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General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 -- ribbons for everyone!
« on: September 19, 2008, 10:30 AM »
I think this new type of interface is a waste of screen real-estate.
Classically these tool bars were on the side of the screen, which makes more sense imo, because a monitor is typically more wide than it is tall.
-Gothi[c] (September 19, 2008, 09:31 AM)

In the presentation of the ribbon design process (see my post above) the designer said they prototyped the ribbon as a sidebar, but abandoned it for two reasons. One, he says users felt more confident with commands at the top. Two - he was afraid if they placed the ribbon at the side, the ribbon would quickly develop a scrollbar, since vertical scrolling is such a common UI construct. But horizontal scrolling isn't so convenient, so placing the ribbon at the top ensured that no-one would try to do that.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 -- ribbons for everyone!
« on: September 19, 2008, 10:24 AM »
Well... I love it in Office, but using it on wordpad seems like a bit of overkill, there's only one "tab"! (or whatever its name it)
-jgpaiva (September 19, 2008, 09:14 AM)

There's an interesting presentation by the UI designer who was in charge of the ribbon, over 90 minutes long:
http://msstudios.vo.llnwd.net/o21/mix08/08_WMVs/UX09.wmv

He makes a lot of good points, made me appreciate the ribbon a little more, though I still don't use Office 2007. His narrative of gathering usage data and the prototyping process is intriguing. Near the end, during Q&A, he says exactly what you're saying: the ribbon is meant for applications with hundreds of commands and otherwise "busy" UIs. It was not intended for simpler programs due to the various trade-offs involved and the screen estate it takes. (And the idea I get from the presentation is that the ribbon was certainly not invented just to look pretty.)


853
General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 -- ribbons for everyone!
« on: September 19, 2008, 10:18 AM »
The office ribbon confuses me. I'm using Softmaker office at home, but Office2007 at work. There's no way to turn the damn thing off is there?
-TucknDar (September 19, 2008, 10:00 AM)

You can minimize it, but there's no way to go back to the old menus and toolbars. There is a paid third-party add-on that restores the old-style interface in Office 2007, but I'm afraid I can't recall its name.

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Developer's Corner / Re: stackoverflow.com - programmers Q&A site by jeff atwood + joel spolsky is public
« on: September 16, 2008, 03:56 AM »
He didn't design the UI they outsourced it (can't find the entry on the codinghorror blog about it)
-justice (September 15, 2008, 06:27 PM)

I was at fault anyway, because I was referring to text entry pop-up boxes at the support/bug reporting site at stackoverflow.uservoice.com, which has an almost identical look to the stackoverflow site but is in fact a different host.

But... he outsourced the UI? For what seems to be a personal pet project? This is so wrong!  :o

855
Developer's Corner / Re: stackoverflow.com - programmers Q&A site by jeff atwood + joel spolsky is public
« on: September 15, 2008, 02:13 PM »
Does anyone have problems logging in with FireFox 3 via myOpenID? Irony of the day: IE7 works.

(And once a guy writes a UI design book, never let him design an actual UI people will be using. Those modal-looking text entry "dialog boxes" that dim the rest of the browser window are soooo inconvenient and un-Web-like, I think. But maybe I'm just irritated bacause I can't log in :) )


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