Friday was an exceptionally busy, but amazing day for me. The reason for this is because Anvil Digital is making me part of more software project, with the expectation that I will play the role of UX developer or expert, or whatever you want to call it.
In any case, that includes two software projects that have the infamous Microsoft Office Ribbon as part of the UI. After reviewing the applications at a high level, the first UX task was easy to identify: make sure the ribbon works like the ribbon should.
If you didn’t already know, Microsoft has made the ribbon available to developers to use with a royalty-free licence. The catch is that you need to make sure the ribbon in your application provides your users with the UX standard that Microsoft has set for the ribbon.
I have been doing research on this all day today and applying my knowledge to our applications. Either way, I thought I would share the resources that I have found to be the most valuable.
Ribbon Vocabulary
.png "Breakdown of the Ribbon")
Breakdown of the Ribbon
You can find this image on the MSDN too, but I wanted to include it as a quick reference. When you are talking about the ribbon, you should probably know the vocabulary that describes it.
Resources
These resources discussed all the important points from either a UX person’s or a developer’s viewpoint. Considering that I am something of a hybrid (literally as Wessty’s Job Title = UX Developer), I used all of them. Take a look and have all of your ribbon questions answered.
Windows UX Interaction Guidelines: Ribbons – A very in-depth look at the user experience for ribbon controls. Very useful when trying to decide whether your application can make use of the ribbon control.
Ribbon Implementation Tutorial – This is the introduction to a series of posts that describe how to implement the MS Ribbon control in your WPF application.
Office UI Licence and FAQ – The ribbon is free to use, assuming you following their rules. If you are planning on using the ribbon, you should probably review these documents.
Windows Ribbon Framework – Introduced with Windows 7, the WRF is a way for developers to manage a ribbon within their application. The catch: only works on Vista SP2 and above. So, if you are supporting Windows XP like I do, then this might not be your best option.
Introduction to WRF – An introduction to the WRF on MSDN.
Related Resources
Okay, there is only one resource here but it is really interesting if you have the time to watch it. I strongly recommend taking a look at this if you want to know the “why?” behind Microsoft’s decision use the ribbon for Office.
The Story of the Ribbon – A history on how Microsoft created the ribbon UI. A good look into how UX development takes place.
There aren’t any links here, but I did use Twitter as a resource. When assessing the value of a particular UX feature, I try and look at it from both sides. The first side, is the “how this makes things better” side, while the other is “how this makes things worse”.
After tweeting about diving into ribbon UX, I received a response that discussed why I shouldn’t be using it. For me, Twitter has acted as a reminder about the other side of the argument as my company already likes using it. It is good to be reminded that people have their reasons for not using it too.
Alright, that’s it. Time to apply my new found knowledge about the ribbon control.
Catch you on the flip side.