Overall Impression of Beta 2

-comments based on v 2060 build 2011005

As much as I appreciate some of the new features of Beta 2 in general, I'm afraid I have a very poor opinion of the USABILITY of Beta 2.

My general criticism is that it shows a total failure of viewing the interface from the point of view of the average user.

1 The interface is more cluttered and confusing than Spybot 1. Programmers must be aware that the user interface is not something you formulate to follow the programming architecture. Users don't give a hoot about the underlying mechanisms. I suspect the current interface follows some logical aspects from the point of view of the programmer.

2 Any change from an established interface means a huge waste of time for users to learn to do things in a very different way. Often, changes are introduced simply for the sake of change which should always be avoided because it wastes users time. It's comparable to asking people to swim against the current rather than with it.

Would it not have been possible to keep most of the old interface although the underlying programming is very different?

3 Programmers who develop a program are the least qualified people to judge the user interface because they are very familiar with all of it and cannot approach it with the same ignorance as a new user, or an old user of the older interface. You need to find people who are not familiar with the program and see how fast they catch on. Note the steps that give them trouble and then rewrite the interface to reduce confusion and complexity. Then test it again and rewrite. Keep doing this (with brand new users) until things run very smoothly and brand new users get up to speed very fast.

4 I have used the Beta version for at least a month or so (after an early Beta messed my computer up so it would no longer boot at all) when I first ran a scan and was horrified by the scan results display. I found it difficult to understand anything. It was so utterly different from the scan results I was used to getting with Spybot 1.

I have given up so far on the Live Protection because it slowed things down so much besides being extremely annoying and disabled it. Disabling it turned out to be somewhat difficult -again because the interface proved to be confusing. So this part of the interface also needs major modifications.

With Beta 2.xxx the results appear mostly not to show malicious software but Windows processes, most of which mean very little to me. Now, I repair and build computers and fix Windows systems that are infected with malicious software, so I'm not a total imbecile. I can think of no other software that produces scan results that are so unhelpful. For example Spybot 1.xx, Malwarebytes, AVG, Panda Cloud AV, AVAST, CounterSpy all produce at the completion of a scan a list of malefactors, rather than a long list of Windows processes, programs or whatever that most people have never seen before and do not understand. I work with a lot of users and therefore I see which program interfaces give them the most trouble, so I'm talking not only of my experience but that of numerous average Windows users.

My reaction was to simply re-install Spybot 1 (which I had at some point uninstalled when I was attempting to uninstall Spybot 2 Beta) and to happily go back to a program I was very happy with in general and knew how to use with ease.

I do have to express my thanks to everyone who works very hard to create Spybot. It is far better than so many programs and I know that the programmers work without pay. I don't know enough programming to appreciate the cleverness of design and execution. I am certainly not ungrateful, my critical comments apply only to the interface! I'm hoping that it can be improved and thus be more useful to a much larger audience of users.

I'm sure I am not the only person who had this reaction. If you agree with the general direction of my comments please post your support, or if you disagree please explain why.



Thanks,

Dan

I signed up expressly to post my agreement with drdancm.

First, let me say Thank you! for all the hard work that has gone into this product. I have supported in the past with a donation, and will do so again in the future (job willing...) Outstanding work, and I am very grateful for the existence of a company like this one.

I also returned to SB v1 after testing v2, and for much the same reasons. It's much easier to navigate and find the info that you're after. I also found the results extremely cluttered and unhelpful. Of course you expect big changes between major revision numbers, but it felt like a totally different product (from another vendor, even) and not in a good way.

I'm a power user myself, but I have had no qualms setting complete newbies up with SB v1. (Including my retired mother) Given the complexity of v2's interface, I don't feel the same way about recommending it to friends and family. I am going to get far too many "please help" phonecalls.

To summarize:

Thanks for a great product (v1), and please make the v2 interface as user friendly as v1. I would like to continue enjoying your product, and continue to feel good about recommending it to others.

:thanks: