[jwvgoethe]

"More research and testing yielded a solution - the ribbon, which displayed different commands depending on what the PC user was doing. Then Larson-Green pushed Microsoft to get even more radical: to release Office 2007 without the hedge of a "classic mode" that would emulate the old look and feel for people who didn't like the changes."

The ribbon almost gives me a stroke every time I have to use office. I've always said that whoever developed it should be drug out into the street and shot. well apparently now we know who it was. The odd thing is that microsoft considered the ribbon a success?! even more stunningly they put ribbon lady in charge of their next OS. I swear it seems that microsofts enemies are making their top level corporate decisions.

This spells doom for windows 7.

[stuff4ben]

I love the ribbon in Office 2007. It took a while to "get" the paradigm shift, but it works. As a developer, I don't use Office that much, but when I do, all of the commands I need are just a ribbon away. No more hunting through tabs of preferences or endless menus. It's also not just Microsoft that considers the ribbon a success, many other users do and they've won awards for the innovative UI.

[thismat]

Agreed. While I'm the type of person who wants to play with everything new and shiny, I had no problems adjusting to the ribbon, and I think it was a fantastic step forward in usability.

I think the ribbon(and all of Office 2k7) was a huge step forward for UI in general, and they executed it amazingly well. (I'm not a fanboy for any side of the OS world, I go between all of the OS's).

[flatline]

The problem is when I want some relatively obscure command, like to record a macro. I had to google where the menu had gone because it was a feature you had to go into the system options to turn on. The ribbon looks pretty, but it's worse than the hidden "context-sensitive" menus that only show you the most used commands. The ribbon could be much better if it changed according to the user's knowledge and capabilities, and gave power users the more familiar list of everything.

[jwvgoethe]

"as a developer" this seems to be the problem with microsofts new user interfaces. The tech elite may like them, but they are impossible for the ordinary user. I posit that the vast majority of non technical end users utterly hate hate hate the ribbon. I imagine the same thing will happen with windows 7. In fact we've already been seeing it; the tech elite trying out the beta are liking it, which means that it will be unusable from the end user's perspective.

[stuff4ben]

No, you have it completely backwards. That was the problem with their old UI's. They were built by developers for developers with minimal thought towards everyday users. This was the first major shift away from that and it seems to have worked. It took into account how people used Office and is the result of countless focus groups and studies. As I said earlier, it takes a while to grok it, but once you do, there really is no going back.

My wife is an excellent example of a non-tech user. I surreptitiously installed Office 2007 on her computer when I upgraded her HD and reinstalled Windows. She hated it at first because it was different than what she was used to (Office XP). She hates change as most people do. But as she used it, she got used to the new UI and now has said she loves it and wishes more of her programs worked that way.

I hate to sound like a Microsoft homer, but seriously, the ribbon UI is one of the more innovative and fresh ideas to come out of Redmond lately.

[pbz]

Those who are new to any version of Office like the ribbon. For those who used previous versions and know where stuff is it takes a little bit of adjusting, but they end up liking it too.

[thismat]

Everyday users never like change, sometimes change is needed to move forward.

If you honestly think that Apple doesn't do this, then you should compare the user experience from Jaguar to Leopard, while there is a lot of similarity, a LOT has changed as well, and people had to adjust to it.

Just because people don't like change, doesn't mean there should never be change. Isn't that part of the issue that holds innovation back when it comes to Microsoft? They could of done something drastic like Apple and dropped support for their old OS (Classic > OSX) instead of catering to the masses, and probably produced a better product, but they can't upset the masses who are 'used' to things.

[chadgeidel]

You might be surprised to hear there was extensive user testing when designing the ribbon. Jensen Harris blogged about some of the design work here: http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/tags/Why+the+New+UI_3F... Here's a presentation from MIX: http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2008/03/12/the-story-o...

[jasongullickson]

I agree.

On one hand I think it's great that they are trying something new and that trying is the only way they are going to find something that works better. In the case of the ribbon however, I think it falls flat. The reason for this is that it breaks many user interface conventions without significantly changing the context in which these conventions are used.

Imagine making a fundamental change in the way a car works without changing the roads the car drives on.

I disagree that productivity software should be designed to be easy for new/casual users, especially when this design potentially decreases the productivity of regular/professional users. This has somehow become the standard in user interface design in the last ten years and why we have seen little progress in the productivity gains these applications are supposed to provide.

[Hexstream]

Fortunately you don't have the power to get people dragged out into the street and shot.