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LibreOffice Will Have New 'MUFFIN' UI (documentfoundation.org)

Posted by msmash on from the new-updates dept.

New submitter iampiti writes: The Document Foundation has announced a new user interface concept for LibreOffice. Users will be able to choose from several toolbar configurations including the "Notebook bar" which is similar to Microsoft Office's ribbon. According to TDF, "The MUFFIN (My User Friendly -- Flexible Interface) represents a new approach to UI design, based on the respect of user needs rather than on the imposition of a single UI to all users"

27 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Keep your MUFFIN out of my face by sinij · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I haven't seen this new UI, but it is safe to assume "usability experts" were hard at work at making trendy and user un-friendly changes to it.

    1. Re:Keep your MUFFIN out of my face by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      safe to assume "usability experts" were hard at work at making trendy and user un-friendly changes to it.

      As long as it defaults to the old style, I don't really care if they add some newfangled optional experiment that keeps the designers motivated in terms of playing with eye-candy and giving them bragging rights.

      OSS coders are usually not paid well or at all, so they deserve fringe benefits, such as a UI playpen.

      It's kind of like Twitter keeping certain politicians occupied so they don't break something important.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  2. Change is bad by mi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    but it is safe to assume "usability experts" were hard at work at making trendy and user un-friendly changes to it.

    I share your fears. When it comes to user-interface, change is almost always bad. The new interface may be easier to use for newcomers, but the folks, who've used the program before, will need to climb the learning-curve again.

    Hopefully, developers will have enough collective sense to leave some kind of "Switch to Legacy Interface" (SWILIN?) option available and sufficiently prominent for the users to select.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:Change is bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why? Is "looks like windows 2000" something bad? Does it not function? Why the fuck does it need to change just for the sake of change?

    2. Re:Change is bad by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I *STILL* fucking hate the "ribbon" interface....I just can't find shit nearly as easy as I used to in MS Office products.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    3. Re:Change is bad by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I've been using word processors since the 80s and I like the ribbon. Much easier to find stuff than the old menu system with sub menus and trying to remember what some rarely used feature is called rather than just looking for a picture of the result.

      The other great thing about the ribbon is that for a lot of stuff if guy just hover over it then it gets temporarily applied so you can preview the charge.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Change is bad by armanox · · Score: 2

      Actually I don't think it was standard until the 1910s....

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    5. Re: Change is bad by prefec2 · · Score: 2

      a)RTFA you still can use the old UI style
      b) if it is more clear and usable for newcomers this often implies that it IS actually more user friendly. Old users just have to relearn some parts. Yes learning is cumbersome, but if you embrace change you are better of afterwards. If you hate change you will become once a grumpy old person who hates the present.

  3. Might be good? by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I hope they are not filing the serial numbers off the M$ office interface and bolting it to Libreoffice. The current interact that libreoffice has is one of the reasons I like it.

    --

    Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

  4. Oh God... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    >>> a new approach to UI design, based on the respect of user needs rather than on the imposition of a single UI to all users

    This never ends well. In my former life I spent many happy months ripping out (more) senior developers' pet-project UI templating features (e.g., "pick your GUI colorz"), key remapping (e.g., "now you can pick if the arrow keys are reversed") and other UI customization features. The result? Every time? My customers loved the "cleaner UI" and especially loved the fact that once you documented how to do something with my product, it didn't change in the next release, or on the next-guy-over's screen. (Remember corporate, er, office users, just want to do their job and GO HOME.)

    What they really need to do is learn why Microsoft Office still has the best UI (it optimizes what people do most frequently, and puts most functions where people expect them) and build something about as good (without infringing on Microsoft's ribbon patent of course). But they won't, because it's the same lesson OpenOffice never learned. (e.g., Ever pick a color in OpenOffice? Have you ever seen THAT interface anywhere else, ever?)

    1. Re:Oh God... by codeButcher · · Score: 2

      What they really need to do is learn why Microsoft Office still has the best UI (it optimizes what people do most frequently, and puts most functions where people expect them)

      I recently was asked to set up an "out-of-office autoreply" on a friend's Outlook 2007 installation. Couldn't even find WHERE to do that on the Ribbon (although I did use it way back when it was new, too). Had to google for instructions...

      OK, so this is just one example among many.

      --
      Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
  5. Dear Developers... by Lumpy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    QUIT FUCKING AROUND WITH THE UI!

    There are thousands of other things that need to be worked on but no, instead we fuck around with the UI and make it worse than before. very VERY rarely has a major UI change made something better.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:Dear Developers... by hackel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Dear Developers: Do whatever the fuck you want with your own time. Don't worry about bugs and features unless they are important to YOU. Do what you love—that's what developing open source software is all about. Until the whiners get off their ass and pay you to work on their token issue, ignore them. Most importantly: THANK YOU!

  6. Re:Finally! by arth1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My main issue with ribbons is how much screen real estate they require. Your document is what's important, not the UI glam.

    And they don't really do anything a menu can't do. Heck, most of them even cascade into menus anyhow, because you can't fit what you need on the already oversized ribbon.

    And some things in the toolbars are just broken. Example: If I use an embedded picker in the toolbar, I expect the scroll wheel to choose items in the picker, like it does for every other picker, and not change the entire toolbar on me because the picker happened to be embedded.

  7. Yay sidebar! by kaka.mala.vachva · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wish more applications would use a sidebar - with monitors spreading horizontally for video display reasons, there is an awful lot of whitespace that isn't used by most word documents, webpages etc. Vertical space is getting to be a premium now.

  8. Love it! by DaMattster · · Score: 2

    I really like Libre office. It is a total and complete replacement for Microsoft. My brother runs his business on it and thunderbird. He is now completely free of Microsoft. I'm completely free of Microsoft. Good times.

  9. I like what they're proposing by iampiti · · Score: 4, Informative
    Submitter here. What they're doing is just giving the users some predefined options for configurations of the toolbar or something with equivalent functionality.
    The proposed options are:
    • Classic toolbar
    • Simplified toolbar (just the most common options
    • Sidebar
    • Notebook bar /aka the Ribbon clone

    I find great that, differently to current trends in UI design, they're giving the users options. Everyone can choose whatever they like best.
    Yeah, it may be confusing to some users that there're several options (although I guess that that kind of users will probably never even stumble upon the option to change the default), it does add a bit of extra code (but not much, since it's just a bit of UI code that ends up calling the same logic code) but I think it's positive overall.
    This also touches me personally since I don't like some current trends in UI design (e.g. Win 10's mobile UI elements for every form factor, very limited theming, latest Gnome ...) and usually they give you no choice.

    1. Re:I like what they're proposing by vux984 · · Score: 2

      The problem with what they are doing is that it makes documentation and support a huge mess.

      The more customizable and adaptable the UI becomes the less you are able to walk someone through any series of steps; or describe how to get something done. OR even show them via youtube... because what they see on their screen doesn't line up with the instructions / demo you are giving them.

      I don't object to it in principle, I like giving the user control over their UI... but it comes with a real cost. Especially for new users.

      Anyone who has ever googled for how to set up your signature in Microsoft Outlook has run into the issue... where you'll find a tutorial for 2010 that doesn't work with 2013, and 2016 is different again. The actual basic steps are the same... but the navigation and dialog boxes are all a bit different from version to version. So you need to find a tutorial for your version if you are new, and can't puzzle out the equivalent path in hte new version. That's why 'change is bad'.

      Doing 5 different UIs in one version... just amplifies that hassle. Now you have to find the tutorial for the version you are running with the interface you are using... otherwise you can't follow along.

  10. Re:Finally! by Nutria · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can never find things in Outlook, Word or Excel 2010. The old style drop-down menus make it much easier to find what I want.

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  11. Re:My girlfriend's muffin... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You're quite right, I can confirm that...right now, actually.

  12. Re:Finally! by jimtheowl · · Score: 2

    Yes - Windows operates this way too. Now you can't find anything - ever. You have to search for everything, which makes everything at least a two step process. Its like they go out of their way to change menus and hide stuff so you have to search for it.

    Why some people think that they need to leave their mark on this world by ruining software that is proven to work is beyond me. Sad that LibreOffice is going to join the list.

  13. Fuck no by dargaud · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The ribbon was the ONE reason I gave up on Office for good and took on OpenOffice and then LibreOffice. A set of menus and buttons without order that changes depending on what you are currently doing, so it's impossible to have a memory of it, yeah, what a great user interface advancement, right ! And it takes up a lot of real estate too, instead of being nicely tucked away in hierarchical menus with quick alt-keys...

    --
    Non-Linux Penguins ?
  14. Re:Why all the negative comments? by Merk42 · · Score: 2

    This is Slashdot, literally everything is bad. Even when things are done that we complained were not done in a different article.

  15. Re:My girlfriend's muffin... by behrooz0az · · Score: 4, Funny

    You really shouldn't talk to the president that way, it's quite inappropriate.

    --
    Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion. -- Spazmania (174582)
  16. Re:Thankfully it is also optional by mi · · Score: 2

    The new options are options, you can stick to the old way, and the new interface comes with a commitment to maintaining the old way

    If you like your current user interface, you can keep your current user interface. Right?

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  17. Re:use older versions by Ash-Fox · · Score: 2

    Now if they are SMART - they will give the user the OPTION to use the ribbon interface or NOT use it.

    I mean, I understand when people don't read the article, but, not reading the summary!?

    Users will be able to choose from several toolbar configurations including the "Notebook bar" which is similar to Microsoft Office's ribbon.

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  18. So sure, so wrong by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

    The ribbon method is the way to go, just as the GUI interface left the command line interface behind.

    Right. Just like the hammer has left the screwdriver behind.

    You must be an MCSE.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."