Ease of use of applications without a traditional menu bar

Question

I recently noticed that it seems that the trend in Windows applications no longer includes a menu bar in the application (the "Edit File ..." menu), instead functionality related to icons that appear to be randomly distributed around the application window . for example: IE8, Windows 7 media player.

Is there any evidence of usability affecting this change? (I personally find these applications very difficult to use)

If so, can anyone suggest where I could find this study and maybe some recommendations for writing new applications using this style?

Some answers suggest that this is the Tape style, which seems to be what I'm looking at. I still can't find recommendations or evidence that works / doesn't work.

Answer 1

Well, after a quick search, I found a reasonable explanation for this trend in the user interface. It is based on the concept of tape. It can be traced from Office 2007, and even Firefox uses it.

Literature:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/351808/firefox-tidies-up-with-office-2007s-ribbon http://slashdot.org/story/09/09/23/1846248/Firefox-To -Replace-Menus-Wi https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Sprints/Windows_Theme_Revamp/Direction_and_Feedback http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribbon_(computing)

Answer 2

The MS Office ribbon may have inspired the latest set of applications that use multiple icons without text labels instead of a menu bar. However, the implementation of these applications did not seem to be able to understand or realize the benefits of the tape, or even what makes the tape a tape.

Controls marked with icons only are more difficult to learn than those marked with text only [See Wiedenbeck S (1999). Use of badges and tags in an end-user application: An empirical study of learning and retention. Behavior and Information Technology, 18 (2)]. The lack of text labels for groups of controls in these applications cannot help.

Note that Office Ribbon typically avoids both of these errors by providing text labels for groups of controls (the Office logo is a notable exception) and text labels for most individual controls (many controls on the Home tab are another notable exception).

After careful research, the Office Ribbon has largely retained the traditional command structure of the File-Edit-View commands that found the traditional menu bar. Theres no evidence that theres anything wrong with this organization.

IMOs, icons scattered around UI design, are an expression of fashion or branding, a rather clumsy attempt to create a “state of the art” such as Office, and an excuse to decorate the user interface with graphics. They do not improve usability.

For everything about the tape, see Jensen Harriss's blog . My criticism of the tape . Not that I am particularly pleased with the traditional menu bar and toolbar .

Answer 3

This is ribbon . Presumably, this is simpler than the standard menu, because it depends on the context. The whole purpose of its development was that, despite the fact that Word can now do almost everything, people complain that some functions are missing just because they could not find them. Therefore, MS people thought a lot, and the tape is what they created. Depending on the context, it shows you the functions that you can use right now, and not all the functions, and this saves the screen property, so that more functions are actually seen by the user.

Answer 4

The ribbon still serves as a navigation area - a combination of menus and toolbars, which are usually organized by area (print, design, layout, external data), rather than the traditional style (File, Edit, Tools) . Although it depends a little on what is organized by area, it certainly adds to usability.

I think that the reason IE 8 combines the menu bar into the same line as the tab allows you to view more real estate (or the add-in submenu on the toolbar). A feed would be redundant for something as simple as a browser, where in 99% of cases you do one of three things: enter the URL, go to bookmarks / Favorites or Print.

If you're writing a Windows-based database system or other sophisticated application, definitely check out how Microsoft uses tapes in its Office products.

Answer 5

A ribbon is nothing more than a FAT toolbar. Such things are invented not because of a user request or need, but because of the arrogance of large corporations and boring, wealthy managers and "developers" who are sitting idle. “Inventing” things is one thing, but AGAINST it at all without preserving the previous, not cluttered, classic, working, familiar interface - this is absolute arrogance. People should be informed. You do not need to put up with this. Say something.