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

[thematrix606]

@packoftwenty

"You have to remember which tab the 'hidden' command is under'"

"With drop down menus, you remember SPATIALLY where the command was - i.e. near the middle menu, half way down, or in the top left. The Ribbon is a joke."

Way to contradict yourself, you're one of the smart ones out there!

[packoftwenty]

@AllUrUtubeRbelong2me Yes, I want to see more of the idiot Jensen Harris's thought processes too, and all the stupid, lame user interface FAILURES that his asshole team came up with, and then shelved, because they didn't work and were rubbish! But they still got paid for wasting time, coming up with useless interfaces! Hell, one of their useless interfaces even made it into production! It's called 'The Ribbon'! You are a moron if you find any value in this presentation.

[packoftwenty]

@thematrix606 Oh, I'm just SO convinced! All hail the Ribbon! You asshole.

[packoftwenty]

@thematrix606 Well then you're a fucking moron, aren't you... How can you possibly find it easier to play 'Find the Lady' with the Ribbon? You have to remember which tab the 'hidden' command is under', which 99% of the time, people can't do, then click the tab, hunt around the entire Ribbon to find it, etc.

With drop down menus, you remember SPATIALLY where the command was - i.e. near the middle menu, half way down, or in the top left. The Ribbon is a joke.

[thematrix606]

@bardzo

I don't disagree with your statement at all! But looking at the history of office until 2003, the UI was more or less identical, this is the first radical change. I was also very skeptical during my first few weeks/months of usage, until I came across this video explaining how things work. I think it only takes 1 hour or so to learn how the ribbons work and how to use them. From there on, I find finding commands and features is MUCH easier than with the older UI :)

[bardzo]

@thematrix606

That's all good and well, but if every new version of a program requires you to re-learn how to use it from scratch, then I'm not going to get much work done. Changes to a program should be intuitive and build on the knowledge that you already have.

[thematrix606]

@bardzo

There is a chinese proverb that says "When the wind of change comes, some people build bunkers, and some people build windmills." You, my friend, are building a bunker. Change = knowledge. You have to let go and get into it before you realize how beneficial it is.

[bardzo]

I'm still not convinced. I felt I had mastered the 'file, edit, view' system, I knew where everything was and I got things done quickly.

This new system is not intuitive, I find myself clicking all over the place hoping for the right pictures to pop up. I did find a third party program that replaces the menu bar but I generally find myself just using an old version of office 2003 to get anything done properly

[AllUrUtubeRbelong2me]

Very interesting presentation indeed. I love hearing about all the thought processes that go into the creation of such important applications, especially coming first hand from one of the lead designers. I want to see more of this. Thanks for uploading this.

[veorens]

very interesting presentation, thanks for putting it up.