[Concept] New Ribbon UI !

[Jan Veteran]

^ That's quite nice Zain, one of the reasons why Microsoft wouldn't go with a design like that though is it would screw over all the other desktop apps.

[remixedcat]

nice but a darker version would be best.

[Zain Adeel]

That's not really Metro. Nor is your first post. Think tiles with invisible lines and nice big font with simple graphics. You are almost there.

Having said that, i wouldn't mind downloading that theme for myself. :)

I actually did a full Metro desktop concept aswell. FULL metro. have u seen it? go here. http://zainadeel.deviantart.com/gallery/34252956#/d4jc2ud

^ That's quite nice Zain, one of the reasons why Microsoft wouldn't go with a design like that though is it would screw over all the other desktop apps.

thank u :)

and yea i know they will never go this way. basically the title bar is vertical :p so this would be a real big change. But i actually spent many days thinking about this and how it will work out. But then i noticed something very similar to my draft in a concept video by Microsoft Office. i took many ques from there. The vid actually showed me that what i had it mind can actually work.

[Jan Veteran]

Here's my Windows 8 window concept: (Based off of Zune :D)

[~Johnny]

ok guys.. the thing is..

ppl here think this is low quality linex distro like work.

[....]

To be fair, these do look like they could fit in quite nicely with a lot of Linux Disto's, and this kind of style would work amazingly well there :p They are very nice designs, they just don't fit well with windows.

[Panda X]

Yes, it is indeed unfortunate. I managed to find the actual resource files but they seem to be in an unknown format or encrypted/compressed.

If you mean the EXPLORER_RIBBON UIFILE then that's just the buttons and stuff. It's just a compiled XML file.

[Zain Adeel]

ok so im obsessed with my new design.. i am thinking of taking it further and designing a taskbar like thingy. and for other softwares like IE and messenger and so.. to see if this works there or not. if i can complete a portfolio of these ill send them to MS :p

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

@zain

Ever thought about the width of the screen? That could be a problem with your design >.>

[Zain Adeel]

@zain

Ever thought about the width of the screen? That could be a problem with your design >.>

Lol..

i hope you know that widescreens are pretty common now. :p

why put stuff on top when u can put it at the side? As most screens are widescreens now. more area on the sides.

So its actually a plus point of my design rather a problem.

Also even with this design the actual window area to content area ratio is lower than the one by MS

[Detection]

ok so im obsessed with my new design.. i am thinking of taking it further and designing a taskbar like thingy. and for other softwares like IE and messenger and so.. to see if this works there or not. if i can complete a portfolio of these ill send them to MS :p

I have looked through the thread but can't see anything mentioned, will you release this as a Windows 7 / 8 theme we can use ?

[Manish]

Here is what i imagine a windows explorer with something like ribbon can look like if i get to play around with my rules.

My rules. My style. Metroish simplicity. But with little styles to give it a touch of our loved GUI from today. Ribbon options. But everything super sleek and sexy.

How about this? (please click to view fullsize)

...

That looks really, really nice.

if i can complete a portfolio of these ill send them to MS :p

You should. It looks better than anything they've produced for Windows 8 (so far). (Y)

[Zain Adeel]

I have looked through the thread but can't see anything mentioned, will you release this as a Windows 7 / 8 theme we can use ?

i dont think WE can be customized so much. But i can release something along the lines.

But then again. If the ribbon is restricted i wont waste my time skinning around it when the ribbon itself is so ugly. I really hope MS are working on a new UI and just waiting for it to be complete before they put it on Aero.

[Zain Adeel]

how detail view looks line in line with my concept.

note the change of icon color from yellow to brown. muted brown. While selected turns green.

[pack34]

how detail view looks line in line with my concept.

note the change of icon color from yellow to brown. muted brown. While selected turns green.

I like it, but for usability's sake the mini-max-close buttons should be on the top right somewhere. It's just where people expect them to be. Also, there should be a visual cue of how to initialize the vertical ribbon. I believe that's what the arrow is for but the names of the tabs should most likely be visible. Just my two cents.

Any chance to see what squared off corners would look like?

[iwod]

I never like the Ribbon, one for its functions and button at the Top left hand corners. And it always looks cluttered. Menu Size and the Main view size are not proportional.

[Aethec]

I really like the ribbon-on-the-right mockup, but it needs some color. Finding the icons you want is hard without color information.

[Zain Adeel]

I really like the ribbon-on-the-right mockup, but it needs some color. Finding the icons you want is hard without color information.

these options wont change over time. There is text. There is muscle memory. It needs no color at all. Else it will start to get loud and will distract away from the whole design.

[Kyang]

My second issue is that while you can minimize it you have to constantly click it open and click it to close: It doesn't minimize automatically after clicking something or clicking somewhere outside the Ribbon, unlike a menu.

Where does the ribbon not do this? The ribbons in the Win7 applications like paint, and in Office 2010 do. The one thing that I don't like about the ribbon is how the user can't hover/mouse over each tab to open it. They have to click on each tab, or use the scroll wheel. And the scroll wheel doesn't cycle through the categories when the ribbon is minimized. Otherwise, from what I see, it's just a horizontal menu that relies on icons sized differently based on importance, instead of words.

[.Neo]

Where does the ribbon not do this? The ribbons in the Win7 applications like paint, and in Office 2010 do. The one thing that I don't like about the ribbon is how the user can't hover/mouse over each tab to open it. They have to click on each tab, or use the scroll wheel. And the scroll wheel doesn't cycle through the categories when the ribbon is minimized. Otherwise, from what I see, it's just a horizontal menu that relies on icons sized differently based on importance, instead of words.

You're right, my bad. Tabs not opening on mouseover like conventional menus do is annoying.

Another thing I don't like is the Quick Access toolbar, it makes things look cluttered. If I remove things like Undo/Redo they won't appear in the Ribbon. At least not in Paint.

[Zain Adeel]

here is my dock idea.

its actually pretty much the superbar.

But ill show how the startmenu is different.

Also see how all the icons are flat white but clean and easy to differenciate. The selected box will be another box inside the main select box and will have a single color per software. Like yellow for WE Blue for IE. and so on.

What that border around selected color box does i will explain later.

[.Neo]

Personally I think your latest mockup is a usability disaster. Putting text on its side isn't really something you should be after. Next to that the controls and buttons are everywhere! On the top left, top right, top, bottom right, bottom left, right etc. Not even the forward/backword - refresh buttons are put in the same place. My god...

[Zain Adeel]

we cant really talk about usability unless we get to use it.

But i did some test clicking on a screenshot and its just like getting used to a new system.

pretty much like getting used to Metro controls.

also.. ribbon is hidden by default.

so no.

there are no buttons everywhere.

also. there are buttons on 3 sides in Win8 explorer. i dont really understand ur point.

[.Neo]

we cant really talk about usability unless we get to use it.

Actually we can, many of the elements you incorporated aren't unique. Putting text on its side just doesn't do anything to improve usability, it makes things worse. That's pretty much a given.

But i did some test clicking on a screenshot and its just like getting used to a new system.

pretty much like getting used to Metro controls.

also.. ribbon is hidden by default.

so no.

there are no buttons everywhere.

also. there are buttons on 3 sides in Win8 explorer. i dont really understand ur point.

Are we looking at the same screen shot? Because if you're actually trying to convince me the buttons aren't scattered all over the place we're not. The left brown border seems to have no real purpose. Its elements can be easily put in the white area which wastes a lot of screen estate at this point.

[punkierich]

That looks great, slick and simple.

[pack34]

Are we looking at the same screen shot? Because if you're actually trying to convince me the buttons aren't scattered all over the place we're not. The left brown border seems to have no real purpose. Its elements can be easily put in the white area which wastes a lot of screen estate at this point.

Although I do agree that the buttons in the bottom left should be moved to the top to combine the controls, the left border looks like it's a collapsed tree view to me, which is an interesting concept that I haven't seen before.