This has been a beef of mine recently, and installing CityDesk reaffirmed it. Software installation sucks.
This is a large topic, so I'll just talk about one issue: companies have done a poor job of helping users cope with their software. This has gotten a lot better with Add/Remove Programs on Windows, RPMs in the UNIX land, etc., but still has a long way to go.
Let's take the Programs menu in Windows as an example. Most software likes to install itself at the top level, in fact it is a revelation to most vendors (including Microsoft Office until recently) that their stuff isn't so important it should have each item at the top level. Granted, Office is important to many users, but that doesn't help them manage their software and their systems. In fact, with Windows XP's MRU on the new start menu, one could argue that any good reason that Office had for listing their apps at the top level was gone. Luckily, they seem to agree and their new version doesn't appear that it will continue in that tradition.
When a program puts a submenu/folder there instead (always at the top level, of course), it still doesn't really help the situation. The name of the menu is either the program's name, or the name of the company that writes or publishes it. This is very noticeable with games, in particular. There are some games I think about based on their publisher, but not many. Most importantly, they are games, and should be in that folder.
Programs should self-categorize when they get installed. All games should go in Start->All Programs->Games. Bonus points for those that can agree on further categorization, such as genre. I would kill for:
Start->All Programs->Games->First Person Shooter->Battlefield 1942
I would also enjoy expansion packs and such sorting themselves nicely underneath the folders of the applications they expand, since they require them to be present anyway. Why should Battlefield 1942's first expansion pack, Road to Rome, be a separate entry? It should, at worst, be a subdirectory under Battlefield 1942, but even better it could be a couple extra programs, links, and other files in that folder that already exists. Help your users.
What about CityDesk? Well, the default is:
Start->All Programs->Fog Creek Software->CityDesk
Where CityDesk is a program and is the only item in that folder. I don't like this approach for a few reasons:
- If you only have one item in the folder, you have done nothing but create another level of indirection for no reason.
- There may be some people who think about CityDesk by considering the company that makes it, but that's a company- rather than user-centric model.
- I have no context about whether CityDesk is a game, a web site builder, or a new mp3 playing program except its name and the company it is apparently from.
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