How the Ribbon Interface Highlights Program Features

Microsoft’s stated goal of introducing the Ribbon interface in Office 2007 was to “make it easier for people to find and use the full range of features these applications provide.”  As more features were added to Microsoft Office over the years, fewer users noticed the new features because they were hidden in numerous menus, toolbars, and side panes.  The Office product team tried to combat this problem by designing a user interface that eliminated complexity, enhanced productivity, and made users aware of all the features in their programs.

With the introduction of Windows 7, Microsoft has now made the Ribbon interface a standard framework in Windows.  It is included in Windows 7, and will be delivered as an update to Windows Vista as well.  This opens the ribbon up to any developer who wants to develop a rich, modern program for Windows.  Microsoft has decided to convert two of Windows 7’s bundled apps, WordPad and Paint, to the Ribbon interface, and has also converted Movie Maker into Live Movie Maker which uses the Ribbon interface as well.

In a simple program like Paint, the Ribbon at first glance seems like overkill, and it seems like traditional toolbars could be plenty for its needs.  I love the look of the Ribbon, and so was excited to get to use it in Paint, but didn’t expect it to be any more useful for me than previous versions.  Imagine my surprise, then, when I found a tool in Paint that I had never discovered: a tool that would crop to your selection.

[caption id="attachment_169" align="alignright" width="300" caption="With the Ribbon, the crop tool is obvious and accessible."][/caption]

I had always hated that when you insert a picture into paint, the canvas is usually too large.  My solution had always been to manually go to change the size of the canvas, but a dedicated crop tool is much simpler: 1 click and it’s done.  After discovering this tool in Windows 7, I went back to Vista and checked; the crop tool was actually added to Windows Paint in Vista!  I had used it for the past couple years and had never found this new feature, but the ribbon brought it front and center to my attention.  This simple example shows how the ribbon interface opens up the full potential of applications to the users by showing them features that were previously hidden.

[caption id="attachment_168" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Although the crop tool was added to Paint in Windows Vista, it was hidden in a menu and thus when undiscovered."][/caption]

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