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Microsoft To Give Office 365, Office.com Apps a Makeover (zdnet.com)
On the heels of recent redesigns by Google and Apple, Microsoft is giving its Office apps a facelift over the coming months. From a report: Over the coming months, Microsoft will begin rolling out changes to the interface of Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Office 365 and Office Online (Office.com) users. Key to the Office app redesign are an updated Ribbon, icon refreshes and new ways to more easily see changes coming to the Office suite. There's a simplified version of the Office Ribbon, which allows users to collapse it so it takes up less space and hides many options, or keep it expanded into the current three-line view. Microsoft is starting to roll out this new Ribbon in the web version of Word to "select consumer users today in Office.com." In July, Microsoft will also make this new Ribbon design available in Outlook for Windows. "We've found that the same ten commands are used 95% of the time by everybody," said Jon Friedman, General Manager of Design Management and Operations. In Outlook such as "Reply," "Reply All" and "Forward" are basically universal. But that other five percent is different for every person, so Microsoft is adding an option to remove commands from the Ribbon, such as Archive, for example, and pin others to it, such as "Reply by IM."
I really wish there was a way to simply do away with the ribbon. Before, I could simply click on a menu item and move between different columns *without* having to click on a different subject and try to find what I wanted. I waste more time clicking and finding the item I want with a ribbon style menu setup. Please leave it to a common menu list like I have in any other application.
The thing that irks me the most is not that they created a ribbon interface but that you couldn't turn it off and revert to a menu system. It would be trivial to maintain both interfaces.
love is just extroverted narcissism
The best version of Office was 2003 when they had a menu system. Users who are truly proficient in Office had their productivity hindered by the ribbon, and the slow but progressive removal of keyboard shortcuts that no longer work (both in Office and Windows). I can name several shortcuts that simply no longer work, and for no good reason besides forcing the user to a dumbed down graphical/mouse interface.
And FFS, fix the search functionality in powerpoint so that it works like the rest of office and doesn't "helpfully" remember previous searches. I got pushed the latest upgrade of powerpoint a few months ago and this is seriously broken. Does anyone even test these releases for usability? Apparently not...
Seriously, the ribbon was supposed to allow a more generic interface, where an action is associated with the icon. If the icons change, then you have effectively forced retraining of people that use this. The menu style interface uses a bit more space, but has the advantage of providing "discoverable" functions for users. IMHO, this makes it a much better interface, in particular for people that only infrequently use a tool. It is much easier to click through the menus looking for a function than to figure out what all the icons mean.
The problem with the ribbon system is it actually is better. People just need to get used to it and figure it out for themselves.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
The ribbon system was somewhat better than Word's unholy mess of unlogical menus and dialogs stacked 3 levels deep. Compared to a well-designed menu system it still stinks though.
When you're working in a table for instance, you keep having to switch between 4-5 tabs that each contain 3 functions you need, and a dozen useless ones.
The Ribbon is also optimized for people who remember things visually (so they can find the icon even if it's in a sea of similar-looking icons) to the detriment of people who remember things by name (for whom the menu system with actual descriptions instead of just a cartoon was perfect).
And now that Microsoft has expanded its use to e.g. Windows Explorer in W10, that has gone down the drain as well.
I hope they finally remove the ribbon and replace it with a space saving and much easier to use menu system.