[OT] Microsoft Office's New UI Blazes Some New Trails for Us

[Chipp Walters]

Chipp Walters wrote:

> My experience is that people criticize much better than they create. 
> This is one of the reasons design schools emphasize 'crits' and rarely 
> give 'blank page' exercises (even thesis work rarely involves starting 
> from scratch). It's also the reason many prefer 'template' approaches.

Perhaps a better way to say this, is that most people are much better at 
choosing what they like from a set of options, rather than starting from 
scratch. Typically, when someone asks me to design a logo for them, I 
prepare a bunch of samples from which they peruse. They can then point 
to ones they like and I can proceed from there. Generate more comps and 
let the choosing continue. It's the way most designs are refined.

I believe one of the successes of ButtonGadget is the fact it already 
has many buttons from which a user can choose from. IMHO, Microsoft is 
on target with this idea, with the caveat that God is in the details.

Typically, the problem when programs 'think for you,' is they often get 
it wrong. Take Handwriting and Voice Recognition for example. Many times 
they are wrong more than right, and this is one of the reasons which 
keeps them from becoming universally accepted. Even 97% correct means 3 
out of every 100 words are wrong, and thus need proofing. And of course 
when I talk to my Prius, I'm lucky if it gets it right 3% of the time;-)

I'm afraid MS Word's new approach will be the same-- it will get it 
right a high percentage of the time, but figuring out how to get the 
last few percent will be near impossible!

Besides, I've rarely seen MS implement any new technology well. Even 
Apple has a much better record.

The fact is, word processing should be simple. For me, 99% of what I 
want to do can/could be done with MacWrite. Plus, there's the added 
advantage I don't have to 'relearn' the application every 3 months I 
jump into it (like one has to do with MSWord), in fact I'm pretty sure I 
could jump into MacWrite now and use it (close to 20 years since last 
used).

IMO, the fact that MSWord saves files in their own proprietary markup 
language *should* discourage anyone from ever using it. It'd sure be 
cool if more adopted Massachusetts Open Doc policy.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122685,00.asp

best, Chipp