[IxDA Discuss] Microsoft's Ribbon?

[Mark Bardsley]

I bet you were caught up in your attempt to use the ribbon. I have
caught myself doing things a certain way depending on the context. This
seems to especially be the case if I "jump in the driver's seat" of a
computer after watching someone else do things a certain way.

 

I hope that lessons the emotional harm somewhat :-)

 

- Mark Bardsley

 

________________________________

From: W Evans [mailto:wkevans4 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 3:46 PM
To: Mark Bardsley
Cc: discuss at ixda.org
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Microsoft's Ribbon?

 

I thought about that on my walk home this evening - so it's funny you
bring it up. I was asking myself, "Self - why didn't you remember to use
the short-cut? Aren't you an expert user? Is there something wrong? Am I
not that smart to remember ctrl-z?" 

I don't know - maybe I am just not that bright. Then again - design
principals written in About Face 3.0 - talks about interaction designs
not inflicting emotional harm..... so if the design of the ribbon and
the hiding of the undo button was not really adhering to fitt's law -
the opposite - that I am just not a very smart user - violates an
interaction design principle. 




On 9/18/07, Mark Bardsley <markb at luxworldwide.com> wrote:

I have been following this discussion for some time now - well, since I
guess it started. I have to ask, don't 'we experts' use keyboard
shortcuts for things like save, print, copy, cut, paste and undo
(ctrl+z)? I know that doesn't get to the heart of the matter, that it's
difficult to find the butcons in the Ribbon. But I had the general sense
that "expert" users used keyboard shortcuts. Am I wrong in that 
assumption? I am of the near religious conviction that learning keyboard
shortcuts saves time and reduces RSS. (Ahem), not that I would ever tell
a user he/she was using the software wrong.

- Mark Bardsley 


>Undo. Arguable one of the most important commands in any well designed
>application. There was no ribbon for Edit, and there is no Edit Menu.

>Hunt, scratch - search - pullout hair - and Hey! There it is.... a tiny

>little left swooshing arrow that is on the edge of the modal window -
>unlabeled - I had to mouse over every icon to find it - and it so
clearly
>violates Fitt's Law that I am left crying. It's tiny. That means hard 
to
>find, and acquire. It's also right on the edge of the window - which
mean's
>that for someone without the fine motor skills of catwoman - they are
>likely to change focus to the window behind. 
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-- 
~ we

-------------------------------------
n:     will evans
t:      user experience architect
e:     wkevans4 at gmail.com

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