Sparx Systems Forum

Enterprise Architect => Suggestions and Requests => Topic started by: Krzysztof Swiatkowski on March 31, 2009, 04:29:51 am

Title: Ribbon request
Post by: Krzysztof Swiatkowski on March 31, 2009, 04:29:51 am
Following the discussion in http://www.sparxsystems.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1238008819 I think that adding a ribbon is a great idea.
At first when I put my hands on Office 2007 I didn't like it so I bought an extension for classic menu. It was handy at first but now it has been long covered by electronic dust and I really like the ribbon.
It's drawback is that you need to get the items right - put elements in a way that will make them easily accessible for common tasks. Simple switching from menu to ribbon is for many applications a bad solution because bad ribbon makes much worse user experience than bad main menu does.

Ribbon allows for very quick access to many functions and it is very usable... after getting used to it  ;D.

regards
Kris
Title: Re: Ribbon request
Post by: Emilio on April 03, 2009, 07:16:51 pm
No matter what I still abhor (sp?) the Office 2007 ribbon, I think it is one of the worst ideas Microsoft came over with. I don't know what designers where thinking! well, maybe about eye candy as usual and totally forgetting about usability.

The whole idea of a ribbon plus auto-hiding of less used options in a menu (was that Office 2001?) is very annoying when it comes to using a product with that feature.

Although I think the EA menu structure can still use some improvement I don't think a ribbon will actually be a major improvement. I would rather see other sort of features and improvements made to the product.
Title: Re: Ribbon request
Post by: Kevin G. Watson on April 08, 2009, 03:48:30 am
Hello... I would dearly like to have  a ribbon.

Unlike some folks, I loved 2007's ribbon; it looked cool, presented what to do next and made discovery easier.  And is eye candy such a bad thing.

Actually, why not provide a choice... the existing standard menu or a ribbon.  I might be revealing a level of ignorance thats astounding, but in that way folks like Emillo and Ged ( with time invested in learning and becoming familiar navigating the existing interface ) are not forced to adapt or die.

Oh... an aside... on my netbook; one of the menu's exceed the display height ( 600 ) and you get scoll buttons to reveal... not quite 'hiding' the infrequent... but an extra click to see you've picked the wrong menu and two if ya check whats slipped off the top.

Kevin [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]
Title: Re: Ribbon request
Post by: «Midnight» on April 08, 2009, 08:52:07 am
And another 0.02 CAD for what that's worth these days...

I have to go with Kevin's position on this. It might even be possible to make the choice of ribbon or legacy menu an option, much along the lines of how EA allows us to choose the overall Visual Style from the View menu.

David