MIX08 Microsoft Office 2007: The Story of the Ribbon (7 of 10)

Jensen Harris from the Office 2007 design team gave a very rare presentation at Microsoft's MIX08.

Farewell, menus and toolbars! Come hear the behind-the-scenes story of how the 2007 Office Ribbon user interface was imagined, designed, and validated. See never-before-shown early prototypes, hear about mistakes we learned from during the design process, and find out the principles of user experience design we used each step of the way in creating the first totally new user interface for Office.

Portal:
http://www.babybluebox.com
http://www.creativecrew.org
http://www.williamchang.org

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• MIX08
• Microsoft
• Office
• 2007
• Story
• Ribbon
• Creating
• Prototyping
• Designing
• Usability
• Accessibility
• User Experience

[packoftwenty]

@LazDude2012 Try reading this - idiot:

w w w exceluser com/explore/surveys/ribbon/rib­­bon-survey-results.htm

[LazDude2012]

@virtualmachine07 hey! you know what? If you weren't so hysterically frenzied, you would be a lot easier to deal with! The ribbon is a great UI, and I would like to see more of this. Instead of burying all the obscure features, it has them right where I use them. Also, what basic features are you looking for? They are almost ALL right there on the home tab or the popup toolbar. Please, be less hysterical because you didn't get your way, and give new things a try.

[packoftwenty]

"You seem really annoyed about the design decisions that were done at Microsoft."

And? Your point?

You surely aren't trying to imply that I SHOULDN'T be annoyed at the stupidity of a bunch of latte drinking assholes who work for Microsoft, and then IMPOSE their stupidity on hundreds of millions of people, who are FORCED to use their SHIT design by their employers?

What next? "Find a different employer" or some other dumbass 'rebuttal'? Thanks for proving my point.

[packoftwenty]

@virtualmachine07 Boo hoo... I see you don't like people being able to point out Microsoft's stupidity IN PUBLIC then...

You don't understand how a good user interface works, and you are douchebag of the highest order because you actually support Microsoft's shit Ribbon. Idiot.

Try reading this, and get back to me, Einstein...

w w w exceluser com/explore/surveys/ribbon/rib­bon-survey-results.htm

[packoftwenty]

@virtualmachine07 The menu system DID "properly show all of the available power in Office". Just because people were unable to find certain functions using the menu, what makes you think 'the Ribbon' is any better? I've wasted tens of hours of my life trying to find BASIC functions in 'the Ribbon', and thanks to Microsoft, I had no CHOICE in the matter, because the douchebags who designed it knew that if they gave users a CHOICE, MOST would choose menus...

[packoftwenty]

@virtualmachine07 "in an organized way". Hilarious.

You haven't got a clue how user interfaces work, nor how people remember where things are when trying to find functions in a program. The 'Ribbon' is an epic fail because it prevents you from using spatial memory to find things. Nobody stores things in their minds using layers of objects, they store them in a flat, two dimensional space. Just like the old menu system.

[packoftwenty]

@olfrygt2007 Boo hoo... The ribbon is a pile of rubbish, just do a search for "Why the Microsoft Ribbon sucks"...

The argument for the new design is "We, the people of the 'human interface department' at Microsoft, have to come up with something NEW to justify our positions, otherwise we lose our jobs."

There, that wasn't difficult, was it.

The Ribbon is fundamentally flawed because the OLD method (drop down menus) worked perfectly well, and allowed you to use spatial memory to find things...

[olfrygt2007]

@packoftwenty This over an hour long presentation describes the whole process with arguments and conclusions that led to the new design. Criticise it precisely! Exactly where is the mistake in the steps they took during the development of the new interface? Try not to use the following words: "idiot" "crap" "cretin" "douchbag" "asshole" "dumbass" "moron" "prick" "dickhead" "sucker" "tosser" and "latte-swilling". I bet it will be nearly impossible for you to answer without insults :D Good luck

[packoftwenty]

@olfrygt2007 And the ribbon is still a bad design. I notice that none of you 'defenders of the ribbon' (i.e. idiots) can actually explain why it's an 'improvement' (LOL).

[Gertruda9854]

You'll find MS Office 10 on this site -

downloadblinks . C//O//M