I’m a bit surprised at the negative reaction surrounding screen shots of Microsoft Office. For those who have been living in a cave, the menu bar is gone and replaced with something new at the top of the screen, a kind of tabbed graphical menu. I’m not sure what Microsoft is calling them, but I’ll call them Task Panes.
The problem comes from people thinking of this new control as a tool bar. Don’t.
Let’s start with a quick review. For years, we’ve had several primary approaches for providing access to complexity: the menu bar, toolbars, context menus, double-clicking and hidden keyboard shortcuts.
- Menu bars show users everything, but only when dropped down and picking the right item relies on reading items (or guessing what a little 16×16 icon is supposed to mean, which is not bad for 10-20 icons but bad for the hundreds that Office uses).
- Toolbars show the “most common” commands, but are picked by developers and very often wrong. Users can customize these, but comparatively few bother. They’re generally not very task sensitive, either.
- Context menus show the most common commands for an on screen object. Items are more difficult to lose in the clutter than the main menu, but they still rely on reading.
- Double clicking typically “opens” an object. No problem with this, except that the concept is a little limiting.
Now, ahead to 2005 (well, probably 2006). Microsoft is using this new Task Pane scheme. A few things spring out:
- Like menus, the Task Panes are easily selected with a single click.
- Now, Hick’s law says (roughly) that user decision time is positively correlated with the number of options:
- Unlike Windows’ menus, the Task Pane interface does not impose a significant cost for subitems. This results in fewer top-level choices.
- Since the Task Panes are categorized instead of flat like toolbars, we avoid the mess that mess of options that toolbars have become.
- Unlike menus but like tool bars, Task Panes do not hide their items when you select an item.
- This means if you’re doing multiple operations from the same menu, you’re actually saving time. Not only that, but the environment is perceived to be more stable (there’s a principle in interface design about this, but I can’t remember the name of it).
- The items show more status information as you move about in your document.
- Items vary not only in text, but also in shape and a more descriptive icon.
- Items that are more likely to be used are larger (hello Fitts’ Law!).
Looking at them, I’m reminded of Office 95’s Office Bar launcher. I miss this. It’s so much better designed than 2000 and XP’s launch toolbars. I could switch between tasks and make my selection.
Why are we so stuck on menus? There’s nothing that makes them clearly superior to this method. Menus stay out of the way primarily because they were designed for a 512×342 screen, which we’re way past. We’ve even Task Panes before in Apple iLife products; Microsoft’s just biting the bullet by removing the menu entirely. Someone had to do it first. I just hope they’re not patenting it…