Amiga UI Style Guide

[itix]

Never used ribbons... why are they so bad?

Any more examples?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribbon_(computing)

I find it (ribbon interface) better than those toolbar driven interfaces with miniscule 8x8 px icons where you have to make your best guess. In Microsoft Office it works very well.

[itix]

I stuck with Office 2004(?) rather than upgrade to the XP-ribbon package. The odd day of working despite it while hotdesking on someone else's machine was enough.

I simply never used the ribbon - I'm sure it works well for what it does, but as I knew the relevant 8x8 pixel icons in word/excel at a glance (although I knew where they were anyway so rarely actually looked at/for them), they worked 'fine for me.'

My problem is not with the user interface design per-se, but with having fundamental changes foisted upon one which disrupt an established workflow. Changing menu entry locations/tree structures (and therefore the keyboard combination/sequence which activates it) between versions is a prime example.

I started with Microsoft Office 2007 so I dont have that problem.

[itix]

The ribbon interface totally brain damaged. It Eliminates consistency and logic from interface design.

Want to use a cut and or paste function in excel... It's in one place, probably called review... Want to use the same function in word... It's somewhere else... Perhaps home? Ok, once you have managed to set the ribbons up so you can find everything... Then you have to help a colleague... But you try and use their computer and everything is in the wrong place...

In menu driven application you would have to scan through menu to see if copy/paste is in edit menu or not. For example on Amiga applications you dont always find it from menu at all. But that is not fault of menu system.

[itix]

No, you miss the point. I have no problem with "favourites" or short cut bars/dock... But the ribbon interface eliminates the concept of standard locations to find standard functions. Locations that have never changed since the earliest days of the graphical user interface. The ribbon might be a perfectly acceptable concept (in fact it is quite an old concept of a quick launching dock), but as usual Microsoft have managed to screw up the implementation massively!!

If standards never changed the standard would be IBM PC with monochrome graphics.

Is it logical that load/save and print/preferences/quit are under project menu? Is it logical that there are three different paste functions in edit menu but create table and similar is found in another? Is it good UI design to have long and deep menus? Or is it good UI design to have dozen toolbars by default with 8x8 icons without any explanation what they do unless you scan through icons to read tooltips?

Ribbon interface has design issues but other interface styles are not necessarily any better.

[itix]

@Itix

I'm having difficult following your reasoning here. My point was that before, functions were arrange hierarchically under the same headings regardless of which office Application you were using. They were grouped logically, so even if the heading was vague (like "Project", where "File" might be a better title), once you found one file system related function, you had found them all, for example.

If I wasnt a programmer I wouldnt know what Load/Save and printing have in common.

This has been removed in favour of a set of customisable quick launch tool bars.  With the ribbon, there is no structure... The spell check is next to the find and replace...

To me this sound logical.

Style option are with the cut and paste...

It makes sense to me.

Saving, loading and print settings (but not the page layout options!?) have been moved to a completely separate screen!?

I dont see problem.

Also Microsoft have decided that some items can't share a ribbon, so it doesn't even work as well as a quick launch tool bar.

I think the ribbon would be a fine addition to the interface, if they hadn't removed the original (20 year old) interface structure that has worked well on every desktop system since Xerox first put one together!

I'm not saying I don't want change, I'm simply pointing out that this one was a royal screw up... Other changes have come along and been such a step forward I almost didn't notice their addition.

I dont understand what makes it so difficult. When I am writing documentation using Word I am spending 99% of my time on writing and 1% on ribbon interface.

Also Excel 2010 likes to crash a lot... 2003 was rock solid, but this is a personal gripe.

Must be ribbon interface ;-)

[itix]

Maybe ribbon UI's are great for some programs, especially those with limited functionality perhaps, but in the case of MS Office I'd say "if it ain't broken, don't fix it".

True statement. However, if Office 2007 was the first MS Office package ever you wouldnt mind about it. But yes, changing user interface is not cool if you are used to old interface.