115 replies to this topic

[Zain Adeel]

Hello guys.
As sad i was to hear that ribbon is here to stay in windows 8. Sad not because i dont like it. I dont. But good that we can minimize it. Sad because i was hoping for a metro desktop environment. Something like i did in my earlier concepts but i understand its too early and people will not like such a drastic change to their much loved Aero UI.

Realising that Ribbon is here to stay. I challanged myself to make a Ribbon UI that is consistent. And beautiful. (also something mature)

I ended up with this. I did all the icons myself. Not really an iconist. But these alone took me a few days.
I did this just to show MS how its done!. Like a boss! just kidding.

Its my humble request to their design team to please improve the ribbon UI so my eyes dont bleed.

Everything is self explanatory. Remember. This is not a NEW RIBBON CONCEPT. I wont do that because its useless as MS is sticking to this UI. What i did is redid the whole UI elements. Like a skin or theme. To show it can look alot better with better graphics.

First 2 files are MS Beta shots. (almost beta).

The other 3 are my designs. I would go with a single size icon. Small yet touch friendly. With no text. But a simple option to enable or disable it. I am showing both the options and also a minimized Ribbon UI aswell.

Hope you like it all.

[Astra.Xtreme]

I think how it's organized really nicely, but I don't like how it's colorless. Any reason why you chose to go that route? It just seems too bland without color.

[SHoTTa35]

OMG, that's gross. LOL Sorry but i rather the other one much more. Monotone UIs don't help with easily finding stuff. You may not use it but that "blue E" on the desktop for most people is where they find the internet. If you were to change that to a red or something else most people would just complain.

The good thing with Windows I guess is that you can change some stuff on your own to make it "Personal" so you do that

[+Jdawg683]

i just hate how the ribbon takes up so much real estate. it's like 30% of the window is ribbon...

[remixedcat]

dark version please!

[pack34]

Jdawg683, on 01 February 2012 - 16:05, said:

i just hate how the ribbon takes up so much real estate. it's like 30% of the window is ribbon...

It's collapsed by default so if you need it you click the tab, then action, and it disappears again.

[+3 Charisma]

I like it, but then, I'm kind of a minimalist. I'm not a big fan of the ribbon thing, but if I have to have one, I prefer yours. Well done.

[LaP]

It's better than MS ribbon imo. But i must say i dislike ms ribbon a lot so ...

I like the concept of the ribbon. I have Photoshop CS2 at work and the tool bar is kinda like a ribbon and i like it.

My main problem with MS ribbon is it's way too big and crowded. Yours is less crowded but it's still a little bit too big imo. You could reduce the height by a couple of pixels.

pack34, on 01 February 2012 - 16:09, said:

It's collapsed by default so if you need it you click the tab, then action, and it disappears again.

It still take 30% of the window space for no reason when not collapsed. It's simply too big and crowded for no reason.

[tsupersonic]

3 Charisma, on 01 February 2012 - 16:09, said:

I like it, but then, I'm kind of a minimalist. I'm not a big fan of the ribbon thing, but if I have to have one, I prefer yours. Well done.

That is anything but minimal. I don't like the concept, because it is too cluttered, and takes up way too much real estate. I like how Windows 7 presents Windows Explorer. I like how the menu (File, Edit, View, Tools, Help) is hidden by default. I don't use it often enough, and even if you do need it, just hit the ALT key.

[+Detection]

The main thing MS need to address is the ancient yellow folders, yes they have updated the look of the icon, but the colour is still ancient

[Snake89]

Some text in the ribbonUI just gotta be removed like "Clipboard, organize, new, open, and Select". An we'll beable to gain some of that space back.

[+3 Charisma]

tsupersonic, on 01 February 2012 - 16:17, said:

That is anything but minimal. I don't like the concept, because it is too cluttered, and takes up way too much real estate. I like how Windows 7 presents Windows Explorer. I like how the menu (File, Edit, View, Tools, Help) is hidden by default. I don't use it often enough, and even if you do need it, just hit the ALT key.

I don't see how you think it's cluttered--it is a lot simpler and cleaner than the original. I like the monochrome as well. I do think it's still too large, though, yes. A thinner ribbon would be nice.

Detection, on 01 February 2012 - 16:17, said:

The main thing MS need to address is the ancient yellow folders, yes they have updated the look of the icon, but the colour is still ancient

The majority of physical folders you buy like that are still the yellow manila folders, which is what they were trying to emulate. It's rather iconic (excuse the pun) at this point, so I don't think it's quite as much of an issue.

[Brian Miller]

Why so grey?

That's bad HCI.

Microsoft, STOP copying mistakes by Apple and start hiring learned HCI researchers and not idiots with a 2bit degree with zero industrial experience.

[+Mephistopheles]

You Lion-ified¹ Windows Explorer. Which isn't a bad thing; I prefer the monochrome version. In a way it reminds me of Windows 2000 with its monochrome toolbar icons which only were coloured when active. Great job - if anyone from the folks in Redmond is reading this topic: Copy license Zain Adeel's design to use instead of the messy looking one in your screenshots please.

¹Apple changed the sidebar icons in Finder from coloured to monochrome in OS X 10.7 'Lion'.

[Azies]

No