[IxDA Discuss] Critiquing the Office 2007 (was Re: Microsoft to license Office 2007 UI system)

[Dmitry Nekrasovski]

Russ,

Here is a link to a fairly detailed presentation Jensen did here in
Vancouver (probably similar to the BayCHI talk Dave referred to):

http://www.vanue.com/2006/03/20/beyond-menus-and-toolbars-in-microsoft-office/

Dmitry

On 11/28/06, Wilson, Russell <Russell.Wilson at netqos.com> wrote:
> Dave,
>
> Can you share any links to the published detail on the
> research they conducted?
>
> Fwiw, and maybe because I haven't moved through the learning
> curve yet, I hate the ribbon... (but appreciate the other
> improvements)
>
> Thanks,
> Russ
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com
> [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of
> David Malouf
> Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 11:48 AM
> To: discuss at ixda.org
> Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Critiquing the Office 2007 (was Re: Microsoft to
> license Office 2007 UI system)
>
>
> Todd Zaki Warfel wrote:
>
> > Whereas web-based apps are starting to look and perform more and more
> > like desktop applications, this is going the other direction - a
> > desktop app looking like and operating like a web-app. It's just
> > another case of MS throwing everything including the Kitchen sink at
> > the display.
> >
> > Just because you have more pixels doesn't mean you should use them.
> >
> > When will they learn?
> >
>
> Todd, I find the above critique to be very surface.
>
> There is a lot of published detail that is quite convincing about how
> they came to this design and what problems they are hoping to solve from
> earlier Office designs.
>
> Also, I don't find this very "webby" at all except to say that "webby"
> means conventionless and this being a new convention without a lot of
> precident would confirm that.
>
> Lastly, the ribbon is only a small part of the changes they've done to
> office and to look at the Ribbon as the only major change to me feels
> also very surface as a critique.
>
> My own take after using Office 2007 almost exclusively for a few months
> now is that while the beta was buggy the premises were very very sound.
>
> 1. See before you do is REALLY helpful.
> 2. The tabs and associated ribbon as a way of presenting things in a
> more discoverable fashion does work over time. It has a learning curve,
> but that curve definitely pays off.
> 3. text formatting widgets as overlay within the text editing space is
> GREAT! No longer having to go "all the way" back to the top for the
> toolbar to do things like bullets and alignment and other primary
> formatting changes is brilliant.
>
> And this is just the beginning.
>
> Things that I miss from the Mac Office 2004 version is the right panel
> palettes akin to Adobe software. Since our screens are wider than they
> are high and since Word and PPT docs seem to be vertically focused,
> using this right space seemed to work better than the ribbon. But since
> Excel is more horizontal than vertical and PPT can be horizontal in
> nature I can see that if I had to choose a vertical or a horizontal
> approach I may go with the horizontal one. Also, if I want to have
> multiple word docs open (something very common) the extra horizontal
> space in the vertical approach goes away and it would be better to use
> the height.
>
> Over all, licensing aside, I really like the new version of Office. It
> is a bold move for a company that has been locked with its legacy for
> way too long in the Windows space. They did 1000's of hours of research
> for this project, and I wouldn't want to be so quip with snubbing it out
> of hand.
>
> -- dave
>
>
> --
> --
> David Malouf
> dave at ixda.org
> http://ixda.org/
>
> ________________________________________________________________
> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
> To post to this list ....... discuss at ixda.org List Guidelines
> ............ http://listguide.ixda.org/ List Help ..................
> http://listhelp.ixda.org/ (Un)Subscription Options ...
> http://subscription-options.ixda.org/
> Announcements List ......... http://subscribe-announce.ixda.org/
> Questions .................. lists at ixda.org Home .......................
> http://ixda.org/ Resource Library ........... http://resources.ixda.org
> ________________________________________________________________
> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
> To post to this list ....... discuss at ixda.org
> List Guidelines ............ http://listguide.ixda.org/
> List Help .................. http://listhelp.ixda.org/
> (Un)Subscription Options ... http://subscription-options.ixda.org/
> Announcements List ......... http://subscribe-announce.ixda.org/
> Questions .................. lists at ixda.org
> Home ....................... http://ixda.org/
> Resource Library ........... http://resources.ixda.org
>