Pixel Envy
People care about the pixels a lot.
And why not? Few things elicit as deep of an emotional response than how something looks. Is the design pleasing? Does it fit my style? Does it fit its purpose? Is it beautiful? Is it
practical? Will it wear well with time?
When we first revealed the concepts behind the Office 2007 UI early last autumn, the initial feedback primarily consisted of people sharing their visceral reactions on how it looked. What about the gray... it looks a bit like brushed metal. Are they trying to copy Apple? It doesn't look friendly enough. It looks too friendly! It's too decorative. It's too plain!
Of course, as I mentioned even on Day 1 of the big reveal, the visual
appearance you've been seeing is only temporary. Yet, the screenshots have been
passed around so much, duplicated and analyzed, that most of the conversation on
the web still revolves around the visuals.
Not that I'm surprised by that; I'd probably be in the exact same boat if I weren't personally involved in the project. I totally get how deeply felt the emotional reaction to a visual design can be... I'm a bit obsessed by it too.
And that's why we've been working so hard on the true visual design for Office 2007 since last summer. Designing, refining, tweaking, beautifying, simplifying... trying to create an attractive yet
practical design which complements the look of the operating system but which also fits hand-in-glove with the new interaction model.
Why? Because we know a lot of people do care about the pixels. We do too.
T-1
Comments
- Anonymous
March 08, 2006
T-1? - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
T-1? - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
So.... when do we get the first screen shot of the real visual design?
I rather like the design in the images posted to date -- I hope you don't go too far towards the Office 2003 look. - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
More than pixels, I want to know if this system will become available to other Windows devleopers. If history repeats, it will be up to third party developers to create their own.
Imagine if every application had its own menu bar! Well, I guess you don't have to imagine it because we've already seen it on the Windows platform. Every time there's a pixel tewak, developers need to adopt their code to the new style or look out of place. I can't believe the users and developers tolerate this. - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
I concur with Steven Fisher.
Jensen, can you comment on the availability of the Ribbon as a supported windows control for independent developer use? Personally, I'm praying for a .NET version and a "ribbon design principals" guide. - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
My guess on the T-1 is that there is T minus 1 days until they reveal the final look of Office 2007. I would expect if this is the case that it will happen at CeBIT tomorrow. - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
That's what I thought when I saw T-1 too.
I'm ashamed at been mildly excited over seeing the new L&F for a business productivity product... - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
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March 08, 2006
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March 08, 2006
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
It's so true, because three of the most important thing in UI design is consistency, consistency and consistency -- which Office 2007 haven't showed yet.
I'm not trying to bash Microsoft, by the way, I'm just saying that Apple did a better job at being consistent at aligning their UI any many array of Applications. Is it consistent enough? I don't think so, and it's going increasingly not so (the OS X 10.4 look, for example.)
So, whatever the final decision will be, I hope it has the same look-and-feel with Vista (which was already very inconsistent within itself as one of us mentioned.) Maybe Microsoft is nowhere near Apple, design-wise, but I hope they're getting closer with the launching of the Office 2007 UI. - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
"...but if part of their product is redefining the way a Windows application should look (or worse, like in this case, behave) this code should be available to other developers."
Disagree. The new UI is not defining how a Windows application should look. As Jensen stated early on, the new UI is defining how Microsoft Office should look and behave. It's not meant as a general UI design for all applications. - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
"It's not meant as a general UI design for all applications."
I'd take that even further. In some applications, there shouldn't ever be a need for a ribbon.
Many times, the menubar and toolbar system still works well. - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
T - 1 ?
Trimester Minus One, perhaps.
Does it mean Office 2007 RTM ships on June 8 ? - Anonymous
March 08, 2006
Since when has T stood for Trimester? I think NASA should be told! - Anonymous
March 09, 2006
For Steven Fisher: "Imagine if every application had its own menu bar!" I don't have to imagine. Any of us who used computers back in the 80s know exactly what that's like--no two programs did things the same way. How about using the ESC key to bring up menus (MS-Word). Not that there isn't room for improvement but we've come a long way. - Anonymous
March 09, 2006
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
March 13, 2006
As was to be expected, the publishing of new Office 2007 screenshots last Thursday brought along a scary... - Anonymous
May 06, 2009
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
June 09, 2009
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