Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog
The Myth of the Orange Dot
One thing you might have noticed in Office 12 demos and screenshots is that certain commands in the...
Author: jensenh Date: 01/10/2006
The 50/50 Rule
Much is made in the business world about the 80/20 rule. Also known as the Pareto principle, the...
Author: jensenh Date: 01/09/2006
Paper Prototypes
Often people ask us "how did you come up with the ideas for the Office 12 user interface?"...
Author: jensenh Date: 01/06/2006
Status Bar Update
Yesterday, I walked you through some of the history of the status bar. Today, I'm going to write...
Author: jensenh Date: 01/05/2006
A Brief History of the Status Bar
The status bar. A ubiquitous piece of the modern user interface, hardly anyone seems to pay it mind....
Author: jensenh Date: 01/04/2006
New Year, New Organization
It's a new year! Happy 2006! I hope you were able to enjoy some time off with family, friends, or...
Author: jensenh Date: 01/03/2006
On Hiatus
Due to the holidays here in the United States and elsewhere, many people are taking time off of...
Author: jensenh Date: 12/16/2005
I Am Your Density
A comment we've heard again and again about the Office 12 interface after people use it or see it...
Author: jensenh Date: 12/15/2005
BayCHI Event Last Night
A big thanks to everyone who came to hear me speak last night at the BayCHI monthly program at PARC....
Author: jensenh Date: 12/14/2005
Speaking in Palo Alto Tonight
Tonight I'll be in Palo Alto, CA, speaking at the monthly meeting of BayCHI in PARC's George E. Pake...
Author: jensenh Date: 12/13/2005
Math On Demand (Office 12 Coolness, Part 4)
Here's a neat time-saver in Excel 12. Let's say that you have some numbers somewhere in the Excel...
Author: jensenh Date: 12/12/2005
Fast At Any Speed
One of the major engineering feats associated with shipping Office is making sure it runs fast...
Author: jensenh Date: 12/09/2005
Know Your ABC's (Office 12 Coolness, Part 3)
One of the features I always wished Word had was the ability to alphabetize a list of words. I...
Author: jensenh Date: 12/08/2005
For Trembling Hands (Office 12 Coolness, Part 2)
Last week I started a new series of some of my favorite new features in Office 12. If you're curious...
Author: jensenh Date: 12/06/2005
Breaking the Code
I received a mail this weekend responding to my Friday post on Super Tooltips asking a simple...
Author: jensenh Date: 12/05/2005
Super Tooltips
On Tuesday, I mentioned some of the barriers I see to people using help regularly in Office. Based...
Author: jensenh Date: 12/02/2005
Cover Pages: Cool Things In Office 12 (Part 1)
Today, I'm starting an ongoing series on some of my favorite things in Office 12. Maybe you'll hear...
Author: jensenh Date: 12/01/2005
The Best Outlook Feature Ever
Here's an Outlook party trick suitable for cruise ships, family reunions, and kids birthday parties....
Author: jensenh Date: 11/30/2005
Help Is For Experts
One of the most interesting epiphanies I've had over the last few years seems on the surface like a...
Author: jensenh Date: 11/29/2005
I Guess No One Cares About Fonts
Last week, I wrote about Segoe UI, the new font used to render the user interface of Office 12 and...
Author: jensenh Date: 11/28/2005
Fun Factor
Unless you've just awakened from a Rip Van Winkle-style hibernation, you probably heard that...
Author: jensenh Date: 11/22/2005
Beta 1-derful: The 'Top 30' List
As you may have seen, yesterday evening we released Office 12 Beta 1 to our technical beta testers....
Author: jensenh Date: 11/17/2005
Making the Letters Better
We're not just introducing a new UI in Office 12--we're also introducing a new UI font. Windows 95...
Author: jensenh Date: 11/16/2005
A Clipboard for Formatting
OK, here's what happened: The article I intended to post today, I couldn't. And now the day's almost...
Author: jensenh Date: 11/15/2005
Grading On the Curve (Why the UI, Part 8)
This is the eighth part in my weekly series of entries in which I outline some of the reasons we...
Author: jensenh Date: 11/14/2005
Decoding Office Build Numbers
Open the About dialog box in any Office program. Near the top, you'll find the build number of the...
Author: jensenh Date: 11/11/2005
1000 Card Pick-Up
Today, we got back a pile of data from a recent card sort exercise. We brought in 17 Word users and...
Author: jensenh Date: 11/10/2005
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom
Yesterday, I wrote about our fight against interface squalor. The most dangerous features from this...
Author: jensenh Date: 11/09/2005
For Sale By Owner
One of the never-ending challenges associated with designing the Office 12 UI is managing screen...
Author: jensenh Date: 11/08/2005
No Distaste for Paste (Why the UI, Part 7)
This is the seventh part in my weekly series of entries in which I outline some of the reasons we...
Author: jensenh Date: 11/07/2005
It Takes a Village
Designing and engineering the new Office 12 user interface has been the most challenging project...
Author: jensenh Date: 11/04/2005
The Importance Of Labels
My first experience in Office was working as an intern program manager on Outlook 98. During that...
Author: jensenh Date: 11/01/2005
Inside Deep Thought (Why the UI, Part 6)
This is the sixth part in my weekly series of entries in which I outline some of the reasons we...
Author: jensenh Date: 10/31/2005
Happy Pretend Halloween
I attended college for the first time when I was three years old. The College of Wooster Nursery...
Author: jensenh Date: 10/28/2005
Because You Want To, Not Because You Have To
You've written an add-in to Microsoft Word. It creates an entry point at the bottom of the Tools...
Author: jensenh Date: 10/27/2005
It All Adds Up
Microsoft Office is more than a suite of applications. It's also an important development platform....
Author: jensenh Date: 10/26/2005
Usability Redux
Answering some of the questions asked about our recent usability efforts... Q: Can you tell us how...
Author: jensenh Date: 10/25/2005
Tipping the Scale (Why the UI, Part 5)
This is the fifth part in my weekly series of entries in which I outline some of the reasons we...
Author: jensenh Date: 10/24/2005
More Than Just the Two-Way Mirror
I've revealed in the past how many of the Office 12 UI decisions we make are influenced by what we...
Author: jensenh Date: 10/21/2005
A Disappearing Act
Yesterday, I discussed the way the Ribbon scales to different window sizes. I've also mentioned that...
Author: jensenh Date: 10/19/2005
Scaling Up, Scaling Down
A question that has been asked a lot is: "How does the Ribbon scale down?" Anytime you see the...
Author: jensenh Date: 10/18/2005
New Rectangles to the Rescue? (Why the UI, Part 4)
This is the fourth part in my weekly series of entries in which I outline some of the reasons we...
Author: jensenh Date: 10/17/2005
Excel Can Be 'Rand'om Too
A few weeks ago I showed you a neat trick that you can use in Word to quickly fill up a document...
Author: jensenh Date: 10/14/2005