, when the tabbed dialog (on the left) was the only way to control the built-in firewall, and it was fairly straightforward to get to. Perhaps it's not the most beautiful or well-designed dialog around, but at least it offered a single spot for a related group of options. The "Security Center" front end was added (with a service pack?) later, and it's really not clear why. It's got very a fresh graphic design, but it doesn't actually do much. It's just re-shuffling some of the options that are available through the old-fashioned control panel.
IcePanther # 26. July 2006, 08:59
In fact the security center can also monitor other firewalls. As Lagged2Death said, it was added in XP SP2, and serves only to inform beginner users they have no antivirus/firewall running. It's just an alerting service.
As I said, the security center can also monitor other firewalls (for example, Outpost, which I use) so it's not that broken that the controls for the Windows firewall are not on the same page, since this is not the only firewall you can us : it would be confusing to have the windows firewall turned "off" and the "traffic light" set to "on" because you've got another firewall software...