CS547 Human-Computer Interaction Seminar (Seminar on People, Computers, and Design)
Fridays 11:30am-12:30pm PT · Gates B3 · Open to the public
Julie Larson-Green Microsoft Moving Beyond Menus and Toolbars in Microsoft Office
January 27, 2006
Farewell, menus and toolbars. More than 20 years after the introduction of the Macintosh, software has outgrown the basic building blocks of today's standard user interface. The upcoming version of Microsoft Office does away with the top-level menus and toolbars in favor of a new task-oriented, contextual user interface.
This seminar will provide a historical perspective on the evolution of the Office user interface and the battle against the mounting complexity of the product. You'll get a behind-the-scenes look at the different design iterations, and an in-depth look at the new Office UI constructs, including the Ribbon, galleries, contextual tabs, and the MiniBar. You'll also learn the ideas behind "results-oriented design," which Jakob Nielsen wrote, "might well be the way to empower users in the future." |
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