Are MS Office Ribbons bad usability and productivity?
Sunday, August 24th, 2008I like Tabs, Toolbars and Menus but Ribbons I just don´t get used to ribbons. I have been using Office 2007 since beta and I like interface from the visual point of view but I think ribbons drops productivity since it gives me beautifully crafted interface where I cannot find stuff I want. Somehow I personally feel that on Office 2003 I was more focusing writing content when on 2007 I am formatting texts and spending time to finding out where is the function that was in in 2003 under Edit -menu….
The annoying thing about 2007 is that since Ribbons looks nice it kind of made me think that maybe I just have to get used to it and once I am familiar on it I will never want to remember older Office GUI. However, few days ago I was writing something on Office 2003 Word and I felt interface much more nicer than on Office 2007 Word and it has been now 2 years I have had 2007 on my computer. Ribbons simply aren´t my cup of tea.
Office 2007 ribbon
Also I am surprised about the lack of choice between “The Ribbon” and traditional menus in the new 2007 Office system. Like this guy I was planning to uninstall 2007 and reinstall 2003 but since I am not really using MS Office anymore (most of my documents are in Google Docs) I am keeping it and hoping someone at Microsoft gets rid of Ribbons on office 2009 it was nice try but doesn’t really work for me.
Maybe Ribbons are nice for new users who have no prior experience from Office platform but I would assume that power users and experienced users do like more minimalist interfaces. I would love to hear comment on this.
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