A big +1 That's why I started the thread about better defaults: this will help a lot more than a new, shiny but unknown interface. OOo/LibO interface IS modern and flexible (contextual toolbars, dockers... everything customizable), but it have horrible defaults values. A couple of fixes here and there (some toolbars do not work well when vertical) at it will be just perfect.
2010/11/2 T. J. Brumfield <enderand...@gmail.com>: > The OOo team has been working two years on Project Renaissance. And there is > a long running thread here in the discuss archives of a UI prototype. While > that particular prototype looks clean/sharp, I think all this dicussion on > radically altering the UI is unnecessary. > > One of the advantages of LibreOffice/OOo over MS Office is that the > interface is familiar and easy to grasp. And while the Ribbon interface has > improved from 2007 to 2010, it is still unpopular for a reason. The core > ideal of a dynamic interface that shows the most common features sounds good > on paper, but occassionally you need the lesser used features and you can't > find them. Menus still provide a familiar and easy to use method of > organizing a large number of features. > > Given the large number of features and complexity of office suites, one > needs to consider both use cases. Most of the time we only need a small > number of features and we want these conveniently located. Thankfully Lo/OOo > handles this nicely today with keyboard shortcuts and toolbar icons. And the > laundry list of other features can be found in the drop-down menus. > > Most radical refactorings I've seen try to "clean" up the interface, but > then hide most of the features. We're asking users to relearn a familiar > interface, but why? > > The Office 2007/2010 interface looks nice largely due to nice use of color, > gradients, etc. The Lo/OOo interface looks antiquated largedly due to a flat > pallete. But the "ribbon" itself is an odd mish-mash of different sized > icons that look like they were assembled at random. > > Honestly, if we kept the existing system of toolbars and drop-down menus, > wouldn't most of our users be happy? If they had to re-learn a new system, > might it just drive users to Microsoft's office suite (if you have to > re-learn, you might as well learn the system used by the masses)? > > I truly believe the current approach works and should be maintained, but > improved. There might be some slight tweaks in how the menus are organized. > Toolbar defaults might be optimized. And the overall UI could be shined up > with some gloss, new icons, gradients, spot color, etc. > > If anything, I think we should be going the opposite direction. Instead of > chasing the Ribbon of 2007/2010, I think we should embrace the abandoned > Office 2003 UI even more. Perhaps provide an option to all but completely > mimic it. People forget, but Microsoft used this tactic themselves, allowing > an option for Word users to use Wordperfect key-mappings, and provided > specific help for Wordperfect Users trying to migrate to Word. Since we know > most users coming to Lo/OOo are coming from Microsoft Office, shouldn't we > do our best to ease that transition? > > It would also be considerably less work than completely redesigning the UI > from scratch. That is more time that could be dedicated to improving the > project in other ways. > > -- T. J. Brumfield > "I'm questioning my education > Rewind and what does it show? > Could be, the truth it becomes you > I'm a seed, wondering why it grows" > -- Pearl Jam, Education > > -- > Unsubscribe instructions: Email to discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org > Posting guidelines: http://netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html > Archive: http://www.documentfoundation.org/lists/discuss/ > *** All posts to this list are publicly archived *** > > -- Unsubscribe instructions: Email to discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org Posting guidelines: http://netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html Archive: http://www.documentfoundation.org/lists/discuss/ *** All posts to this list are publicly archived ***
