I was going back and forth whether I should write about this, but I wanted to see what everyone’s thoughts were on this. I posted on Twitter a week ago about news of OpenOffice.org working on a ribbon-like design for an upcoming version of their office suite. When I saw the news on an official Sun blog I was rather disappointed, which is why I wasn’t even going to mention it here on the site.
On Twitter people were responding to me with similar feelings, but for different reasons. A lot of what I heard from others was in regards to how people hate the ribbon design in Microsoft Office 2007. Obviously anytime you’re dealing with a new interface it will take some getting used to, but personally I love the ribbon in Office 2007. It’s exposed me to features I probably wouldn’t have found otherwise, and people I dealt with who had previously struggled with using Microsoft Office seemingly found their way around much better. So I think Microsoft is on the right track.
Why then am I disappointed that OpenOffice.org could be moving to a similar design? Lack of innovation. Anyone can copy the features, functionality, and design of another application. You have to think outside the box if you want to set yourself apart though. Think about Firefox. They didn’t get to where they are today by “playing catchup” to IE6… they innovated. They came up with a browser that could be slim and simple, or unbelievably powerful with the use of extensions. Mozilla looked at the direction the browser market was heading instead of watching the direction their competitor was heading. As a result they made the market leader trying to play catchup with them (in terms of functionality).
So what should OpenOffice.org do to innovate? Well, the first thing I think they need to address are the reasons users and companies are afraid to adopt their software. They need to make sure that their software is able to save the common file formats (DOC, XLS, etc…) exactly the same way that Microsoft does. I should be able to flip back and forth between the two office suites without ever having to worry whether something is going to get messed up in the transition. Right now, however, it’s like playing a game of “telephone”… you never know if what’s going to come out on the other end is what you actually said. That’s a risk people don’t want to take when it comes to sending stuff to friends, family, coworkers, and clients.
Once they’ve got all that ironed out I think that’s when they need to move on to innovative stuff. Things are moving to the cloud, and that’s something I think they need to start embracing. Integrate with online editors like Google Docs and Zoho, or let users save/open files on sites like Box.net or maybe even to a personal FTP account. Sure there are add-ons for OpenOffice.org that do stuff like this, but it should be so tightly integrated into the office suite that I forget I’m even dealing with the cloud. For example, if I try to save a file to Google Docs while I’m offline I don’t want it to give me the usual yada yada about not being connected to the Internet. All I should see is a little sliding window in the corner (requiring no interaction) notifying me that this happened, and that once I am connected to the Internet again it will just go ahead and automatically save it. Don’t make me remember to save it again when I already told you I wanted to do it.
So those are my thoughts. When I saw this blog post by Sun I felt like I lost a little respect for them, and it’s not often that I feel that way with an open source project. It also solidified in my mind why it’s going to be so hard for them to get any kind of mass adoption.
If they want to be better in UI department, try sidebar.. Wide screen is the norm now. Why take up so much space on the top? It will be god send to netbook with only 600px height..
good idea and you are correct with all the 16-9 monitors now vertical space is a premium
That’s actually a good idea. Try to figure out some kind of interface that is geared towards widescreen monitors.
If they are going to make a copy of the ribbon interface, they should do it on the side instead of the top. It would make more sense to put it on the side because you have more viewing area on the sides with the wide screen monitors and it would not make any sense to take away from the top with all the extra space that you have on the sides.
Too much of the 2007 UI.
I agree with the comments suggesting a sidebar instead of a ribbon across the top. And make it adjustable so it can be on either side. I like having as little vertical space taken up by toolbars. The ribbon takes up too much of that space.
A company has to get the basics right first, then it can get fancy. OO haven’t got the basics right. If they still wonder why people don’t adopt, then they can’t be helped.
Exactly, which is why I mentioned compatibility in my article as being their first focus.
Well i liked the Office 2007 Ribbon.
But my advice is: don’t copy … innovate.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m getting too old for new stuff, but I just couldn’t feel comfortable with Office 2007 and went back to ole 2003. I didn’t want to spend hours and hours learning how to print an envelope or design my business cards with Office 2007. In 2003 it’s a breeze.
Nope, I’m sick and tired learning, forgetting and learning again just because Microsoft wants to sell more and earn more money. I’ll stick with what works for me, even though it’s a little old and dusty.
2007 is actually much better. Have you tried one of the menu add-ons? Just like 2003
It’s interesting that you saw it that way. I do know plenty of people who feel the same way you do, but when I introduced it to my dad he loved how easy it was to find all sorts of options he never even knew were available.
Why not let the user choose between two or even three UIs.
Sidebar
Ribbonbar
Menus
That is definitely one route OpenOffice can go, but having multiple interfaces could become quite a chore to maintain.
I think people could like the Tabbed menu of icons if they had greater flexibility. The two main critics are Space, Logic
The old menu system had already solved that and people use it. It was practical but it was not shiny. Now with ribbons it was all Shiny but not Practical.
In the beginning, Sales and Marketing liked Ribbons. Now they want something that is both Shiny and Practical/Efficient.
Save space: Variable icon size, Variable Fish eye, Autohide etc
Personal Structure: Tabbed icon bars, Box Icons, Flexible/Movable blocks top/bottom/side
[word.mvps.org]
[mrexcel.com]
It will be interesting to see if OpenOffice can catch the lead here.
IBM is trying the sidebar thing with Symphony. Not very effective. IMHO, if the traditional menu ain’t broke (and it isn’t) then don’t fix it.
A lot of people who like the ribbon (and yes, there are a lot of them) deal with the criticism of the ribbon by saying “Well, I like the ribbon – get used to it” or “It’s something new, just spend time learning it”.
My beef with the ribbon is that it’s an entirely inflexible UI – you can’t modify it in any way. With the old interface you could add and remove buttons any way you liked. In the new design, if I want the “Find” menu on the left side of my ribbon, all I can do is… nothing. In Office 2003 you had a thousand ways you could modify the UI, but with the ribbon… nothing to do with “old vs. new”, it’s flexible and adjustable vs. utterly static.
That is very true… the customizability is very minimal but something I’m sure they’ll improve on. It does, however, ensure that you can sit down at anyone’s computer and find your way around the Office suite since the interface will be the same on all machines.
I personally cannot stand the Ribbon. If OpenOffice is going that way, and don’t provide the option to use the classic menu/toolbar interface, I will be very disappointed.
At work, I have been trying to get used to the Ribbon for two years now and am still far less productive with it than with the previous interface. Things keep moving around and hiding so I never know where to find something. It’s completely counter to the way I work and think.
Some people have said that I’m just resistant to change. Far from it. I love change when the change improves things. But the Ribbon makes it a lot worse for me.
In fact, I opted for OpenOffice.org on my home machine because I cannot work effectively with the Ribbon. If OpenOffice.org goes Ribbonlike, with no ability to opt out, then I am afraid I will not be getting any new versions.