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doranwenI ended up typing up this rant as a comment somewhere and wanted to preserve it, not that it really is going to make a difference, lol. Anyone else hate the ribbon as much as I do?
(begin rant)
I'm a veteran user of Office and found the ribbon in 2007/2010 so distasteful (I've had to use one or the other occasionally at work) that I installed LibreOffice everywhere. My boss doesn't mind me using that instead, and it does the job just as well. I rarely have difficulty discovering a feature I need or would want, I'm lightning fast at getting to what I need and getting the work done, and it doesn't take up enormous amounts of screen space (a major turn-off for me--when you don't have a gigantic screen, having a menu that takes up four or five times a typical menu is pretty distasteful). So Microsoft actually lost me--permanently--as a customer for this reason, and I actively avoid all software that try to follow in the ribbon footsteps.
I think the biggest issue that designers have not considered is to allow people to have CHOICE. I find myself more and more disgusted by the tendency to control exactly how the user will interact with the software, like telling a someone "you may only eat food if you use the utensils the way we do in our culture" (this is a valid rule as a parent in a particular culture, but there are multiple cultures with different ways of eating in the world, and it is NOT as valid to tell people from other cultures "your way of eating food is wrong, you need to learn ours"). Perhaps it would be good to consider that people may have valid reasons for continuing with the gui style they are used to! For instance, I know of people who, even after getting to know the ribbon interface in Office, find that it is less productive, MORE clicks involved to do the complex tasks they want--not less as is frequently advertised, more macros than will fit in their customized section, and more difficult to discover some features (not to mention wasting tons of screen space at the top every time it's used, and no ability to switch where the ribbon IS--side, bottom, etc.). I dislike being treated like a child, but that is exactly how it feels, as if the software designers are absolutely positive that they know best how we should interact with our software. For the newbies, they are right--and I don't mind the default interface being whatever they think is the easiest and best. But please do not REQUIRE everyone to use that interface or else!
Clearly Microsoft itself is not listening, and pooh-poohs everyone with complaints about the ribbon as misguided and uninformed users who are too stuck in their ways, not thinking about the fact that veteran users of a piece of software might have good reasons for sticking with the gui they're used to (consider the impact on work productivity, for instance, especially for people who were used to the shortcuts of the underlined letters on menus and could bring up complex commands with rapid-fire keystrokes, and are now reduced to clicking--which is unquestionably slower). But for those of you who may be designing ribbon interfaces for other software, consider allowing users an option to switch to a more classic-style menu for those who would prefer. I, for one, might consider using your software instead of rejecting it instantly.
(end rant)
(begin rant)
I'm a veteran user of Office and found the ribbon in 2007/2010 so distasteful (I've had to use one or the other occasionally at work) that I installed LibreOffice everywhere. My boss doesn't mind me using that instead, and it does the job just as well. I rarely have difficulty discovering a feature I need or would want, I'm lightning fast at getting to what I need and getting the work done, and it doesn't take up enormous amounts of screen space (a major turn-off for me--when you don't have a gigantic screen, having a menu that takes up four or five times a typical menu is pretty distasteful). So Microsoft actually lost me--permanently--as a customer for this reason, and I actively avoid all software that try to follow in the ribbon footsteps.
I think the biggest issue that designers have not considered is to allow people to have CHOICE. I find myself more and more disgusted by the tendency to control exactly how the user will interact with the software, like telling a someone "you may only eat food if you use the utensils the way we do in our culture" (this is a valid rule as a parent in a particular culture, but there are multiple cultures with different ways of eating in the world, and it is NOT as valid to tell people from other cultures "your way of eating food is wrong, you need to learn ours"). Perhaps it would be good to consider that people may have valid reasons for continuing with the gui style they are used to! For instance, I know of people who, even after getting to know the ribbon interface in Office, find that it is less productive, MORE clicks involved to do the complex tasks they want--not less as is frequently advertised, more macros than will fit in their customized section, and more difficult to discover some features (not to mention wasting tons of screen space at the top every time it's used, and no ability to switch where the ribbon IS--side, bottom, etc.). I dislike being treated like a child, but that is exactly how it feels, as if the software designers are absolutely positive that they know best how we should interact with our software. For the newbies, they are right--and I don't mind the default interface being whatever they think is the easiest and best. But please do not REQUIRE everyone to use that interface or else!
Clearly Microsoft itself is not listening, and pooh-poohs everyone with complaints about the ribbon as misguided and uninformed users who are too stuck in their ways, not thinking about the fact that veteran users of a piece of software might have good reasons for sticking with the gui they're used to (consider the impact on work productivity, for instance, especially for people who were used to the shortcuts of the underlined letters on menus and could bring up complex commands with rapid-fire keystrokes, and are now reduced to clicking--which is unquestionably slower). But for those of you who may be designing ribbon interfaces for other software, consider allowing users an option to switch to a more classic-style menu for those who would prefer. I, for one, might consider using your software instead of rejecting it instantly.
(end rant)
