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

Tue Nov 28 11:27:44 PST 2006

Dmitry,

The pdf link on that page seems to be broken. any thoughts? Having not been there I would love to look at the slides.

Mark

On Tuesday, November 28, 2006, at 02:14PM, "Dmitry Nekrasovski" <mail.dmitry at gmail.com> wrote:
>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/
>>
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