Microsoft's ribbon interface draws frowns, smiles

The Office Fluent UI changes the desktop paradigm -- and opinion is mixed as to whether that's a good thing

"A very big distinction, in addition to taking up a pretty large chunk of screen real estate, the ribbon also makes some assumptions about what you want to be seeing," said one commenter in an InfoWorld discussion thread. The public comment section of an MSDN blog also attracted criticisms, with one commenter calling the ribbon "ridiculous" and another saying Microsoft created problems with its introduction. "Office 2007 is hideous. The UI is abominable," said another post in the blog.

Distaste for Fluent UI is broad enough that it has even created a new market opportunity. A Chinese company, Addintools, is offering users a chance to revert back to the old-style menus with its Classic Menu for Office 2007. Since its February 2007 release, the program has gained more than 35,000 users, the company said.

With Office Fluent, Microsoft has taken away familiarity from users, said analyst Judith Hurwitz, president of Hurwitz & Associates. In providing users a predetermined menu of capabilities, Microsoft is starting to introduce a form of artificial intelligence to the user interface, she said. "[However], it’s very hard for a system to really understand what it is that a customer wants to do."

Hurwitz is not convinced the UI change was for customers' benefit: "I think the issue is change for the sake of change." Microsoft "broke some things that didn't need to be broken," she added, noting that her comments reflect what she has heard from Office customers.

[ Learn what Office 2007 developers think about the new version ]

Why some people like Office Fluent

Some adopters are enthusiastic: Gary Wilhelm, a business and financial systems manager at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in New Jersey, said he finds that Office Fluent makes it easier to select a style or font in word. "You can kind of hover [over], highlight the information and select your font," he said. He suspects initial negative reaction to Office Fluent may be due to the significant change it imposes on users: "It took some getting used to because it was a big change."

Also among the supporters is Kevin Smyth, CIO at Cerner, a health care information technology provider. "I think my adoption curve was maybe about a week or so," he said. The software brings to the forefront capabilities that had been buried in menus, he said. Smyth also said he believes the interface has made Cerner employees more productivity.

The 2007 Office System client covers applications such as Excel and PowerPoint. There are separately licensed server technologies in Office System such as SharePoint. Microsoft shipped 2007 Office System to businesses on November 30, 2006 and to the general public January 30, 2007.

Other users said they just needed some time to get used to the ribbon. "It's becoming familiar," said Jen Glass, of developer OTB Solutions.

"[Fluent UI] is a change and it does require some adjustment but people very rapidly see the benefit in using the new UI," argued Microsoft's Alexieff. "It makes it easy to find commands, it makes it easy to use commands." Feedback is "overwhelmingly positive," he said.