The Story of the Ribbon (Channel 9)

The Story of the Ribbon

Date: April 6, 2008 at 9:00PM

UX09

Speakers: Jensen Harris

7,767 Views

6 Comments

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Farewell, menus and toolbars! Come hear the behind-the-scenes story of how the 2007 Office Ribbon user interface was imagined, designed, and validated. See never-before-shown early prototypes, hear about mistakes we learned from during the design process, and find out the principles of user experience design we used each step of the way in creating the first totally new user interface for Office.

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Stephanie Michaels

Aug 16, 2011 at 10:32 AM quote reply

I would probably have enjoyed this vid but everytime I had to pause because of an interruption, I had to go back to the beginning. Every time. I tried all kinds of ways to avoid having to cover ground already covered but no -- you have to start at the beginning. Maybe that's why the info on this page says there are only 202 views. I am sure there are more people who'd like to be edu-tained. Maybe I'm dumb but I'm a dumb person trying to understand a new product. Have a heart!
Jess Judge

Aug 26, 2011 at 12:20 PM quote reply

Stephanie: I was having the same problem. I would recommend downloading the video (links below the main viewer). Then you'll be able to start/stop as you like. That's what I'm doing right now.
Tom

Aug 30, 2011 at 9:15 AM quote reply

Silverlight has a pause button but no play/continue?
Ribon

Aug 31, 2011 at 6:03 AM quote reply

This is not the story of the ribbon. it's the story of Microsoft itself in a nutshell. no resume button in an official slideshow by Microsoft. how ironic!
don

Sep 14, 2011 at 8:13 PM quote reply

That's all great but what happened to my menus in Access?
Did you forget that people have custom menus in Access?
Why is this something I have to think about?
It's not the first time I've seen this attitude from Microsoft.
All the good people will leave.
Frederic

Jan 19, 2012 at 9:50 AM quote reply

Great talk, very interesting, but in the end Microsoft let down its long time users by removing their well known interface and forcing upon them the "New Truth of UI"...
It would not have been that difficult to keep a compatibility option for people used to the menus... :-(
My company is sticking for Office 2003 (or a competitor product) until we are heard...