The Condescending UI

theodp writes "Paul Miller has some advice for user interface designers: Don't be condescending. 'The Ribbon in Microsoft Office products,' complains Miller, 'is constantly talking down to me, assuming I don't know how to use a menu, a key command, or an honest-to-goodness toolbar.' Miller's got some harsh words for Apple, too: 'And of course, there is the transgression of the century: Apple's downward spiral into overt 1:1 metaphors. The physical bookshelf, the leather desk calendar (complete with a torn page), the false-paginated address book...these new tricks are horrible and offensive [and likened to Microsoft Bob]. They're not only condescending and overwrought, they're actually counter-functional.' So, how does Miller cope while waiting for his UI knight in shining armor? 'I recently switched my Windows 7 install over to the Classic Theme', Miller explains, 'which is basically Windows 95 incarnate, just with all the under-the-hood improvements I've come to rely on. I really like it. It feels right, and if it isn't beautiful, at least it's honest. I wish there was a similar OS 9 mode for OS X.'"

Comments

Re:Ribbon

[TaoPhoenix]

Oh, it's you again. Nice astroturf.

See my "Easy and Advanced" comment below. I don't like the Ribbon, and I don't like corp. gamesmanship forcing me into it. So I installed a plugin to put the old menus back so I could get my real work done.

Re:Windows 7 theme

[TaoPhoenix]

You're fun. Who's paying you?

I got a new Win 7 machine at work a few months ago, and the first thing I had to do to it was to unhook a lot of the annoyances of the Win 7 theme. Grouped Windows was a disaster for me. As for "Dumped" of course you know that in Win 7 you can physically move your related tasks in the task bar next to each other. Moving them also lets you visually see your priorities.

I hate "pinned" apps. If it's not open I don't need it "pretending" to be open on my task bar. It's already got a desktop shortcut.

So yes, sometimes it's possible to have a golden age then begin to slide away from it.

Re:Users disagree with him

[Anonymous Coward]

Real people use toolbars to get real work done.
Kiddy office users use broken Ribbon interfaces to write postcards to granny.

The interface is obtuse and was designed by the idiot Vista team who created an absolute mess stuck between traditional UIs and a touchscreen orientated UI. (or people with extremely terrible eyesight)
It is, quite literally, a freak child.

Anyone who praises it doesn't do serious work or is from Microsoft. It is completely backwards.

Re:Users disagree with him

[stewbacca]

You're complaining about a page turn animation that takes a tenth of a second? Try viewing by year if you need to see months without animations.

I'm convinced the 10.7 Address Book development team was kidnapped by Microsoft.

The perfect solution

[Murdoch5]

I'm sick of hearing people rip apart UI design and functionality. This is one of many post on slashdot about how the modern UI is impossible to use and counter productive and etc.. etc.. etc... If these UI's bother you so much then sit down and WRITE YOUR OWN! There is a saying "if your not part of the solution your part of the problem", well in this case I would tweak it to read, "If your not part of solution don't bitch about it".

Re:Users disagree with him

[Alex Belits]

Please do that!
I dreamed of Microsoft destroying its own market for years, and now it's within reach.