While setting up a PC for relatives that needed 6 user accounts…
Windows is completely broken in the user profile / user account department if you consider how easy it is to change settings relating to your profile in contemporary Web applications, compared to how deeply hidden this is in Windows. Most users don’t even know how to do it.
For instance try to change your user icon in Windows. Do you even know how to do it? Yet, you know how to do it in Facebook etc.
Hints for how to fix this:
- Show the user profile the first time the user logs in, so they immediately fill it in to their liking, including contact information to be used as a default in applications (native or otherwise).
- Show a Profile entry in the Start menu, for quick changes later.
- Let the same information be the default information when registering to communities. Hence, e.g. the icon you use in Windows would then be used in Facebook, Twitter etc, provided you want it to be.
Simple things right?
Back to the drawing board, Microsoft. Adopt, adapt and improve.