GUI gets a makeover
There's a good article in the 9/25/06 issue of Computerworld on interface changes that will come with Office 2007 and Vista. The main idea is that everyone recognizes that as the number of features available in any given application grows, it becomes increasingly difficult for the user to access what they need. The answer, according to the writer (and others) is not fewer features: "People want more, yet they want it presented as less," says Gartner analyst Steve Kleynhans. How's that for a design challenge? Microsoft's new context-specific ribbon bar is designed to address this issue. And if you have seen what the Labs's own Michael Sherotter has been doing with MindManager and Word 2007, you will hopefully agree that the ribbons show promise.