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In order to find out the reason behind the Ribbon user interface, the team studied three different versions of Microsoft Word (2003, 2007 and 2010) as well as the HCI and graphical user interface design principles Microsoft had succeed/failed to follow. Result of the research suggested that the act of dropping the classic Word user interface, Microsoft had sacrificed the flexibility of adaptable menus and submenus and the familiarity of the classic user interface design. However, by introducing the Ribbon user interface (the Ribbon UI), Microsoft had successfully achieved ease of navigation; reduced information/tools access cost of the adaptable menus and a consistent yet predictable tabbed user interface.
<u>'''Wai Kit Liew'''</u>
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Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop, as an application, possesses a fundamentally different design goal and challenges compared to the majority of software out on the market today. Famously known for its overwhelming number of tools, Photoshop’s design goal is to facilitate the use of every tool imaginable to allow users to express their creativity without the need to worry about not having an intuitively accessible tool to get the job done.
To achieve its design goals, Photoshop has consistently maintained the use of HCI principles throughout its design.
Principle: Top down processing
Photoshop employs top down processing for all of its menus and sub-menus. Any predictable or sequential order (such as alphabetical) is always top down in order. One of the best use of top down processing lies in the Layers tool panel interface. The layer tool panel displays all available layers in order of front (top) to back (bottom). This interface also allows user to utilize the top down model to predictably change the organization of layers or insert new layers.
[IMAGE: LAYER TOOLBOX]
Principle: Redundancy Gain
Redundancy gain is another oft used principle in Photoshop. In general, all functions in Photoshop tools appear 1-4 times: Top menu, customizable side tool bar, a context tool panel (to the right), and the contextual menu (a.k.a. right click). The user is able to heavily customize Photoshop via the use of available framework (e.g. tool bar), plug-ins and contextual menus for more advanced packages and users.
[IMAGE: menu + side tool bar + context tool panel + context menu combination example]
Principle: Pictorial Realism & the moving part
Pictorial realism is important in Photoshop due to the fact that the physical world of colors is analog by nature. Any feature dealing with color change or shading of any sort must utilize pictorial realism in order for the user to predict the kind of change that would be applied. Photoshop always displays a preview color box or a preview on the actual image in order to facilitate this. On the other hand, the principle of moving part is clearly a pairing principle used in conjunction with pictorial realism in the form of a color wheel and shade sliders. Digital value notwithstanding, almost all mental models dealing with color must be expressed either as a color wheel or a shade slider. This makes the principle of the moving part an integral part of any design involving an analog control for color.
[IMAGE: color panel, shade panel]
Principle: Minimizing information access cost, Proximity compatibility principle
Context tool panels, sub-menus sorted by categories
Principle: Principle of predictive aiding
Tool categories and sub categories that reduces clutter in toolboxes and allow closely related tools to be accessed via the same button
[IMAGE: toolbar sub-tools]
Principle: Principle of consistency
Photoshop previous version comparison
== Keywords ==
