H
HomeSchoolTeacher
In a Microsoft Blog about UI, there was discussion about the concept of
bloat. The author of the blog seems to believe that it has to do with the
fact that it only relates to the UI. That is not true.
Many people considered MS office applications bloated, because MS Word runs
slower (or the same at best) today than it did on Windows 3.1, but computers
are much faster. The author was correct, most of us don’t want any features
taken out of word, because everyone has that “what if†mentality. What if I
do need such and such feature in the future? On the other hand, for most us,
there is generally a core set of features that we use on a regular basis.
Sometimes, we want to add new features to our skill set, but require some
training. Most training programs and books are aimed at the beginner level.
If there are advanced ones, the definition of advanced depends on the view of
the author. The ability to say “I want a tutorial to learn how to use the
version control feature on Word†does not exist, even from Microsoft itself.
First, make the ability to modify menus simpler. The user-interface for
menu modification is too complex. One option would be to allow the user to
export the menu structure to OneNote, allow the user to modify the menus
using the outline structures of OneNote, and then allowing the user to
re-import the menus. At this point in computer use history, most regular
users of Word would be able to comprehend this concept.
Second, interview the user and setup the UI according to the results of the
interview. Here would be an example of this.
File Menu Features (standard on menu)
• New – regular use
• Open – regular use
• Close – regular use
• Save – regular use
• Save As – regular use
• Save As Web – never use, can access though “Save Asâ€
• File Search – Regular Use, add title, keywords, and comments to be more
useful.
• Permissions- never use
• Version – would use regularly if incorporated into “save As dialog boxâ€
• Web Page Preview – never use
• Page Setup – regular use
• Print Preview – regular use
• Print – regular use
• Send To – never use as is. Add “Send To Clipboardâ€, “Send to clipboard as
plain textâ€, “Send to OneNoteâ€, “Send properties to …†and I would use this
regularly.
• Properties – If incorporated into “Save As†would use regularly. Add in
keywords, short description, and long description. Add ability to search
based on these items in the search dialog box.
Edit Menu
• Undo – Regular use
• Repeat – Regular Use
• Cut – Regular use
• Copy – regular use
• Paste – regular use
• Paste special – Special use
• Select all – regular use
• Find – regular use
• Replace – regular use
• Goto – rarely use, need tutorial
• Paste special – rarely use, need tutorial
• Paste as hyperlink – regular use
• Links – need tutorial
• Objects – need tutorial
The UI modification based on the interview can even go as far as making
things time bound. For example, most families send out a Christmas card or
family newsletter once a year. When it is that time of the year, the user
would want to be able to find the mail merge features easily. If is not that
time of the year, they do not need it on the regular menu.
Another example would be resumes. If a person is writing a resume and they
don't use version control regularly, they may want it for a resume. This may
also be true for the XML tags. So when a person selects "Resume Template" or
loads a file that is indicated in some way that it is the person's resume,
the version control and XML features would automatically appear in a menu.
----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...-b0f751f1d2de&dg=microsoft.public.office.misc
bloat. The author of the blog seems to believe that it has to do with the
fact that it only relates to the UI. That is not true.
Many people considered MS office applications bloated, because MS Word runs
slower (or the same at best) today than it did on Windows 3.1, but computers
are much faster. The author was correct, most of us don’t want any features
taken out of word, because everyone has that “what if†mentality. What if I
do need such and such feature in the future? On the other hand, for most us,
there is generally a core set of features that we use on a regular basis.
Sometimes, we want to add new features to our skill set, but require some
training. Most training programs and books are aimed at the beginner level.
If there are advanced ones, the definition of advanced depends on the view of
the author. The ability to say “I want a tutorial to learn how to use the
version control feature on Word†does not exist, even from Microsoft itself.
First, make the ability to modify menus simpler. The user-interface for
menu modification is too complex. One option would be to allow the user to
export the menu structure to OneNote, allow the user to modify the menus
using the outline structures of OneNote, and then allowing the user to
re-import the menus. At this point in computer use history, most regular
users of Word would be able to comprehend this concept.
Second, interview the user and setup the UI according to the results of the
interview. Here would be an example of this.
File Menu Features (standard on menu)
• New – regular use
• Open – regular use
• Close – regular use
• Save – regular use
• Save As – regular use
• Save As Web – never use, can access though “Save Asâ€
• File Search – Regular Use, add title, keywords, and comments to be more
useful.
• Permissions- never use
• Version – would use regularly if incorporated into “save As dialog boxâ€
• Web Page Preview – never use
• Page Setup – regular use
• Print Preview – regular use
• Print – regular use
• Send To – never use as is. Add “Send To Clipboardâ€, “Send to clipboard as
plain textâ€, “Send to OneNoteâ€, “Send properties to …†and I would use this
regularly.
• Properties – If incorporated into “Save As†would use regularly. Add in
keywords, short description, and long description. Add ability to search
based on these items in the search dialog box.
Edit Menu
• Undo – Regular use
• Repeat – Regular Use
• Cut – Regular use
• Copy – regular use
• Paste – regular use
• Paste special – Special use
• Select all – regular use
• Find – regular use
• Replace – regular use
• Goto – rarely use, need tutorial
• Paste special – rarely use, need tutorial
• Paste as hyperlink – regular use
• Links – need tutorial
• Objects – need tutorial
The UI modification based on the interview can even go as far as making
things time bound. For example, most families send out a Christmas card or
family newsletter once a year. When it is that time of the year, the user
would want to be able to find the mail merge features easily. If is not that
time of the year, they do not need it on the regular menu.
Another example would be resumes. If a person is writing a resume and they
don't use version control regularly, they may want it for a resume. This may
also be true for the XML tags. So when a person selects "Resume Template" or
loads a file that is indicated in some way that it is the person's resume,
the version control and XML features would automatically appear in a menu.
----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...-b0f751f1d2de&dg=microsoft.public.office.misc
