Saw this on ProFox (thanks AGAIN , Malcolm)
It's interesting that Neilsen jumps over the new "results-oriented user interface", as noted by Office 12's interface. His big statement: "We know from user testing that users often demand that other user interfaces work like Office"
It will be interesting to see how this plays out - but keep the key poitns in mind from the new Office 12 interface - it's still all about the document-centric vision.
What do I mean by that? The O/S used to be application-centric - that is you choose the application to do the job you need done. Windows (and the web for that matter) has always tried to be more
document-centric - you work in a document and choose the right tools to do the job.
This new results-centric approach says you choose the tools based on the results you want and it's the job of the interface to make it easier to show what the results are - in short, you don't have to deduce or figure out what the tools mean, the interface should make it plainly obvious to you.
MS has been doing this for a few years now -still it's very telling that Jakob Neilsen is noting the big change in Office 12 as the telling signpost for the next generation user interface.
His comment: "But Microsoft Word 2003 has 1,500 commands, and users typically have no clue where to find most of them." Well the question really should be - do you NEED 1500 commands? (ask that to any Fox developer who knows all about dBloat) - maybe the real solution is the 37signals approach of less is more.
Most people who are starting with word processing (and there are a lot of them) don't get the difference between spaces and tabs or tables or columns so having 20 different commands for each of them essentially creates the UI conundrum.
It's a good article to read though - whether or not you agree or disagree with his conclusion that the Office 12 interface is going to be the defacto standard.
It's interesting that Neilsen jumps over the new "results-oriented user interface", as noted by Office 12's interface. His big statement: "We know from user testing that users often demand that other user interfaces work like Office"
It will be interesting to see how this plays out - but keep the key poitns in mind from the new Office 12 interface - it's still all about the document-centric vision.
What do I mean by that? The O/S used to be application-centric - that is you choose the application to do the job you need done. Windows (and the web for that matter) has always tried to be more
document-centric - you work in a document and choose the right tools to do the job.
This new results-centric approach says you choose the tools based on the results you want and it's the job of the interface to make it easier to show what the results are - in short, you don't have to deduce or figure out what the tools mean, the interface should make it plainly obvious to you.
MS has been doing this for a few years now -still it's very telling that Jakob Neilsen is noting the big change in Office 12 as the telling signpost for the next generation user interface.
His comment: "But Microsoft Word 2003 has 1,500 commands, and users typically have no clue where to find most of them." Well the question really should be - do you NEED 1500 commands? (ask that to any Fox developer who knows all about dBloat) - maybe the real solution is the 37signals approach of less is more.
Most people who are starting with word processing (and there are a lot of them) don't get the difference between spaces and tabs or tables or columns so having 20 different commands for each of them essentially creates the UI conundrum.
It's a good article to read though - whether or not you agree or disagree with his conclusion that the Office 12 interface is going to be the defacto standard.
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