Yeah, I should say that after watching the whole video that I do think they thought about this better. And I can't exactly say that I like using Word now, so maybe this will help.
On 3/29/06, Jim Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Well - I hate that too (which is I why I turned off the "feature") but I > wouldn't lump the two in together. > > In WMP is idea was a misguided attempt to "clean" the interface. It didn't > - it made it harder since they were hiding things you needed all the time - > they hide (by default) some of the most commonly used controls! > > To be fair they DO expose many of them in other ways by those ways are > rarely clear. (This is why I liked the comments made in the video about how > difficult it is to work with a large iconography: when soooo many features > are identified with tiny icons it's impossible to remember.) > > That's a good example of a bad contextual UI: the context of your use wasn't > honored, just an arbitrary context invented by the application. > > In Office the hiding (so far at least) seems nicely contextual. Things are > hidden not to "clean things up" but because you can't use them any more > (you're not touching a picture so you can't use the image tool for example). > > I think it's an important difference - one that potentially makes the > feature insanely useful instead of insanely frustrating. > > It may be a cluster-f*ck (I'm going by the same information as you and they > still can screw it up) but so far I really like it. At the very least it > does show a concerted effort to evolve the UI in the right way (according to > actual usability principles instead of visual effects). This might be a > failure, but we'll learn a lot from the attempt. > > Jim Davis > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:202024 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
