UI changes, and giving the users a choice

By apexwm, 26 April, 2011 18:19

UI changes are inevitable, even open source software introduces changes. For instance, Firefox 4 was recently released and its interface has been reduced to the address bar and tabs, and some buttons, no menus. For some this works out well. For me, I prefer the menus. No fear though, it can easily be changed back by right-clicking in the toolbar area and selecting "Menu bar" and voila! the menus are back. Firefox also allows you to switch the tabs to be below the address bar, similar to the older look, by right-clicking and deselect "Tabs on Top". This gives the user the choice, which is the way it should be. I figured it out within a minute after installing Firefox 4 the first time.

Recently the hot topic in open source software is the new Gnome 3.0 shell (Gnome Desktop Environment). It's been minimized as well. The minimize button is gone from windows, and there is a new application dock instead of perusing through menus to launch an application. But, the users also have a choice which is to switch it to "fallback mode" which brings back the Gnome 2.0 look and feel. Again, this gives the user a choice. There are still some things to be worked out in Gnome 3.0, but we'll get there. Gnome 2.0 is a highly configurable environment, which is one thing I have always loved about it. Hopefully the same thought will be put into 3.0.

Another topic is OpenOffice, which more closely relates to the MS Office. A ribbon-like interface is currently being tested, similar to MS Office. However, I suspect that there will also be a way to allow the user to switch back to classic menus, considering OpenOffice (or LibreOffice) is open source and community-driven.

It's been a few years since Microsoft came up and implemented the idea of the ribbon interface in its Office suite. Initially, it stirred up a lot of commotion. But after a while, the complaints settled down and we didn't hear as much about it. But still even today, I still ask myself, "was it really necessary?". And, the main question I ask is, "Why didn't Microsoft allow the end user to switch back to the old menu system?". I don't really have the answers to these questions. But my opinion is that the ribbon interface really didn't get us anything of value. It looks OK, but to me it's clunky and doesn't give the user a straight forward system to look for a function or operation like the old menu system & toolbar does even today. It also uses more realestate (screen space) for the same purpose of allowing the user to select a function. So what if the menu system has been around for decades. It works, does it not? I can understand that Microsoft wants to introduce new features to make new versions appealing for the market to go out and buy. But in my opinion Microsoft could have given a little back to the customer, by at least allowing them to disable the ribbon and enable the classic menus. Give the customer the choice, instead of forcing the customer to use what you think they should have.

What does Microsoft have to offer, if the customer wants classic menus in MS Office? Nothing that I know of. However, some third parties have written add-ins to bring back a panel on the ribbon which has a menu in it. To me, this is the same as putting on a bandage over the real problem, it's like a menu on top of the ribbon.

I've touched on this before, but many times I've seen proprietary software continue to push its customers to do what it wants, rather than leaving the door open so that the customers have a choice with usable options. This is where open source software excels, because it is community-driven. And there are debates about UI changes when dealing with open source. But debates are good, voices are heard, and things usually get done to appease the majority. In my opinion this is why we see so much more flexibility in open source software, rather than proprietary software which limits and controls the users.

Talkback

An excellent set of reasons for me to continue using OpenOffice, having abandoned Microsoft Office years ago, after it became overblown and too hard to use. It was like an insult, a slap in the face, when a tool I use - no, live in - every day suddenly became unfamiliar, and insisted that I relearn how to use, just to do the same stuff. Talk about a productivity-killer!
manek 28 April, 2011 09:28
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This article is spot on, I used MS Word for years but have been constantly frustrated by the ribbon interface. In my opinion it is clunky and poorly designed from a usability perspective so pushed me over to OpenOffice for a while. I did however recently try Office 2011 for OSX and was pleasantly surprised to see that in this version you can still revert to the old style menus and tool bars. Not sure why MS do this for Apple OSX and not for their own Windows OS. Overall I found this to be a much more polished and usable version than Office 2010 on Windows.
pround 28 April, 2011 10:36
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The article hits the issue right on the nose. Some application changes appear to be just fashionable change to get a review and generate some headline nose. And when checking out the new features they make "doing stuff" (the Shuttleworth reason d'etre) frustrating and long winded. Upgraded to latest Openoffice - lots of improvements - but now data grouping has stopped working properly. Latest version of Firefox has become a memory hog and now getting back into organising favourites is a song and dance. If we are to have change at least make it have benefit before getting it out into the field
Open Fox 28 April, 2011 12:40
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manek : Thanks for the feedback. I too have become frustrated with things being moved around. Underneath the covers, everything is very similar if not the same with MS Office, Microsoft has decided to change the way you get there. It almost appears that they decided to implement the ribbon, and throw all of the extra stuff under the File tab. Outlook 2010 is one that still has me looking all over in the ribbon to find things that used to be in the menus. And things are hidden in places that are not logical. For example, to export your Outlook contacts, you would go under "File" tab / select "Open" on the left / select "Import" / then select "Export to a file". Who would have logically thought of going to File / Open / Import, in order to export something? Things like this add to the frustration of change. Comparing to Outlook, I use Thunderbird with Lightning, which I've found to be a VERY straightforward and easy to use program. I hardly ever get questions from users that use it, because they are easily able to find things themselves. And OpenOffice is very well organized in its menus. I've converted users from Office 2000/XP to OpenOffice 3 and they are able to find what they need with very few questions.
apexwm 28 April, 2011 18:16
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So long as you give the user the option of "fallback mode", then you will have a happy user! Then they can discover the advantages of the new interface at their own leisure, without being inconvenienced.

Even now, whenever I use a Windows machine I always revert to the classic NT desktop and (lack of) decoration.
Jake Rayson 29 April, 2011 15:59
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