As a technology writer, I find that there are some things I enjoy writing about and some things I just find painful and do everything to avoid. It’s not my fault that something is painful to write about. Instead, it’s probably due to poor design more than anything happening in my head. Take the Windows Task Scheduler, for example.

Scheduling tasks is a primary function for any computer operating system. It’s often viewed as a technical task, mostly because few causal users have the need to schedule automatic operations. Being a technical task, however, is no excuse for making the scheduling interface obtuse. Yet that remote area of Windows underscores how the entire operating system suffers from poor design.

Face it, Microsoft does not design things to be visually stunning, clever, or interesting. That’s why the Macintosh is so favored; its interface makes sense. On the Mac, creatively insane has been a theme for 25 years now. Microsoft seems to just opt for insane, as is demonstrated with the Windows Vista Task Scheduler:

What you see above is one of about six similar-looking dialog boxes designed to set up a task in Windows Vista. It’s gross. Sure, you can navigate through it; it uses standard graphical elements, but it’s not creative. In fact, using the interface is a chore because it’s so uninspired. It was like the programmer knew what he had to set up, did that job at the minimum, took his paycheck, and left. That sucks.

Now consider the scheduling portion of the PerfectDisk program:

While the screen above isn’t exactly Oh-My-Gosh-Awesome, it demonstrates more respect for the user. It’s relatively un-cluttered. It’s pretty obvious what to do. The screen uses color and design to present information in a useful, handy manner. Sadly, the guy who designed or programmed the thing probably makes less than the typical programmer at Microsoft.

What Microsoft needs is a designer. Someone who understands how people use computers more than they understand object oriented programming, tunneling protocol, or OOXMLZOMG. That person needs to be in charge, not the programmer. When that happens, maybe Windows itself will become the useful operating system Microsoft wants it to be.