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Vista has problems. Paul doesn’t like it; Apple grabs market share while making fun of it. So what does Microsoft do? Fight back with science!

Microsoft recently conducted its own study where they showed users a new Windows operating system called “Mojave”. Subjects reported that they liked the new OS better than their current one (presumably XP). The catch is that it wasn’t a new operating system, it was Vista.

It reminds me of when the tobacco industry published its own research back in the 50’s. Suspicious? You bet.

These guys know science. Windows Vista is “Busted”.

As Wil Shipley wisely points out, there are all kinds of things wrong with the methods they used. Briefly:

• The Perfectly Controlled Environment Effect: Microsoft set up the hardware. Microsoft brought the accessories. Microsoft picked the software. Microsoft sat people down with Vista experts driving the mouse, and walked people through Vista. What an INCREDIBLE SHOCKER that in this INCREDIBLY TIGHTLY CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT Vista performed OK!

• The Personal Tutor Effect: If you sit anyone down with an expert in a particular program, and the expert walks them through the features and answers their every question, chances are good that person is going to report that she had a good experience with the program.

• The Pepsi Challenge Effect: “The Pepsi Challenge” was a blind taste test that Pepsi overwhelmingly won. Yet, most people still drink Coke. Why? [Malcolm] Gladwell’s thesis is that a single sip of a soft drink is very different from drinking a whole can, which is the smallest unit most people imbibe. Pepsi usually wins the challenge because it’s a sweeter drink, and initially people respond to this extra sweetness. But after drinking a can, Pepsi becomes cloying.

• The Placebo Effect: If we are told something is new-and-improved, we prime ourselves to believe it and make it so in our minds.

Are people even swayed by science or focus groups when it comes to choosing an operating system? Toothpaste, maybe. But software? I doubt it. It seems like a bit of wish fulfillment on Microsoft’s part: “See, people really do like Vista!”.

Ethics aside, I think most people aren’t so critical of bad research procedure. However, if they, or one of their friends, has a bad experience with something, that’s all the evidence they need. As such, I doubt the Mojave fiasco will tarnish Microsoft’s image any more than Vista already has.

However, I feel like all this wasted effort, time, and money could have gone to better use if it were applied towards their next release. We’ve said it before: if your product is fundamentally broken, don’t count on marketing to fix it.

I’m inaugurating this idea as a DLB design maxim:

You can’t sell the sizzle from a rotten steak.