Explorer and Ribbon
When a Mac OS X user talks about Windows, I listen. There are two outcomes:
- I get a good laugh out of their sheer ignorance (most of the times)
- There’s a new opinion that makes you go “hmmm… that’s interesting” (hardly ever)
The recent barrage of posts from many corners is around Ribbon in Explorer and how cluttered it is. My first response to this is, if you haven’t used Windows Live, you might as well stop polluting the web with your ignorant views.
A little history, Ribbon was introduced with Office 2007 and many hated it. In fact, what MG Siegler thinks about Ribbon in Explorer was what the haters said about Ribbon in Office 2007. An excerpt from USA Today’s article dated 2006:
Microsoft takes a step backward with IE7, Office 2007
Part of Microsoft’s logic is that 99% of users don’t customize their toolbars anyway, and those who do make tech support more difficult. Thus, force people to use a single over-cluttered Ribbon.
I, for one, have no problems with people having their own opinions. I have mine (Finder users shouldn’t talk about Windows). However, by the time Office 2010 came out, nobody talked about how cluttered Ribbon is. On the contrary it makes using Office easy. And users loves it. Anyone who has been using Windows Live through its life would attest to how usable Windows Live PhotoGallery, Movie Maker and Live Writer have become with the Ribbon.
Windows Explorer in its current state is useless when it comes to working with files. Here’s a screenshot of Explorer from Windows 7:
When I select a file, I can’t do anything till I right click or drag or perform a function to reach anything I want to. Here’s Finder:
As you can see, Finder is far more useless as compared to Explorer which is why an OS X user should have some self respect and avoid polluting the web. This brings me to Windows 8, Ribbon and the new Explorer:
I can select a file and Ribbon dynamically updates functions I can perform on the file. One click away. The functions are presented right up there. (Top-right corner, one-click access to selecting files!) As in the case of Windows Live. The variety of functions only shows what all can be done with a file. The definition for Clutter as per the built-in dictionary in OS X is:
clutter |?kl?t?r|
noun: a collection of things lying about in an untidy mass: the attic is full of clutter.
The Ribbon is anything but untidy. The Ribbon aggregates functions as per what they do. Several quick functions are presented in a bigger size (which, for what it’s worth, makes Ribbon finger friendly too).
Yesterday, a conversation on Twitter with Jack Schofield and Mary Jo Foley raised an interesting point. They said Explorer should be renamed to File Manager since you explore the Internet (Internet Explorer) and manage files (File Manager). This is a philosophical discussion about what you do with files.
Let’s breakdown the new Explorer, the following screenshots show how you don’t need to right click a file to access more options but simply select and access several options from the menu above (which has big icons and action segregation).
Looking at the new VHD and ISO mounting capabilities in Windows 8, Ribbon allows you to mount/eject these drives without having to go within menus! How does this not make things easy?!
Another change in Explorer is moving the details pane from the botton to the right, as shown here:
Now I can get all the details and perform actions on the file without having to go into another menu. The options are right there.
While Ribbon has multiple sized options in different colors it might seem overwhelming but as someone who has used the Ribbon through Microsoft Office and Windows Live, I find it much cleaner and useful compared to toolbars.
Clubdirthill aptly put the phases of Ribbon acceptance:
Phases of Ribbon Acceptance: 1) “FUCK MICROSOFT! WHY?” 2) “Meh, I’m getting used to this” 3) “How in hell did I survive Office 2003?”
We saw this with Office 2003 and are seeing it with Windows 8. Also, contrary to popular belief, Microsoft isn’t doubting itself and Steven Sinfosky really doesn’t want your feedback on Ribbon. It’s a done deal. Windows 8 Explorer will have Ribbon and that’s that.
Well, it’s about time someone finally put some thoughts into the basic operations of the Windows OS. I’m used the the context (right-click) menues in the Win GUI and it will be hard the break the habits learned over the years. The ribbon has the advantage of displaying more options in a single glance, but will seemingly be much rougher for some of us to ADD features by going into the registry like we could in the past. Windows 7 was such an abortion for the seasoned operators that many of us have begun migrating to Linux, looking for the legacy features that.we enjoyed in the older versions of the OS. Many of these will undoubtedly stay there while the rest may gravitate between the two while searching for a ‘comfortable’ distro to settle into. Most of us became more-or-less ‘satisfied’ with the Win OS somewhere between 98 to XP Pro and there are several that will stay with their favorite OS as long as the hardware permits them to do so. I can sincerely have emphathy will many of these as I, myself, still write major (and quite lengthy) programs in the old DOS Batch process with quite satisfactory results, being able to search the entire King James bible (for instance) in less than 2.5 seconds, but I digress. In my humble opinion, it would be FAR more beneficial for Microsoft’s future success and PR to write a much friendlier and more extensive ‘HELP’ system than to waste time dreaming up new ‘features’ for their future OS versions. Other thoughts would be coming up with a mandatory partitioning system that would keep data and programs and settings away from the OS’s partition, so when the OS gets corrupted (as it always does), the user wouldn’t lose all their data, etc. as they often do now.
There are many other ‘common sense’ improvements that Redmond could easily incorporate into future OS’s but to most of us users, they are too unwilling to even consider.. When Microsoft shows some willingness to LISTEN to its customers, it will shine. Until then, it will simply serve to be an entry point for new Linux and Mac users.
I’m an avid user of both OS X and Windows. I’m also a fan of both. However I am baffled as to how an OS X user could possibly think that Finder is better than Explorer. Perhaps it comes back to the fact that organising files and folders is a relatively complex task and navigating through a file system can be a dangerous thing.
It comes down to Apple and Microsoft having very different focuses on how they approach usability. Microsoft is aiming to make the functionality as accessible as possible. Apple is aiming towards making exposed functionality as simple as possible.
Apple’s focus has the advantage that it produces an interface that is clean and won’t scare off new users (as much). Microsoft’s focus does mean that brand new users may think they are being presented with the controls necessary to pilot the space shuttle.
Interestingly neither focus can be considered wrong (or right), but if you want to get things done I know which I’d prefer.
At least as a Mac OS X user, I can customize the Finder. Microsoft seems to be determined to turn Windows Explorer into Microsoft Office with all the baggage and confusion that makes Office difficult to use.
err… you can customize the Ribbon or completely hide it with just navigation being displayed.
Love this post Manan. You nailed it and did it in a very elocuent and quite polite way.
It is also good to point out that people has not even seen Metro Design applied to the Ribbon or to the Desktop Mode in W8 yet. I have seen the mockups of both. It works and so far it all makes sense.
Hehe! Thank you. Explorer will be far more useful now.
i hated the ribbon initially. my initial reaction was based on the human tendency to resist any change and was not based on the merits of the ribbon. i can say now i prefer ribbon over traditional menu system. information is more organized and accessible in ribbon.
$ cd ark/mes
$ cat all_fs_manag
All filesystem managers suck. They over-complicate the issue and encourage sorting practices which are not conducive to rapid retrieval and discovery. Then again, most people are too thick to handle anything without ideograms plastered all over the place like a child’s primer.
$
I wasnt have any problems for years using right mouse click. And the ribbon… is just ugly and for me, not ergonomic. Im work with 2 windows and both have to much colour and to mouch buttons now.