BayCHI has released a new audio session online. The latest session “Beyond Menus and Toolbars in Microsoft Office” is presented by Jensen Harris, lead UI designer for the Office UI suite. He presented his thoughts about Usability and the new Office 12 user interface
Farewell, menus and toolbars. More than 20 years after the introduction of the Macintosh, software has outgrown the basic building blocks of today’s standard user interface. The upcoming version of Microsoft Office daway with the top-level menus and toolbars in favor of a new task-oriented, contextual user interface.
This talk will provide a historical perspective on the evolution of the Office user interface and the battle against the mounting complexity of the product. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at the different design iterations, and an in-depth look at the new Office UI constructs, including the Ribbon, galleries, contextual tabs, and the MiniBar. You’ll also learn the ideas behind “results-oriented design,” which Jakob Nielsen wrote, “might well be the way to empower users in the future.”
With 400 million Office users potentially making this transition, would embracing these concepts solve problems in your own products? A question and answer session will follow the talk.
You can view additonal BayCHI audio podcasts here.
Recent Comments