When Microsoft does something, people are prone to take a look at it with great interest. Whether or not one likes them or uses their products, fact of the matter is they’re the industry leader and the decisions they make about their products affect hundreds of millions of users in the industry. So, when Microsoft introduced the ribbon UI in their new Office products, it was of very great interest to our team. Is there some way we can benefit from the new design metaphors and patterns they’re putting in place? It may seem strange and a radical departure from their previous UI, but what will adoption rate be? Does that affect how we design UI?
Microsoft presented a Windows 7 first look. Ars technica published a few screenshots and it made for very interesting reading.
First off, Windows 7 is very clearly a release focused on user experience. Unlike Vista, nothing new under the hood is really changing. It’s all the about the user interactions, and the upgrade of optimizing for user experience. To that end, Microsoft has huge gains if they can nail this one. It is, after all, the primary differentiator upon which Apple has recently been dominating the market–if not in fact of dollars and laptops sold, then at least in market perception. Microsoft has a huge resource in their Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP for short), and there’s a lot of data there that can be leveraged. Not only for them, but for other designers like us. For example, there’s this gem:
Through the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), an optional, off-by-default feature of many Microsoft programs, the company has learned a great deal about the things that users do. For example, from CEIP data Microsoft knows that 70% of users have between 5 and 15 windows open at any one time, and that most of the time they only actively use one or two of those windows.
As user experience folks, we know this. But having actual numbers and raw data reinforces the significance of this fact. And Microsoft has sought to leverage this gem of data to change their approach to the Windows 7 taskbar, jump lists, and windows management (e.g. maximizing, restoring, resizing, viewing, etc.).

My first gut reaction to the Windows 7 preview is skepticism. I’m not sure the changes they’re introducing into the OS will be a significant improvement to the actual user experience. Microsoft products have (of late) exhibited the tendency to be overly helpful, sometimes even hindrances to the actual functionality the user wants to access. I feel that way about the windows management system, particularly the preview popup functionality off the taskbar, and the jump lists. Moreover, the look and feel of the OS seems a tad overboard, introducing a little too much visual clutter (and flash) so that the OS disturbs rather than enhances and empowers the user.
What does Windows OS need to do to go to the next level? I’m not sure and I’m still trying to figure it out. But I’m gratified to know that the big guys in Seattle are probably wondering the same thing.
And while we’re on Office news, here’s the latest via Microsoft: Office is going online in the next release. Very cool.