A month after all the hoopla at its launch, Windows 8 doesn't seem to be living up to the hype. So far most analysts say sales are far below expectations.

After a billion dollars of promotion and a billion hours of testing, Windows 8 is off to a slow start.

The man dubbed the guru of web usability, Jakob Nielsen, calls Windows 8 on mobile devices and tablets "Dr. Jekyll" - "a tortured soul hoping for redemption" and on regular PC's - "Mr. Hyde" - "a monster that terrorizes poor office workers and strangles their productivity."

Raluca Budiu did the research for the Nielsen study that provoked this withering review.

Budiu said, "Unfortunately, it was quite hard for them to find their way around Windows 8. It was hard to find controls and buttons and interact with the applications."

Twelve experienced users spent 90 minutes trying to complete 18 tasks. Most people had difficulty with all of them like this one trying to change the location for the weather. I had trouble, too. Every single user failed this test - trying to add a recipe to a list of favorites and then delete it from the list.

But, when I tried to repeat the same task a few minutes later, I forgot how I'd done it.

Budiu said, "The problem was that you were trying to use the swipe on the recipe page but instead you should have used it here. People usually have trouble remembering that these menus can vary."

Budiu says swiping inconsistencies and poor screen space plague the device.

Budiu said, "You are going to see a very big picture of a person and the text occupies maybe only a third of the screen."

The traditional Windows desktop view is still available as a crutch, but Budiu says users ended up going through too many unnecessary steps to switch between modes instead of just running them side by side.

Budiu said, "A lot of it is contextual, you have to remember not only where to go, but also where to go for a specific app."

Critics of the Nielsen study say everyone needs time to learn something radically different. Budiu says she agrees, but adds that Windows 8 will get better a lot faster, if Microsoft heeds the study's advice.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)