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

[Dan Saffer]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think the Office  
2007 reboot is probably the best interaction design work to come out  
of Microsoft in a long while. It's certainly the most major refresh  
of a major software suite since...well, I don't recall. If you look  
at the design decisions that were made--and HOW and WHY they were  
made--it's pretty impressive. Jensen Harris's blog is required  
reading on the subject, and should probably be required reading for  
all interaction designers:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/tags/Ribbon/All+Office+2007+UI 
+Posts/default.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/11/10/the-office-2007-ui- 
bible.aspx

The Ribbon is really only a part of the overhaul--supposedly there  
are some 1000 updates. What I think is really interesting is that  
they've borrowed paradigms from both desktop and online in the  
design, as well as creating new ones.

There is definitely going to be a learning curve and what I call  
"redesign reorientation," especially for power users. But the  
tradeoffs are probably going to be well worth it.

As a community, we've bitched about the design of Word and such for  
years. They finally did something about it--something radical,  
nonetheless. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Dan





Dan Saffer, IDSA
http://www.designingforinteraction.com  book  |  work   http:// 
www.adaptivepath.com
http://www.noideasbutinthings.com      project  |  site     http:// 
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