ABSTRACT
Users must manage frequent software and operating system upgrades across multiple computing devices. While current research focuses primarily on the security aspect, we investigate the user's perspective of upgrading software. Our first study (n=65) found that users delay major upgrades by an average of 80 days. We then ran a field study (n=14), beginning with in-depth observations during an operating system upgrade, followed by a four-week diary study. Very few participants prepared for upgrades (e.g., backing up files), and over half had negative reactions to the upgrade process and other changes (e.g., bugs, lost settings, unwanted features). During the upgrade process, waiting times were too long, feedback was confusing or misleading, and few had clear mental models of what was happening. Users almost never mentioned security as a concern or reason for upgrading. By contrast, interviews (n=3) with technical staff responsible for one organization's upgrades focused only on security and licensing, not user interface changes. We conclude with recommendations to improve the user's upgrade experience.
Supplemental Material
- Ron Amadeo. 2016. Android N borrows Chrome OS code for "seamless" update installation | Ars Technica. http: //arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/05/android-n-borrows-c hrome-os-code-for-seamless-update-installation/. (May 2016). (Accessed on August 2, 2016).Google Scholar
- Apple. 2016. Get help with over-the-air iOS updates Apple Support. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201435. (June 2016). (Accessed on August 2, 2016).Google Scholar
- Harry Brignull. 2013. Dark Patterns: inside the interfaces designed to trick you | The Verge. http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/29/4640308/dark-patte rns-inside-the-interfaces-designed-to-trick-you. (Aug. 2013). (Accessed on July 28, 2016).Google Scholar
- Brad Chacos. 2016. Forced Windows 10 upgrades push users to dangerously disable Windows Update. http://www.pcworld.com/article/3075729/windows/fearin g-forced-windows-10-upgrades-users-are-disabling-cri tical-updates-at-their-own-risk.html. (May 2016). (Accessed on August 1, 2016).Google Scholar
- David Coburn. 2014. How Apple's OS X Yosemite tracks you. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/business/t echnology/how-apples-os-x-yosemite-tracks-you/2014/ 10/22/66df4386--59f1--11e4--9d6c-756a229d8b18_video.html. (Oct. 2014). (Accessed on August 8, 2016).Google Scholar
- Shane Dingman. 2016. Considering updating to Windows 10? The choice may be out of your hands - The Globe and Mail. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/t ech-news/considering-updating-to-windows-10-the-choic e-may-be-out-of-your-hands/article28533377/. (Feb. 2016). (Accessed on August 1, 2016).Google Scholar
- Thomas Duebendorfer and Stefan Frei. 2009. Why silent updates boost security. TIK, ETH Zurich, Tech. Rep 302 (2009).Google Scholar
- Kevin Dunn. 2004. Automatic update risks: can patching let a hacker in Network Security 2004, 7 (2004), 5--8.Google Scholar
- Michael Fagan, Mohammad Maifi Hasan Khan, and Ross Buck. 2015. A study of users' experiences and beliefs about software update messages. Computers in Human Behavior 51 (2015), 504--519. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Michael Fagan, Mohammad Maifi Hasan Khan, and Nhan Nguyen. 2015. How does this message make you feel? A study of user perspectives on software update/warning message design. Human-centric Computing and Information Sciences 5, 1 (2015), 1.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Marvin Fleischmann, Miglena Amirpur, Tillmann Grupp, Alexander Benlian, and Thomas Hess. 2016. The role of software updates in information systems continuance-An experimental study from a user perspective. Decision Support Systems 83 (2016), 83--96. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Marita Franzke and John Rieman. 1993. Natural training wheels: Learning and transfer between two versions of a computer application. In Human Computer Interaction. Springer, 315--328. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Barbara L Fredrickson and Daniel Kahneman. 1993. Duration neglect in retrospective evaluations of affective episodes. Journal of personality and social psychology 65, 1 (1993), 45.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Stefan Frei, Thomas Duebendorfer, and Bernhard Plattner. 2008. Firefox (in) security update dynamics exposed. ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review 39, 1 (2008), 16--22. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Samuel Gibbs. 2016. Windows 10: Microsoft launches intrusive full-screen upgrade reminder | Technology | The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/ jul/04/microsoft-windows-10-full-screen-upgrade-notif ication-pop-up-reminder. (July 2016). (Accessed on August 1, 2016).Google Scholar
- Rob Griffiths. 2016. A useless analysis of OS X release dates | The Robservatory. http://robservatory.com/a-use less-analysis-of-os-x-release-dates/. (July 2016). (Accessed on August 1, 2016).Google Scholar
- Iulia Ion, Rob Reeder, and Sunny Consolvo. 2015. "... no one can hack my mind": Comparing Expert and Non-Expert Security Practices. In Eleventh Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS 2015). 327--346.Google Scholar
- Daniel Kahneman, Barbara L Fredrickson, Charles A Schreiber, and Donald A Redelmeier. 1993. When more pain is preferred to less: Adding a better end. Psychological science 4, 6 (1993), 401--405. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Moazzam Khan, Zehui Bi, and John A Copeland. 2012. Software updates as a security metric: Passive identification of update trends and effect on machine infection. In MILCOM 2012--2012 IEEE Military Communications Conference. IEEE, 1--6.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Huoy Min Khoo and Daniel Robey. 2007. Deciding to upgrade packaged software: a comparative case study of motives, contingencies and dependencies. European Journal of Information Systems 16, 5 (2007), 555--567. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Huoy Min Khoo, Daniel Robey, and Srinivasan Venkoba Rao. 2011. An exploratory study of the impacts of upgrading packaged software: a stakeholder perspective. Journal of Information technology 26, 3 (2011), 153--169. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Wendy E. Mackay. 1991. Triggers and Barriers to Customizing Software. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '91). ACM, NY, NY, USA, 153--160. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/108844.108867 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Wendy E Mackay. 2000. Responding to cognitive overload: Co-adaptation between users and technology. Intellectica 30, 1 (2000), 177--193.Google Scholar
- Andrew Martonik. 2015. Hey Google, don't just change fundamental parts of my launcher without warning | Android Central. http://www.androidcentral.com/googl e-dont-just-change-my-launcher-without-warning. (September 2015). (Accessed on September, 10 2016).Google Scholar
- Joanna McGrenere, Ronald M. Baecker, and Kellogg S. Booth. 2002. An Evaluation of a Multiple Interface Design Solution for Bloated Software. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '02). ACM, NY, NY, USA, 164--170. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/503376.503406 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Joanna McGrenere and Gale Moore. 2000. Are we all in the same" bloat"?. In Graphics interface, Vol. 2000. 187--196.Google Scholar
- Microsoft. 2016. Upgrade to Windows 10: FAQ. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12435/window s-10-upgrade-faq. (July 2016). (Accessed on August 2, 2016).Google Scholar
- Andreas Möller, Florian Michahelles, Stefan Diewald, Luis Roalter, and Matthias Kranz. 2012. Update behavior in app markets and security implications: A case study in google play. In Proc. of the 3rd Intl. Workshop on Research in the Large. Held in Conjunction with Mobile HCI. Citeseer, 3--6.Google Scholar
- Brad A. Myers. 1985. The Importance of Percent-done Progress Indicators for Computer-human Interfaces. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '85). ACM, NY, NY, USA, 11--17. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/317456.317459 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Antonio Nappa, Richard Johnson, Leyla Bilge, Juan Caballero, and Tudor Dumitras. 2015. The attack of the clones: a study of the impact of shared code on vulnerability patching. In 2015 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. IEEE, 692--708. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jakob Nielsen. 1995. 10 Heuristics for User Interface Design. https: //www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/. (Jan. 1995). (Accessed on August 12, 2016).Google Scholar
- Donald A Norman. 1983. Some observations on mental models. Mental models 7, 112 (1983), 7--14.Google Scholar
- Robert Plutchik. 2001. The Nature of Emotions Human emotions have deep evolutionary roots, a fact that may explain their complexity and provide tools for clinical practice. American Scientist 89, 4 (2001), 344--350. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Jonathan Posner, James A Russell, and Bradley S Peterson. 2005. The circumplex model of affect: An integrative approach to affective neuroscience, cognitive development, and psychopathology. Development and psychopathology 17, 03 (2005), 715--734.Google Scholar
- John Siracusa. 2014. OS X 10.10 Yosemite: The Ars Technica Review | Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.co m/apple/2014/10/os-x-10--10/9/#spotlight. (Oct. 2014). (Accessed on August 1, 2016).Google Scholar
- Ashkan Soltani and Craig Timberg. 2014. Apple's Mac computers can automatically collect your location information - The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp /2014/10/20/apples-mac-computers-can-automatically-c ollect-your-location-information/. (Oct. 2014). (Accessed on August 1, 2016).Google Scholar
- Franck Tétard and Mikael Collan. 2009. Lazy user theory: A dynamic model to understand user selection of products and services. In System Sciences, 2009. HICSS'09. 42nd Hawaii International Conference on. IEEE, 1--9.Google Scholar
- Yuan Tian, Bin Liu, Weisi Dai, Blase Ur, Patrick Tague, and Lorrie Faith Cranor. 2015. Supporting Privacy-Conscious App Update Decisions with User Reviews. In Proceedings of the 5th Annual ACM CCS Workshop on Security and Privacy in Smartphones and Mobile Devices. ACM, 51--61. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kami Vaniea and Yasmeen Rashidi. 2016. Tales of Software Updates: The Process of Updating Software. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '16). ACM, NY, NY, USA, 3215--3226. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858303 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kami E. Vaniea, Emilee Rader, and Rick Wash. 2014. Betrayed by Updates: How Negative Experiences Affect Future Security. In Proceedings of the 32Nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '14). ACM, NY, NY, USA, 2671--2674. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557275 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Rick Wash, Emilee J Rader, Kami Vaniea, and Michelle Rizor. 2014. Out of the Loop: How Automated Software Updates Cause Unintended Security Consequences.. In SOUPS. 89--104.Google Scholar
- Lance Whitney. 2016. Microsoft's Windows 10 upgrades are getting even more sneaky-pushy - CNET. http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-windows-10-upgrade s-get-more-sneaky-pushy/. (May 2016). (Accessed on August 1, 2016).Google Scholar
- Timothy D Wilson and Daniel T Gilbert. 2005. Affective forecasting knowing what to want. Current Directions in Psychological Science 14, 3 (2005), 131--134. Google ScholarCross Ref
Index Terms
- High Costs and Small Benefits: A Field Study of How Users Experience Operating System Upgrades
Recommendations
Driven to distraction
Display Omitted An observational study examined the apparent purpose of interruptions in critical care.Information seeking and team decision-making are among frequent interruption types.Improved information displays and tools for team communication can ...
The psychological functions of avatars and alt(s)
Multiple identity systems involve a physical self and a set of virtual identities.An 8-item model of avatar functions within a multiple identity system was identified.The vast majority of participants noted all or most functions in their interviews.The ...
Older adults' perception of costs and benefits of web-based and mobile PHR technologies: a focus group approach
USAB'11: Proceedings of the 7th conference on Workgroup Human-Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering of the Austrian Computer Society: information Quality in e-HealthThe goal of the study was to explore older adults perceived benefits and costs of relatively new personal health records (PHR) technologies: web-based PHRs versus mobile PHRs. Twenty-six older adults (ages 63-79 years) participated in a focus group. The ...
Comments