What about the consistency of the Microsoft Office 2007 UI
Besides a lot of reviews, both positive and less positive about Microsoft Office 2007 Beta, there is also a lot of "guess work". I see quite some opinions being formed out there by people who have not actually seen, let alone worked with the new Office 2007 UI (and ribbon).
If they have worked with one beta version or another they more than likely have not seen / experienced the evolution of the ribbon i.e. vital functions in the opinion of beta testers that have been altered / moved for the better.
Today Ed brill referred to an article by Paul Thurrott on Windows Vista RC1 and also threw in a bunch of personal conclusions with regards to the Office UI; especially around the UI in Word 2007 compared to Outlook 2007.
"Both the Vista RC1 and the latest Office 2007 beta feature a number of inconsistencies from app to app, which gets especially interesting when using, for example, Word as the editor within Outlook (ribbon? no ribbon? etc.)."
It is unclear to me what Ed actually means. Is the UI inconsistent or different ? The whole concept of the ribbon in Office is to provide functions that are in context / relevant to what the user actually wants to do (activity based :-)). In my opinion writing an email is different than writing a letter / report or blogpost hence the difference in UI / formation of the ribbon.
Let’s look at some examples :
This is the standard Word 2007 UI in Office 2007 Beta TR :
This is the standard Outlook 2007 UI in the same Office version :
You be the judge of the "inconsistency" or better give Office 2007 a try I am not saying everyone will like it but I am sure you will form a different opinion than just by hearsay …
You’ve proven Thurrott’s point. In one screen shot, the text controls are called “basic text”. In the other, they are “font”. In one, the paragraph formatting controls are in “basic text” and in the other, they have their own grouping in “paragraph”. How hard would it be to make these consistent? If they stay this way at ship, I don’t think it’s fair to assume the average user will understand the differences.
Ed,
(have removed the other 2 comments you made by mistake)
I don’t think the objective is not to make the ribbon exactly the same in both Outlook and Word. You may have a point that the naming could be made the same, however I doubt this will have any impact at all.
Maybe I am not the most objective source, but I have not noticed you observation until now; after working with Office 2007 for over 9 months now ..
Peter, I noticed this within the first few minutes of trying to switch back and forth between Office 2007 applications. I had an extremely difficult time trying to figure out where features were because the menus were both named and split up inconsistently.
I agree that the context of creating a document is different than creating an e-mail, and I can possibly be persuaded that the menus need to be split up differently. However, when functionality overlaps, such as having paragraph and font formatting, I don’t understand why the sections can’t at least be named and configured the same. I have praised Microsoft for working hard to keep things consistent even if they aren’t immediately intuitive. The way this is done is both inconsistent and unintuitive (for me), making it an extremely frustrating user experience.
That’s not just me talking, I got the same feedback from a test group of 20 users ranging from executive assistants to warehouse workers who were given Office 2007 to use for a month. Every one of them found Office 2007 more difficult to use and wanted to switch back to Office 2003 at the end of the trial period.
Keith: In Office 2007 Beta 2 TR and later, you can minimize the ribbon so that it takes up very little vertical space (looks like a menu bar). And everything is keyboard accessible.
I for one find it odd the option to not revert to the “older” menus is nowhere to be found(I use the “old” menu on Xp/2003).
The reason is I am not a visual person(I usually set icons without text or just text or no icons except what I really use). I prefer more screen space and less junk in my way so I like menu/drop downs.
I understand what MS is trying to do but how does that help the masses if there is no choice but to “just use it”?
@Bob – Yes, you can… but as soon as you click another tab the Ribbon is back, and it doesn’t autohide, do you have to hide it again. I haven’t used it recently, but from what I vaguely recall the mechanism for hiding the Ribbon isn’t exactly intuitive, it was something really, really strange. Maybe all that was fixed in a later beta.
Are you seriously suggesting that everyone learn the dozens of key combinations necessary to use the average MS Office application? That conjures visions of Word Perfect 5.1 and vi. I thought the idea was *progress*.
@ Charles,
I do see what you mean. To be honoust I have not been involved in extensive user testing, so I can not comment on user adoption, etc.
From personal experience I can say the ribbon / new UI does take time to get used to, but once I got the hang of it, I preferred the new UI over the old one, simply because it is quicker than the old pull downs. I do hear this type of feedback also from people and clients around me; challenging at first and seen as an improvement once you use Office for a couple of days.
As Ed indicated consistency in some of the groupings could be improved and if feedback keeps coming in (its still in beta) this will be altered I assume …
I am not a “keyboard” person like Keith says he is, so from his perspective I do understand the challenge, but then again any GUI could be challenging for people who are not visually oriented ?
Office 2007 will never be loaded on my computers.
It presents massive cognitive dissonance to even the experienced user.
I see no increased functionality worth the time
and effort to abandon 2003.
I have a scenario for Gates and crew to consider.
They just boarded a commercial aircraft and so did
the pilot. The pilot is surprised to find that his
instrument panel has been replaced by “better” instruments in a “better”
arrangement. Surprised and dismayed as the pilot may be
he still must fly today.
I wonder if Gates and friends
knowing this would still remain on the plane.
Would you?
And if you would not how long
would you give the pilot to
master the new instrument panel before you would fly
with him.
I rest my case.
Respectfuly,
Ed Lewis,Ph.D
Industrial Engineer
Ed,
You make it sound that Microsoft introduced this new UI overnight, not involving research, extensive user testing, pilot deployments, etc.
In the Microsoft scenario the pilot is trained / aware of all the changes.
So .. yes
Microsoft’s approach to their new UI is half-baked. Outlook 2007 only has it half implemented (the main Outlook
Window has a menu-bar, the email editor doesn’t; completely inconsistent interaction models). The ONLY decent implementation of it is MS-Word.
If Microsoft’s new approach for Office 2007 was their new standard, to be adopted by ALL (or almost all) applications, both developed by them, and by 3rd parties for Windows, then it would be fine. However, I’ve observed that Microsoft has the attention span of a hyperactive 5-year old on red cordial when it comes to UI design and consistency. I’m expecting them to randomly change everything again for the next version of Office and Windows.
Really, I’m not interested any more. The people who run Microsoft don’t understand refinement.
Hi Captain REality,
Thanks for commenting and I’d recommend that next time you use a real email address. If not I have to put you on my spam list.
As for your comment:
You’re right that not all MS apps have had the new ribbon UI implemented this will happen in the Office 14 timeframe; roughly a year from now
The UI is developed for a reason. Too many commands to put underneath pull down menu’s. As everyone uses different commands as their favorites, a menu that is context driven is the way to go according to MS.
I use it for some 3 years now and love it. Not because I work for MS, but simply because I use the stuff every single day and quite extensive is some cases.
Should you respond to this comment, please make yourself known otherwise your comment is not accepted.