Soft Media: We should not only know what the Windows 8 Ribbon will become, but also how the Windows 8 Ribbon changes. Why change? Is not it?
This article is from the Building Windows 8 blog, the president of Microsoft Windows, Steven Sinofsky (Seven Sinowski). Through this article, you can learn about the "Mars Splash" discussion on the Win8 ribbon design in the Building Windows 8 blog.
The above picture shows the soft media Xiaobian with the picture: Rejected By Windows
The following is the case, of course, we also welcome everyone to participate in the discussion; in this way to welcome the upcoming BUILD conference, is Not more meaningful? Xiaobian is accompanying the end;-)
Functional Zone
At the beginning we expect that the redesign of the copy file function will lead to considerable attention and opinion participation. So we posted a blog post about Windows Explorer. We even have the idea that the discussion process will be "Mars splashing." This is no stranger to readers who have participated in the controversial blog topic discussion. We don't have to worry about Slashdot's referrals (far more than other blog posts) or blog server performance (we adjusted the site layout for efficiency), but instead go straight to the topic - talk about the choice of design.
First, this mechanism is an integral element of the product. As with the copy conflict dialog, when you calm down and think carefully, you will find that both sides often miss important issues and overemphasize some relatively minor issues. Let's take a movie to make an analogy. Sometimes the film used for propaganda may inadvertently take the topic away from the movie itself (or even the target audience). The good news is that we have gotten a lot of topics to discuss.
we will not repeat the contents of Bowen's first article, but I want to stress that we will indeed we will face a lot of criticism included consideration. We chose the ribbon mechanism, and for those who are not optimistic about the mechanism, I have to say that I can't agree with you. We have determined and confirmed that readers of this blog have the strongest dislike of the ribbon. Based on experience from certain topics in the Windows 7 blog, we believe that those who don't like this feature will make high-profile comments. This assumption has been confirmed.
about the mechanism of user location there had been much debate, to explore whether the mechanism for advanced users or beginners. There have been ironic menus that are only suitable for beginners (advanced users should use the keyboard), so the toolbar has been used to simplify the menu. The context menu was originally designed as a shortcut for advanced users, but it ended up being widely used. Now, we have heard (and noticed) that menus and toolbars are being sought after by more and more advanced users. Of course, we have tried to integrate these independent mechanisms to provide a simpler experience. By definition, the fewer the number of mechanisms, the smaller the surface area of the UI. Although there are many options to choose from, we understand that users are much more satisfied with products that use the workspace than other products, and the mechanism is relatively popular and acceptable. We also learned that a few people are still not very satisfied. In the version prior to the introduction of the ribbon mechanism, although the reason is obviously different, the same problem exists. Maybe no matter what we do, we can't make everyone happy.
For me, the most interesting is the visual feedback about the overhead. With the advent of "Metro," we set out to study how to use lighter graphics and reduce the exposure, because people want the interface to be as simple as possible. Obviously, we all like simplicity, and the fewer features that are exposed, the smaller the surface area, which means the less code we need to write, test, and maintain. Simplicity is not about hiding features or making useful features inaccessible. Simplicity is the separation of redundant matters leaving only the basic functions. The remaining question is how to define this set of functions. Our approach to implementing the principle of simplicity is to avoid the hidden "secrets" of the cascading or function of the commands (these mechanisms themselves become conceptual and code overhead, bloat not only from the exposed UI, but also from the UI itself), and reduce the UI Number of mechanisms. By taking these steps, we hope to present the functionality of the product in a consistent manner. We also understand that simplicity does not mean cutting corners, especially if readers mention in the feedback that they want to add functionality to the resource browser.
The function of progressive and hierarchical rendering is the way we have used - some can only be implemented on the keyboard, some can only be implemented through context menus, some through the top toolbar, some through you Toolbar implementations that must be shown/hidden, some implemented via menus or submenus, and more. Unless you invest a lot of time to adapt to these mechanisms, no one can master them well. Of course, if you have invested a lot of time to adapt to these mechanisms, it is very likely that you will openly oppose the change of the mechanism. This may also be one of the reasons for dissatisfaction. I used to be a strong advocate of the Office 2000 "Adaptive Menu" and it turned out to be a crash, but these are prudent attempts to reduce complexity and reduce surface area. As the saying goes: Failure is the mother of success. Through this lesson, I deeply realized that "hidden does not mean simplification."
We are still continuing to optimize the way we organize commands and the content of commands that need to be organized (mapped network drives, PowerShell), as well as default settings and graphics processing. We are actively considering feedback on these aspects. Creating a simple user experience is our common goal. We also want to make sure that we provide people with the tools they need. Proper use of data is critical to achieving this goal, which also helps us avoid small sample data or exceptions that interfere with our choices.
With the advent of "Metro," for some people, Metro means a "palette" that uses specific colors and fonts, and may also include some control concepts. Several published screenshots show that some command sets (less popular) have been removed, but the main change is the overall reduction of the palette. We have found that competing products are used more frequently than some Metro applications (such as Zune) and are not required for any media player (decoders, tags, etc.).
We have been keeping a close eye on this situation and trying to integrate feedback in this forum about the overall faintness or "pale" of Windows 7 overall style. In fact, we have added brightness and pixels to the original design of Windows 7 based on feedback received through this blog. We will continue to focus on this area, but we want to avoid “subversive adjustments” to the overall style, as many third-party manufacturers tend to simulate the Windows experience without getting the color palette through built-in metrics or system settings (thus The changed style will appear to be out of place). This situation led to a discussion of Metro style.