A guy named Bob just moved into my house. He doesn’t really have a last name but he’s from Redmond, Wash., and his full name is Microsoft Bob.
Bob is a pretty smart guy. He knows how to write letters, balance a checkbook and keep track of appointments, addresses, phone numbers and household items. He can send and receive electronic mail and he has given me all sorts of personal advice — what to feed my dog, for instance. He tries to be friendly and he really is quite cute. Despite his good points, Bob has some annoying flaws. He takes up a lot of space, is hard to understand at times and can be a bit patronizing.
Bob, in case you haven’t guessed, is a software program from Microsoft Corp. that’s designed to put a friendlier face on home computing. Bob was announced Jan. 7 by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and is supposed to be available for about $100 by the end of March.
The software, which will run under Microsoft Windows, comes with eight built-in programs: Address Book, Calendar, Checkbook, Household Manager, E-Mail, Financial Guide, Letter Writer and a quiz game. The checkbook can be configured to let you pay bills electronically, and the Household Manager provides advice on subjects such as automobiles and going on vacation.
I don’t usually write about programs that you can’t buy yet, but Bob is more than a program, it’s a metaphor for the way Microsoft wants to reshape the face of home computing. And many of Bob’s traits are already showing up in other programs from Microsoft and competitors.
My impressions of Bob are based on a pre-release copy that was sent to me in December. This version takes up 25 megabytes of space on the hard disk and requires an IBM-compatible PC with Microsoft Windows. Like all pre-release or beta programs, its specifications and features are subject to change by the time it goes on sale to the public.
Bob’s goal is to eliminate much of the computerese from computing and to personalize the experience. Even the name “Bob” is designed to demystify the program. Bob is supposed to feel like a good friend or family member. The concept is more than a whim. It’s based, in part, on research from Stanford University professors who came to the conclusion that people are more likely to respond positively to a computer that has a name and a personality. The “human” face of Bob takes the form of a cartoon guide who helps you run programs and perform other tasks. The default guide is a cute dog named “Rover.” But you can choose from 10 other guides, including “Java,” a coffee-drinking, hyperactive creature from Guatemala City; “Ruby,” a rather mean-spirited parrot from Brazil; and “Orby,” who is billed as “the greatest globe you’ll ever meet.” The guides are supposed to provide help, but all you get when you click on them is the admonition to “start a program by clicking on it.” Anyone who’s ever run Windows already knows that.
Instead of pull-down menus or clearly marked icons, Bob’s interface consists of a room full of objects. To write a letter, for example, you click on a piece of paper.
Bob is hardly the first program to try to humanize or personalize a computer. Lots of people customize their PCs with screen savers or Windows or Macintosh “wallpaper,” which displays scenery or other graphics on the screen. I know plenty of people who’ve named their PCs, and I’ve been known to swear at mine from time to time.
And it’s not the first program to provide a homier front-end.
While Bob presents a friendlier face than many programs, it is not necessarily easier to use. Call me jaded, but I actually find it easier to use Windows Program Manager and other standard Windows and Macintosh programs than to find my way around Bob.
It doesn’t have a manual. You have to hold down a function key to learn that the ledger on the study table takes you to the household inventory program or that the stack of envelopes is used to send or receive electronic mail.
Of course, this forces you — eventually — to learn the meaning of the graphical icons by association — sort of like the way you learn a foreign language by hearing and speaking it. But it doesn’t make it any easier for first-time users to find their way around. Experienced Windows users will probably find Bob harder to navigate than programs that use traditional pull-down menus and well-labeled icons.
What’s more, Bob defeats one of Windows’ major advantages — the ability to do more than one thing at a time. Windows got its name because it lets the user do several things at once by dividing the screen into multiple windows. Bob takes up the full screen and doesn’t let you use more than one of its many functions at a time.
But Bob isn’t meant for the initiated. It’s designed for the millions of people who, each year, will start to use computers for the first time. Its interface should encourage exploration and its wacky characters may be just the comic relief that new users need to get over their initial phobias. But once people are beyond the basics, I suspect it will leave them cold and a bit bored.
