[drewprops]

Some of the web design tenets discussed in Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think" must be part of the conversation with UI designers... the manner in which users wildly swing around to click on things, hoping that they'll do what they want them to do.

I seriously wince when I watch other people, especially people who aren't power users, click around in an app, be it Word or a web browser.

They simply do not know how to steer the boat.

It's that simple.

All those buttons make them go snowblind.

I can see why Apple's minimalist interface has been so successful with the bleating sheep who are lucky to have mastered bipedal locomotion with masticulatory overtones.... but the time lags and weenie-ness of those dumbed down controls is frustrating when you're used to having full down-to-the-pixel control in apps like InDesign and Illustrator.

My prefs for the 2011 version of office are stability, streamlining, and simplification (but with the ability to pull in power when necessary).



...

[CitizenTony]

I came across this post and thought it relevant to the discussion here. It explains the view in Brad's screen shots, among other things.

Microsoft blog on why they put the ribbon in Office:Mac

Relevant bits:

Our single most important decision for the MacRibbon is that we're still going to be a good Mac citizen. Our menus, not to mention the standard toolbar, stay. We knew that one concern that our users have is the availability of vertical screen real estate. As such, we quickly made the decision that our MacRibbon should be collapsible. If you're using the MacRibbon, then you've got easy access to our features; if you're not, then you can collapse it to get it out of your way. If you're feeling particularly minimalistic, you can collapse the standard toolbar too, leaving you with every pixel on your screen below the menu bar to dedicate to your document. One of the questions that we get asked about the MacRibbon is why it takes up vertical screen real estate at all. It's about how people work. If you're on a widescreen monitor, windows off to the side have the "out of sight, out of mind" problem. You're so focused on your content that's right in front of you that you don't look the few inches over to your right to see what's happening in the Toolbox. Moving the same features out of the Formatting Palette or Toolbox and into the Ribbon has drastically increased their discoverability, and makes it easier for you to get your work done. My team has done hundreds of hours of usability studies that focus on the MacRibbon across the suite, an effort spearheaded by one of my research colleagues. At each step of the way, we've made changes to the MacRibbon based on our research findings, and conducted additional research to determine whether our new design met its goals. We've had really positive feedback about this. I just wrapped up an Outlook:Mac study where one participant told me that he felt like he was getting the best of both worlds: the goodness of Outlook done in a way that fits right in to the rest of his Mac experience.

It's a good read.

[chucker]

Nadyne has many worthwhile reads on her blog, by the way.

[alcimedes]

The entire point of the ribbon is to make the Mac version = the Windows version.

End of story. We have the same crap they do now, for better or worse.

[Batman]

Originally Posted by alcimedes The entire point of the ribbon is to make the Mac version = the Windows version. End of story. We have the same crap they do now, for better or worse.

Oh according to this, we've had the Ribbon for a long time

[PB PM]

Yup, if you think Office is bad, you should see the old versions of Microsoft Works.

[Chinney]

What's wrong with a slim menu bar up top, plus a palette? What extra is a ribbon going to get me? Is there going to be a menu bar, a palette, and a ribbon? What's next?

[Chinney]

And to address Brad's criticism of the criticism, I agree that we should be even handed in our critique. Apple is not immune. I continue to be frustrated by the UI of iTunes in particular. It's busy, unintuitive and sometimes downright wonky. Apple is certainly capable of doing better - and it has done better on other products - but iTunes is just a mess, and at more than one level. I get the feeling that the only reason that they don't fix it is that many people have become used to the mess and would not be anxious to relearn a fundamentally redesigned product even if it were better.

[joveblue]

Originally Posted by Chinney I get the feeling that the only reason that they don't fix it is that many people have become used to the mess and would not be anxious to relearn a fundamentally redesigned product even if it were better.

I get the feeling that there's an awful lot of that going on in this thread

Originally Posted by Chinney What's wrong with a slim menu bar up top, plus a palette? What extra is a ribbon going to get me? Is there going to be a menu bar, a palette, and a ribbon? What's next?

Theoretically the ribbon should replace the palette and the toolbar. For some reason they appear to have decided to keep a toolbar happening, and a rather thick one at that, which is worrying. Pretty sure the palette is history though (I hope... man I hate the palette! )

[Moogs]

Jove: you were misinformed...



Microsoft is NOT, based on the information I've read, making a major overhaul to any app other than Entourage (becoming Outlook). They are changing the toolbar UI from what it is, to a more Ribbon-like version. That is not innovation, nor is it a major overhaul. Meantime, the A#1 problem people have, slow to: launch, open documents, save, quit and format in certain contexts, and buggy... apparently not on the radar. Hope I'm wrong.

[drewprops]

Beta Testers feel free to leave us a coded message as to how well it works!

...

[joveblue]

Originally Posted by Moogs

They're not completely rewriting the code of the other apps in the suite in Cocoa, no. But they are completely overhauling the UI. Yes other problems will still exist (although hopefully it will play nice with Spaces now). But that's not really relevant...

[Hassan i Sabbah]

I’ve had the chance to play about with the beta of Word 2011 for the last few days, and I really like it. It’s really good.

It’s a bit buggy, but it’s finally a proper speed, and it seems to have solved all the institutional bugs that made it such a pain in the anus for so many years. The ribbon’s really useful, I’m shocked to say. I’ve elected to keep it, which surprised me, and I’m using it to replace the formatting palette. If you don’t like it you can get rid of it.

Searching is vastly improved. Some of the preferences are a bit of a mess. I’m hoping they’ll sort those out.

I hate to say it, but I like it.

[joveblue]

I don't share your surprise