When the F will people start seeing things from a non-power users perspective before writing such a rant?! At the very least, back up your post with some sort of an objective argument.
I know a lot of people who spend minutes looking for simple options that are hidden in menu entries. I think the ribbon is going to be of good use for such people who'd appreciate the most common use-cases/functions within the reach of a mouse-click.
To the contrary, I'm looking at this very much from a non-power user's perspective. I think a ribbon is a reasonable application here, showing copy, paste, etc. by default. But look at all of the other functions located throughout the chrome. As the "lambasting it" link says, many of the options that are visible by default are used much less than 1% of the time, according to Microsoft's own data. "Invert selection"?
But more to the point is how the user research data is turned into a redesign in a seemingly mechanical way. "The button was used 10% of the time, so let's make it bigger next time." Without careful consideration, this can be a big mistake, and can miss opportunities for helping users with their tasks at a deeper level.
"Except those people are quickly dying out - literally."
Eh, I strongly disagree. I still have the misfortune to every now and then watch people who are supposed to be from the 'internet generation' (in their teens to early twenties) struggle with just-beyond-basic computer tasks - like opening a file with a different program when the extension association has somehow been screwed up. When I extrapolate their demographic traits, I can come to no other conclusion than that the vast majority of the general population does not have the computer skills that designers and software developers assume them to have.
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When the F will people start seeing things from a non-power users perspective before writing such a rant?! At the very least, back up your post with some sort of an objective argument.
I know a lot of people who spend minutes looking for simple options that are hidden in menu entries. I think the ribbon is going to be of good use for such people who'd appreciate the most common use-cases/functions within the reach of a mouse-click.
To the contrary, I'm looking at this very much from a non-power user's perspective. I think a ribbon is a reasonable application here, showing copy, paste, etc. by default. But look at all of the other functions located throughout the chrome. As the "lambasting it" link says, many of the options that are visible by default are used much less than 1% of the time, according to Microsoft's own data. "Invert selection"?
But more to the point is how the user research data is turned into a redesign in a seemingly mechanical way. "The button was used 10% of the time, so let's make it bigger next time." Without careful consideration, this can be a big mistake, and can miss opportunities for helping users with their tasks at a deeper level.
I suspect you missed the point of the article, which was that the telemetry measured the wrong level of abstraction in users' tasks.
for such people
Except those people are quickly dying out - literally.
Also, by any metric, the visual layout and appearance are beyond terrible. There doesn't seem to be a logical grouping at all.
If this is the answer then someone must have asked the wrong question. (a button labeled "easy access"? seriously?)
"Except those people are quickly dying out - literally."
Eh, I strongly disagree. I still have the misfortune to every now and then watch people who are supposed to be from the 'internet generation' (in their teens to early twenties) struggle with just-beyond-basic computer tasks - like opening a file with a different program when the extension association has somehow been screwed up. When I extrapolate their demographic traits, I can come to no other conclusion than that the vast majority of the general population does not have the computer skills that designers and software developers assume them to have.
Problem is the ribbon is so full of buttons, that people will spend just as much time looking in the ribbons, as they did in the menus.