Wow, your excitement from this time is contagious. I regret that this high-level account for what the ribbon achieved was not available more clearly at the time. I have been a fan of Jensen Harris ever since he blogged about the introduction of the ribbon as it was being revealed. Maybe the bits were all there, even then, and I didn't grok it yet.
As mentioned regarding the previous section, it was funny to see people offended by the ribbon, not unlike the days when using a mouse was ridiculed, to eventually end up with crummy imposters that simulate the form but not the affordance. Or in some cases, objectors remain stuck in a 2000-era UI design.
I look forward to how the emergence of new form factors and physical interfaces will challenge the desktop-reconciliation, if you will take us that far. By now, of course, it should be no surprise that I miss my Luna 550.
Thank you for the pointer. Julie did her best to balance, but the intent was to go for only a relatively short design period. We did not write code or try to build both. Plus as I mentioned everyone was in the same hallway and knew what was going on. That was in contrast to how IBM took on projects with efforts kept secret from "opposing" teams.
I absolutely love your articles and learn a lot on every sunday via these articles.
I would like to learn more about how Windows Debugger, WinDbg, evolved over the years. Knowing the history of development of WinDbg will really make me love it more. Thanks
Thank you so much! That is a great question. It is one I’d need to ask around about. A lot of times I have memories but it takes some chatting with folks to make them specific. I definitely remember the excitement and including it in the SDK but the actual origin story I don’t recall. I’m sure there’s a Wikipedia or MVP article somewhere. I will ask around.
Hah. TOMATOEY! JensenH is clever. ;) The red interface came from the fantasy UI the Office Design Team worked on for the Microsoft Center for Information Work -- a facility where customers could get a peak at future technologies and ideas. We picked a color that, as Steven alluded to, would be more 'cinematic'. Not at all practical! Below is a video featuring elements of it. This would be shown to customers at the end of the tour so they could better place the use of future technologies into their business context.
A big theme for the Office Design team (as evidenced in that clip) was collaboration. SharePoint was making progress a business, but was poorly integrated with the Office experience, and video conferencing was on the horizon.
The Office Design team got wrapped around the axle on trying to blend these different modes of work into a single experience...including with the desktop and shell. Meanwhile, Jensen and Clay did an insane amount of refactoring of existing Office UI under new tabbed toolbars (ribbon) and one click Wizards (results oriented UI).
Now we call all see with Google a way to integrate collaboration with traditional 'File Edit View ...' (the QWERTY of productivity UI) menus and a single toolbar!
Wow, your excitement from this time is contagious. I regret that this high-level account for what the ribbon achieved was not available more clearly at the time. I have been a fan of Jensen Harris ever since he blogged about the introduction of the ribbon as it was being revealed. Maybe the bits were all there, even then, and I didn't grok it yet.
As mentioned regarding the previous section, it was funny to see people offended by the ribbon, not unlike the days when using a mouse was ridiculed, to eventually end up with crummy imposters that simulate the form but not the affordance. Or in some cases, objectors remain stuck in a 2000-era UI design.
I look forward to how the emergence of new form factors and physical interfaces will challenge the desktop-reconciliation, if you will take us that far. By now, of course, it should be no surprise that I miss my Luna 550.
Hi Steven, thank you for the awesome article. Jensen's video of the behind-the-scenes story is awesome to see as well - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8qOX6oSw7Y
I would love to read more about how the team can successfully hold 2 opposing ideas in tension for weeks, months, and even years.
Thank you for the pointer. Julie did her best to balance, but the intent was to go for only a relatively short design period. We did not write code or try to build both. Plus as I mentioned everyone was in the same hallway and knew what was going on. That was in contrast to how IBM took on projects with efforts kept secret from "opposing" teams.
Hi Steven,
I absolutely love your articles and learn a lot on every sunday via these articles.
I would like to learn more about how Windows Debugger, WinDbg, evolved over the years. Knowing the history of development of WinDbg will really make me love it more. Thanks
Thank you so much! That is a great question. It is one I’d need to ask around about. A lot of times I have memories but it takes some chatting with folks to make them specific. I definitely remember the excitement and including it in the SDK but the actual origin story I don’t recall. I’m sure there’s a Wikipedia or MVP article somewhere. I will ask around.
Hah. TOMATOEY! JensenH is clever. ;) The red interface came from the fantasy UI the Office Design Team worked on for the Microsoft Center for Information Work -- a facility where customers could get a peak at future technologies and ideas. We picked a color that, as Steven alluded to, would be more 'cinematic'. Not at all practical! Below is a video featuring elements of it. This would be shown to customers at the end of the tour so they could better place the use of future technologies into their business context.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM5rXyK-AbQ
A big theme for the Office Design team (as evidenced in that clip) was collaboration. SharePoint was making progress a business, but was poorly integrated with the Office experience, and video conferencing was on the horizon.
The Office Design team got wrapped around the axle on trying to blend these different modes of work into a single experience...including with the desktop and shell. Meanwhile, Jensen and Clay did an insane amount of refactoring of existing Office UI under new tabbed toolbars (ribbon) and one click Wizards (results oriented UI).
Now we call all see with Google a way to integrate collaboration with traditional 'File Edit View ...' (the QWERTY of productivity UI) menus and a single toolbar!
Thank you for adding even more depth and color to the story!