Bottom line, I have a lot of respect for Microsoft and many of the outstanding people that work there (e.g. Bill Buxton).
But the new ribbon sucks.
I’ve been using it daily for months (Word, Powerpoint, Excel), and I consistently stumble on the same functions over and over again. I doubt I will ever master it. And I’m an interface designer!
When I want to center text both horizontally and vertically, I can always find the horizontal centering, but have to search for quite some time to find the vertical centering.
I consistently to this day scan all of the available options in the ribbon looking for things.
Just yesterday I couldn’t figure out how to change the paragraph style for some text without looking for 3 to 4 minutes.
When I want to print a page, I have to remind myself that it’s under the big Microsoft circle button. And there are so many more…
Bottom line, for me at least, nothing is automatic. Nothing is natural. Learnability is poor. It’s as if I’m looking at a bag of goodies and my eye has to scan through all of them to find the particular piece of candy I want.
If the problems were all a result of change, that would be one thing. But I’ve been using Office 2007 long enough to exclude change as a problem. If the changes were learnable I would have certainly learned them by now. I believe the problems stem from the following:
1) visual density/complexity
There is just too much to process on the screen. It’s a Swiss Army Knife with every tool exposed (well, not all of them). Not only is it too much, but the density, the proximity and variety, make it difficult to process quickly or to associate a function with a location. For example, it’s impossible to mentally associate upper-middle with paragraph styles because upper-middle is too broad and would include many other functions. My mind must process the ribbon each time rather than jump to a location.
2) anticipated functionality
The designers chose (through testing and usage data I’m sure) what functions to display prominently and where to display them. Whatever criteria they used leaves me with less than half of what I need visible on the screen at any given time to accomplish what I need to do. So I wind up searching for what I need — everytime. In my experience, anytime I’m asked to anticipate what users will want to do, I hesitate. True, very often you have to do it to some degree, but it’s challenging to get right. And the degree to which this was done with the ribbon, in my opinion, made it an impossible goal to achieve.
We (designers) all make mistakes. I recently designed a navigation system that I thought was innovative and efficient. In testing it failed miserably and I had to redesign it. What amazes me given what I know about the Office redesign, and the amount of work that went into it (along with the great minds that contributed), is that they must have gotten good test results and I can’t fathom how. I personally would have failed.
I would love to hear comments from others on their experiences. I haven’t heard many positive remarks personally (except regarding the context-sensitive right-click menus, which I think are excellent).
I completely agree, as you know. One of the most disturbing things about the “ribbon” is the extent to which it is a complete break with the previous modes of working. I’ve been using MSFT Word and related products since they first appeared (more than 20 years!) and Office 2007, especially the ribbon, seems to based on the belief that what users already know and expect does not matter. Upgrading a product with a wide user base and long history is a different problem than “new and cool.” The ribbon feels like someone thought it would be new and cool, but it’s been a huge disruption to productivity.
Jim McQuaid / software guy & videographer
While I agree with certain aspects of your argument, I think much of this has more to do with the chosen placement of things rather than the functionality of the ribbon itself. Maybe it just needs some more tuning.
Overall, I find the ribbon amazingly intuitive. I’ve met a lot of people, mostly novices, who’s single most common refrain was “Oh, so THAT’s how you do that”.
Power users, and those set in their ways seem to be the most vocal about decrying it. The former have some legitimate gripes IMO, and those should be addressed, but the latter are just arguing that progress should not move forward because of the laziness of users.
It’s hard to please everyone.
I agree that the new ribbon has damaged productivity me too. I’m use to the old look and feel. The new ribbon might, might, have a better/more logical layout though. However, it’s too much [change] too late.
Good article. If a little longer it would be slashdotworthy!
One thing that always throws me off is that “Insert Footnote”, “Insert Citation”, and five other “insert” functions are on the References tab. I always go to the Insert tab looking for these functions!
I have run into exactly the same thing - having to search for functions because they were grouped in ways that I did not readily intuit. But the biggest problem is that once I find it, I still have to search for it the next time I use the product. I think a key consideration is that users need to be able to store such information in “muscle memory”, in “finger memory”, or some such. The Ribbon, though looking nice, does not have this desirable property.
So I’m not the only one having trouble with it. There I was thinking, “There’s something wrong with me, ’cause everyone else seems to love the darned thing.”
I don’t think people’s ribbon stumbling (> 5 minutes to figure out how to save!) can all be written off to differences from the old way.
After all, lots of folks adapted just fine to the “floating inspectors” style in iWork, even though it’s quite different than the typical dense toolbars and modal dialogs from other suites.
Ok, i just don’t get that. How can it take you > 5 minutes to figure out how to save? There’s a standard save icon right there at the top of the screen that doesn’t change. It’s the ame icon that’s been used for 15 years.
While I agree they need to tweak the layout a bit, I am convince the majority of the people the complain are change phobic. There are some people that whenever they see a change, their brain just shuts down. They simply aren’t capable of going “oh, that save icon is just half an inch higher up, that’s not a bid deal.” Instead, they shut down and stare at it for 5 minutes, hoping it will mysteriously change back to their old familiar ways..
Snarky Tech Guy:
I learn new applications frequently (I’m a small business IT consultant); I’m not opposed to learning new things. It’s just that I don’t see the value in learning a new way to do an old thing, unless it is quicker/easier/etc. Keyboard shortcuts are a great example of learning a new way of doing an old thing in a more efficient manner — to me, this is a positive ROI on my time. But the Ribbon? It’s just a different means to the same end — a different means that you are forced to use. There’s even third-party “restore your old menu” plugins being released; clearly something is amiss.
While most of us will bludgeon our way through the curve, some users’ (like alot of my 40+ administrative clients) worlds have been turned upside-down. The curve will be long, expensive*, and frustrating for these long-time Office users who have memorized a very linear path for each task they complete with their Office applications.
Where the Ribbon came from, I have no idea. Surely no one asked for it. Maybe MS needed a complete turnover in the knowledge industry so they can print more books and MOUS certifications; maybe they needed another bullet in their “why upgrade?” promotional material; perhaps some new UI guru at MS needed his ego stroked. Who knows, but clearly their customers never asked for this upheaval.
* we’ve already had requests for “orientation” training sessions for a few of our clients, not to mention lost productivity costs.
I was thinking about the same issue.
The ribbon will never be a high productivity tool. Toolbars are gone altogether. You can add shortcuts only in quick access toolbar which is a monoblock. You can’t drag anything around anymore.
You have to perform many clicks to get to the target. At least there could be mouse over activation of ribbon tabs but AFAIK that’s not possible.
I guess their starting point was height limitations.
As most of the 15.4″ laptops offer 800 pixel height, the traditional menus and toolbars consumed large space on those.
So they removed them altogether.
But on this approach, the real deal should have been to place the ribbon on the screen sides. I personally place taskbars, toolbars vertically so that I don’t waste the precious height.
Just to increase vertical space, they added auto hide feature to the ribbon after beta releases due complaints. I don’t think anyone with a 4:3 screen would have such problems.
The other thing is desktop computers, in which Office applications are probably used more often, nowadays have huge vertical resolution possibilities such as 1440 pixels.
With so much height available, placing more toolbars would be possible. Now such computers have huge Excel sheets, complete A4 views, 150% zooms instead of toolbars.
Microsoft should have made the old interface optional. Many software companies change their interface but also give the option to use the old interface. (e.g. AutoCAD)
There is another choice -
For those who want the original (and fully customizable) Classic menus and toolbars - ToolbarToggle and ToolbarToggle Lite (http://www.toolbartoggle.com) has brought back them back to Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 for less than $20.
ToolbarToggle can replace or be used side-by-side with the Ribbon at the same time!
Would appreciate any feedback you have regarding the program.
Why would they stick the save button behind an ambiguous icon? It took me a long time to figure out how to save my document.
I really struggled using Word. I hope the release on Mac isn’t as bad.
Amen!
The ribbon is a mode so far as I’m concerned:
http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2007/09/06/has-google-turned-into-microsoft/
So is the ribbon the ‘new clippy’?
I have been using Microsoft Office since before it was called Office (over 20 years). Each new version was better than the last. I am not opposed to change. Nor do I mind learning newer, better ways to do things. In past upgrades there was usually a short learning curve, but the changes were fairly intuitive. So after doing an old task a new way once or twice it became burned into my brain. By contrast, I’ve been fighting with the ribbon for two months. I still don’t get it. Of the hundreds of buttons they chose to display, very few are the ones I need most often. After playing “Where’s Waldo” for a few minutes I usually end up squinting to find–and carefully navigate to–that tiny, faint icon in the lower right corner of some of the groups to get the full dialog containing the useful functions. What a waste of space. Two square inches of useless text and buttons so I can click an icon the size of a pin head. Even if I can find the correct button, it’s often a hassle and extra clicks to get to it. I don’t see how this is better.
I just glanced at the ToolbarToggle site that someone posted above and it looks like it may be worthwhile. I really don’t like going backwards, but that’s the direction my productivity is going with this ribbon.
No one has mentioned the other lame UI stuff coming from Microsoft lately. IE7’s ribbon-like interface isn’t any better than Office’s. Vista’s Explorer is challenging, to say the least. And the new help system that replaced useful context-sensitive help with a search engine that never finds anything. Overall, I’m very disappointed in Microsoft this year. That’s a first for me. I’m usually one of their biggest supporters. But where I used to wait anxiously for each new software release, I am now seriously considering wiping my computers and returning to XP & Office 2003. After all, I do need to get some work done.
Agree, it COMPLETELY sucks. It makes Word amazingly inconvenient.
I am a technical writer with lots of experience in Word and FrameMaker. When I started using Word 2007, I thought to myself “self… don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.” But after 4 months I have yet to feel comfortable.
Eventually, I got so frustrated that I switched to Open Office. Now I am in an interface that looks and feels like the old versions of Word, and while it might be a little clunkier, I am relieved to revert.
The things that kill me are goose-chase items that were never very well placed from the start. Things like bookmarks, and updating bookmarks. And on and on. Yes, the things I need are there, somewhere, but we have grown up with Word’s inadequacies for years, and we have learned how to locate hard to find items in the same way that we have learned the maze-like patterns of an unmarked hiking trail. It literally takes years to get your muscle-memory in place so you don’t have to think about things - you just know the terrain. And with one upgrade, Microsoft has reorganized the trails, the signs, and even the landscape itself. It makes no sense to me. What arrogance to think they could discard the years of learning we have donated to them - with faith that they would safeguard it.
I have never been part of the “I hate Micro$oft” camp. And I have had plenty of reason to be. Two of my former employers had to scrap their successful products because Microsoft stole good ideas after partnering with us. I think I am now part of the camp for this, seemingly benign upgrade, regardless of their cutthroat history.
It’s official. I proclaim my disdain for Microsoft. Screw them.
It’s the 80/20 rule. 80% of Word users (probably more actually) only need to create a 2 page document with a few bold headings. That is Microsoft’s audience for Office. The ribbon will work for them.
For the other 20% minority who actually use some of advanced features Word offers….well, that stuff isn’t used by the 80%, so it gets buried. And we suffer. We are not the Office corporate user audience the product is designed and positioned for.
I customized my toolbars to no end in previous versions to get rid of icons I never used. Wish I could do that with the ribbon.
I couldn’t agree more. I’m also an advanced user of all Office products and have been using them since they were introduced.
The “ribbon” UI may not be so bad for NEW users, but certainly not for experienced users.
I can’t believe Microsoft wouldn’t offer a ‘Classic View,’ as in the past.
I also had quite the time figuring out how to do a “Save As”, “Section Break”, “Style Formatting”, etc. And, some of the keyboard shortcuts no longer work. To make matters worse, online help does nothing to assist with the transition.
Arrrghhh! (Thanks for the place to vent).
You’re kidding, right? I use Excel all day, every day and I LOVE the ribbon! So much faster to use than those stupid pull-downs or tiny icons. I don’t think it took me more than a day or two to learn the new layout.
I’ve been using it for almost a year, and it still takes several minutes for what I used to do in seconds. Awful design. “Insert row below” in a table. There is a special tab that comes up called table tools - Great! must be there! NOPE. ok, well, it must be in “insert”, that would make sense. wrong again. maybe i can right click to insert a row. No no no. Page Layout? sorry. its in the last tab - layout! of course, silly me. This is what happens when you have creatives do IA.
I spent a solid fifty minutes doing a homework assignment in Excell 2007. I remember doing the exact same functions last year, even with 98, and I’m positive this would have taken no more than twenty minutes. Dealing with charts now is absurd. Unlike every other feature, a chart will pop up three new context menus, instead of one, with no obvious notice.
I think the thing that saddened me most though, was that no matter how much work they put into the new, terrible ribbon, the insert symbol interface has not changed since 95. The one thing that was broke, they didn’t fix.
I too have been using Word since the 80’s. Not only does the ribbons implementation leave a lot to be desired, but my Word and PowerPoint performance and stability are terrible. Word takes a long time just to open, and Word and PowerPoint often hang and/or die. I’m ready to uninstall Office 2007 and go back to 2003.
I completely agree. I have to use Office 2007 because my college upgraded to it. My college is 100% online, so everything I do is submittted with some type of Office program.
On 2003 it used to take me no time at all to do assignments. Sometimes I used keyboard shortcuts or used the menus. Either way it was fast and efficient.
Yesterday I turned in a report that took me forever to do because I had to keep switching from one ribbon to another to find what I needed. On 2003, pretty much everything I needed was on the menu bard. One click away. Now I have to search to get things done.
I just had to take that report and turn it into a power point presentation. I must say that now I am extremely disappointed. I can’t do the same animations that I could on 2003. Why did they take the animations away????
I can’t wait until I graduate because then I am going back to the better program, Office 2003.
I wish someone would please tell me why Microsoft has suddenly decided to downgrade themselves so far with Office 2007 and Windows Vista. They are by far extreme downgrades from Office 2003 and Windows XP. EXTREME DOWNGRADES!!!!!!
—Stefanie Cawley
Stefanie et al:
You might want to check out http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/03/17.html for the reasons why the ribbon made its appearance. What puzzles, however, is why Microsoft don’t provide a toggle to turn the ribbon / classic menus on or off.
I used Office 2007 for 3 months and gave up - and downgraded to Office 2003 - which does what I want exactly as I want it to. Oh - and this was on a PC that came with Vista / Office 2007, and which I had downgraded back to XP.
I kinda like the ribbon in Word but it sucks really bad in Excel. It’s far easier to scan 1 block of little buttons than 10 tabs of huge icons. Classic Menu plugin to the rescue! And wtf is up with the docx xlsx formats….then saying all the “old” formats will kill functionality…yeah right!
So I generally agree.
For me the biggest problem with the ribbon is that everything is iconic. I have never used the toolbar in any application. And I consistently throwaway apps that only let me do any given function in the toolbar.
I CAN READ. Give me back my menus. I can NOT quickly determine the subtle differences between two nearly identical pictures in the ribbon.
I would encourage those having trouble adapting to watch this video below. It explains how they came up with this design.
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2008/03/12/the-story-of-the-ribbon.aspx
I also have some general questions. How long did it take you to learn to use Office pre-2007? How long does it take you to learn to use any software for a computer?
This new interface for Excel is ridiculous. I’ve been using it for two months and I’m still struggling to be productive. Power users will suffer. Newbies will love it.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall to see what the users in the MS Redmond office are saying.
Probably:
“This ribbon is a piece of crap… How does Bill expect me to get the reports/analysis done in the same amount of time…I can’t believe the public is buying this… how can I buy the third party interface program and get it through purchasing…”
I just got back from PDC, and while I’m excited about much of what Windows 7 has to offer–it has some real improvements over Vista–one thing I’m not excited about is that infernal Ribbon is making inroads into the built-in Windows applications. Sigh…
I HATE THE RIBBON. It’s just awful. I’m losing a lot of visual space, especially on a laptop. They have to fix this.
Can’t stand the ribbon. I’ve been struggling with it for the last couple of months. I’m constantly looking for the same commands over and over again.
Apparently, Microsoft is aware of people’s complaints. Here’s a page that shows where the commands are in 2007 compared to 2003: http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/asstvid.aspx?assetid=XT100766331033&vwidth=1044&vheight=788&type=flash&CTT=11&Origin=HA100744321033.
What would have been the harm in allowing users the choice, ribbon or menu?
Well, we’ve just been forcibly upgraded at work, and I’m installing OpenOffice 3.0 because it will be far easier to use than the new ribbon interface.
Every short cut, every way I work has been disrupted by this ribbon interface. I would have no trouble if MS had made the classic menus an option, but they didn’t. And I’m not going to be throwing good money after bad buying add-ins that almost-but-not-quite make it look like 2003 again, from companies I’ve never heard of.
Saikey has succinctly put into words what I was trying to put my finger on - “I CAN READ [...] I can NOT quickly determine the subtle differences between two nearly identical pictures in the ribbon.”