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Tuesday, July 8, 2008

How they created the new UI of Microsoft Office

Not entirely game-related, but interesting none the less: Jensen Harris' talk at the MIX conference in Las Vegas. You can download the video from his blog: "The story of the Ribbon".

What's inside:
  • A nice overview of the Interface of Microsoft Word from version 1.0 to 2003 with screenshots of each version
  • Their design process
  • The creation of "the ribbon" ("The Ribbon" is the part of the new Office UI that runs along the top of the screen and replaces the long menus and toolbars of previous versions)
  • He shows lots and lots of prototypes, including some really fancy ideas