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Ribbon UI - is it really THAT good?

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DmitriPopov:
Hello, everybody!

As you might know I develop and sell a help authoring tool targeted at software developers that document their creations themselves (tech writers usually use more complicated and expensive tools).

The big problem I have right now is what UI concept I should follow. For years my tool had "classic" text processor UI, defined by MS Word versions prior to 2007. But then it was switched to the Ribbon (which I personally hate a lot) and it became a new standard for word processors. Users of my program are divided almost equally into 2 groups - those who like classic UI and say that it is my competitive advantage, and the other group that says they miss Ribbon very much.

I'm afraid that absence of Ribbon becomes a more significant disadvantage over time, because it becomes more and more popular and widespread thing. Redesigning UI will take a lot of time and I'm not sure right now that it will pay back.

So, what do you think? I know, it's a controversial thing, but I just need to hear what other developers think.

Renegade:
I think this is really another one of those "holy war" issues. i.e. There is no answer other than "I like chocolate" and "I like strawberry". Whatever you like to use is best.

That being said, you might want to consider adding both in, then letting people select which they want to use. Yeah... It means maintaining 2 distinct sets of UI wiring, but it's not like any functional code will change.

You might want to make it a very prominent choice by actually putting a toggle menu item for it in the menu itself. By making it obvious, you won't end up with people used to the old UI screaming, "Oh man... the new version blows hard chunks of whale vomit..."

In most of my software, I generally try to have a few different ways to do things. I try to avoid menus as much as possible though... Long story. (I think I posted a Cynic.me blog about that...)

Anyways, just my $0.02 on UI design.

Ath:
This MSDN page gives help in making a decision whether to use a ribbon or not: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/cc872782.aspx
This (MS) Blog entry is also quite useful, and more geared toward the Office 2010 (IMHO improved) Ribbon: http://blogs.technet.com/b/office2010/archive/2009/11/09/making-the-ribbon-mine.aspx
Maybe that helps.
The main separation that I make is:

* Is the application document-oriented, like Word or Excel, (or help-authoring for that matter) then a Ribbon can be quite productive.
* Is the application data-centered where there are a lot of selections to make and field-based data-entry then Ribbon UI doesn't help much, and a Menu and/or Toolbar based UI would work just as fine, and save quite a bit of screen real-estate too.

But that doesn't mean that I can always do it like I think it should be done :P

DmitriPopov:
You might want to make it a very prominent choice by actually putting a toggle menu item for it in the menu itself. By making it obvious, you won't end up with people used to the old UI screaming, "Oh man... the new version blows hard chunks of whale vomit..."
-Renegade (November 29, 2011, 01:15 AM)
--- End quote ---

I don't like this approach, from the developer point of view any duplication means double work and possible inconsistency. But of course it's the most suitable way of UI change from the user's point of view (opposite to what Microsoft did).

Is the application document-oriented, like Word or Excel, (or help-authoring for that matter) then a Ribbon can be quite productive.
-Ath (November 29, 2011, 01:45 AM)
--- End quote ---

I've heard a lot of people saying things like that, but I haven't seen any operations that could be done faster with Ribbon. Actually in my app all the required controls are always in the field of view and the number of controls shown depends on context. In fact, I did Ribbon-style UI without Ribbon :)

Thank you very much for the MSDN links  :Thmbsup:

40hz:
FWIW I haven't seen any serious scientific study to support the contention that a ribbon interface (at least as has been implemented by Microsoft) is more effective or productive than the classic drop-down menu system.

And in the case of MSOffice, I'm firmly convinced the decision to do one was primarily a marketing move. Something along the lines of: "If you can't make it better, at least make it look radically different!" Otherwise how do you get your users to buy yet another expensive upgrade they really don't need - and probably wouldn't benefit much from unless they're also tied into a corporate network that hosts an Exchange server?

And I think most Microsoft customers suspect as much.

What users do appreciate, however, is a well designed interface. And there's nothing to show them a ribbon is superior. So I don't think the absence of a ribbon is any disincentive for your customers. I have yet to hear any reviewer recommend not buying an app just because it didn't have one.

I'd humbly suggest you make whatever interface you design as elegant and efficient as you can possibly make it, and not worry too much about whether or not to go with "the ribbon look."

Because that's all it really is at this point - a 'look.'

And when push comes to shove, function trumps form every time. 8)

(Unless you're Apple. :P  ;D )

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