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The Story of the Ribbon
I was reading through commentary from people who attended last week's MIX conference in Las Vegas. Running across Miguel de Icaza's kind words reminded me that I hadn't posted a follow-up about my MIX talk yet. Last week, I presented a session at MIX Read More...
You Windows 3.1 Lovers!
Earlier this week , I somewhat humorously referred to people who close windows on the left side as "Windows 3.1 lovers." What did I mean by that? The now-ubiquitous close button in the upper-right hand corner of windows was only added to the operating Read More...
New Rectangles to the Rescue? (Why the UI, Part 4)
This is the fourth part in my eight-part series of entries in which I outline some of the reasons we decided to pursue a new user interface for Office 2007. Last time I discussed the UI mechanisms added to Office 2000 intended to reduce the perception Read More...
Combating the Perception of Bloat (Why the UI, Part 3)
This is the third part in my eight-part series of entries in which I outline some of the reasons we decided to pursue a new user interface for Office 2007. Last time we started a walk down memory lane by taking a look at the first five major versions Read More...
Ye Olde Museum Of Office Past (Why the UI, Part 2)
This is the second part in my eight-part series of entries in which I outline some of the reasons we decided to pursue a new user interface for Office 2007. Today, I want to take you on a journey. A journey that starts back into the cold recesses of the Read More...
The Why of the New UI (Part 1)
This is the first in a series of entries in which I outline some of the reasons we decided to pursue a new user interface for Office 2007. Any discussion about the graphical user interface of computers today has to start all the way back at the Xerox Read More...
The Long Road to Contextual Tabs
Contextual Tabs are among the most important components of the Office 2007 user interface. They provide quick access to the contextual features which work with an object, much like context menus do. When you're working on a table, we add the Table Tools Read More...
Which menu items get icons?
One of the mysteries of the menus-and-toolbars based UI of Office 97-2003 is "which menu items get icons?" If you look at the top-level menus of any of the Office programs, you'll see that some items have icons and some don't. As it was told to me by Read More...
The Feature Bob Invented
It was a cold winter afternoon early in 2004, and we were in the midst of doing some of the first usability tests with a working, clickable prototype of the Ribbon. (Prior to that, most of our prototypes had been paper-based .) This particular prototype Read More...
The End of Personalized Menus
As faithful readers of this blog, you no doubt know that not every program shipping with the Office 12 "wave" of products has the new user interface . This means that, at least for the time being, menus and toolbars are still alive as a part Read More...
A Better Box Of Crayons
Perhaps because I was never the kid who had the super sized 128-pack of crayons, I never developed much of an artistic eye, especially for colors. Having only the 16-pack, with nary even the free crayon sharpener is something I obviously rue to this day. Read More...
The Myth of the Orange Dot
One thing you might have noticed in Office 12 demos and screenshots is that certain commands in the Ribbon have an orange dot as their icon. People have speculated on what the orange dot represents; guesses have ranged from highlighting features you've Read More...
No Distaste for Paste (Why the UI, Part 7)
This is the seventh part in my weekly series of entries in which I outline some of the reasons we decided to pursue a new user interface for Office 12. You can read the last installments here: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 . Last Monday I Read More...
It Takes a Village
Designing and engineering the new Office 12 user interface has been the most challenging project I've ever worked on. Over the last two months or so, you've had a chance to start to get to know me and some of the design philosophies I believe in that Read More...
Inside Deep Thought (Why the UI, Part 6)
This is the sixth part in my weekly series of entries in which I outline some of the reasons we decided to pursue a new user interface for Office 12. You can read the last installments here: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 . Microsoft is tracking your Read More...
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