New Ribbon interface, what do you think?

Hi Everyone,

Just jumping in to see if I can help explain the thinking behind our Ribbon implementation.

The primary reason to adopt a Ribbon is that it's a familiar design pattern to standardize on.
If we made 1 application, it would be a different situation, but when you look at a suite of products used together with a mix of Ribbon, Task, and Toolbox approaches - we needed to take a step to increase the common ground.

A while back I emphasized that we didn't just "do a Ribbon". We added key enhancements which will only be defended once they prove themselves in production workflows.

In fact, there's a key question I can ask to lead our discussion to explore this deeper...

"Do you use shift+right click to access view tools?"
(and yes I realize common view operations are directly mapped to the mouse)

Best regards,

Gino

Hi Everyone,

Just jumping in to see if I can help explain the thinking behind our Ribbon implementation.

The primary reason to adopt a Ribbon is that it's a familiar design pattern to standardize on.
If we made 1 application, it would be a different situation, but when you look at a suite of products used together with a mix of Ribbon, Task, and Toolbox approaches - we needed to take a step to increase the common ground.

A while back I emphasized that we didn't just "do a Ribbon". We added key enhancements which will only be defended once they prove themselves in production workflows.

In fact, there's a key question I can ask to lead our discussion to explore this deeper...

"Do you use shift+right click to access view tools?"
(and yes I realize common view operations are directly mapped to the mouse)

Best regards,

Gino

Unknown said:

"Do you use shift+right click to access view tools?"

Not to often.  I tried turning off the view tool bar and using only the pop-up for about a month.  The problem is that it doesn't give you access to View attributes and Display styles which I use allot in when working in 3D.  So I ended up turning the view tool bar back on.  Since its on I think its more convenient to use the view tool bar than the pop-up.

Whole problem is basically hidden GUI which is counter productive, I am one of the many who do not have too much time to configure new applications (and that's what this one seems like now). The example you suggest does not make sense to me e.g. Shift (1st action), right click (2nd) then select an miniscule window area icon (3rd) then select an area (4th action) instead of select window area tool form the view toolbar (1st action) then select area 2nd action).

I don't get it and I don't like it, so glad task navigation was kept as I still find it more productive from a detailing point of view.

I am sure that if I had the time to spend customizing the UI, so that all the tools I use on a day to basis were on the one tab then I would still think it was awkward in terms of the space occupied by the ribbon. As I have mentioned several times before the task based menu was extremely compact and quick to use.

And up the side, where there's space to spare on a modern wide screen, instead of disproportionately squeezing the working area vertically. I bet, if Microsoft had made a vertical ribbon technically possible, there'd be far less complaint.

Task Panes are still used in Office - more in Word than Excel, but apparently Microsoft sees some benefit to them. In MicroStation, things like the Properties (Element Info) and Level Display dialog boxes lend themselves to being docked like a task pane. And the benefit of a task pane is that it can be set to hide and flyout and even when open, leave a fair amount of screen real estate. Our drawings are now very close to appearing the same shape as our screens. The ribbon shortens the screen in a way that encroaches on that drawing to view ratio and the ribbon controls do not support automatic flyout and hide (at least they did not the last time I checked).

Gino,

I don't use shift+right click to access view tools but will start using it from now on! I'm not quite sure what KEN-T is on about when talking about the shortcut: Press Shift (1st action), right click (2nd), click Window Area tool (3rd) VS Press ESC button/home focus(1st action) press 4 - View tools(2nd), press 4 Window Area tool (3rd). Or am I missing something? 

I would have to say that the CE ribbon is larger than other ribbons I'm used to, and does slightly take up more screen real-estate, but my main issue is it's responsiveness. It always seems to take a second between my clicks to access the tool and actually opening the tool.

Best regards,

Liam

P.S microstation has been in need of an interface update for years but you're never going to please the anti ribbon clan,