Mark Wieder wrote:
> Richard Gaskin writes:
>
>> One man's "awkward" is another man's "context-aware".
>
> Yup. That's how we ended up with that damn ribbon.
This is how we got the ribbon:
<http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jensenh/archive/2008/03/12/the-story-of-the-ribbon.aspx>
I read every post at Jensen Harris' blog back when it was being written,
but here's a lot there so if nothing else it's worth the time to crack
open a beer and enjoy the 48 minute video presentation made shortly
after shipping that summarizes their research methods.
I got turned onto it from a post on this list by Dan Shafer, citing this
article from Jakob Nielsen, also well worth reading:
<http://www.nngroup.com/articles/rip-wysiwyg/>
If you read the between the lines of Harris' blog it seems, at least to
me, that the biggest problem with Ribbons is that the research went way
over schedule, and my hunch is that middle management swooped in and cut
the project short of what it might have become.
That's just my own sense, drawn from the way the story seems to go from
point 1, to 2, to 3, to 4, and then jumps to 10 with a whole lotta
points missing toward the end.
We see at least some validation of my hunch in the way it was deployed:
the Ribbon was the first major paradigm shift since WIMP, but only
implemented in Office, with all other apps and the file manager itself
using the older UI, creating a UI of duelling metaphors that was bound
to throw people off more than would have been likely had it been rolled
out consistently throughout the Windows experience.
Jensen Harris has taken a lot of heat for Ribbons, and is no longer at
Microsoft. But having enjoyed reading of his team's uncommonly
disciplined research style I'm impressed by his work, even in the
compromised way management screwed it up.
A lot of his data-driven decision-making is very reflective of Marissa
Mayer's best work at Google, and in many respects similar to Tog's
methodology back in the early Mac days before Steve came back and
replaced the UI research team with graphic designers.
Harris' best work to date may have succumbed to the horrors of
pre-Nadella Microsoft, but I would still consider it a privilege to
share a meal with him sometime and pick his brain.
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Systems
Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
____________________________________________________________________
ambassa...@fourthworld.com http://www.FourthWorld.com
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