Office 2007 - A Usability Revolution

I have now had the chance to use Office 2007, and I have created a number of documents with it and analyzed how much more efficient the new interface is. The verdict? It is a revolution in terms of efficient usability.

Office 2007 in action

It looks strange, but it quickly feels like home

The new toolbars is very effectively making you feel like a beginner, suddenly you cannot find the simplest thing - like how do you open a new document. The common "open" icon is completely missing. You also need to learn how different things is grouped together.

But, after a few minutes of being lost, you start to get hang of it. You start to feel comfortable, and even more interesting, you start to feel in control. With the old Office (and other office products on the market), you are never in control of your work. If you do something special, you feel like you in a battle of menus and settings.

Take making numbered list: If you want to, say, make a numbered list with roman numerals it would take a long time, that is if you can ever figure out how to do it. But with the new office you simply select that as you list style.

List styles is no longer hidden in a complex menu structure

The difference in usability is staggering. Using FITTs, GOMS and HICKs we can calculate just how much of an improvement it is.

Example: "selecting the items you want, and turning them into a numbered list - with roman numerals".

Old Office: 15.04 seconds
Office 2007: 8.65 seconds

(42% improvement in efficiency)

Not only is the new interface much more efficient, it also empowers you to do new things. To take advantage of the many new features of Office 2007.

On-demand text formatting

A really exciting element is the "MiniBar", a on-demand text formatting menu, that pops-up when you select some of the text. It special because it can really boost your productivity. Take a simple thing like making bold text.

Quick formatting with the MiniBar

With previous versions you had two ways of making bold text. You could either use a keyboard shortcut, which involves switching between your hand and your mouse, or you use the bold icon in the tool bar. This takes (after selecting the text):

Keyboard shortcut: 2.5 seconds
Icon in toolbar: 4.02 seconds

Using the MiniBar this operation is 20% faster:

MiniBar: 2.0 seconds

I admit that half a second isn't much, but when every UI operation is 20-40% faster you can finish your daily tasks with 2 hours and 42 minutes to spare. That is like taking every Friday off, and still get the job done.

Note: A number of people have compared the MiniBar to SmartTags. But the two are not alike. SmartTags utilized the contextual menu (where you had to open it to see it), whereas the MiniBar is an active element.

Interface calmness

Another surprising thing about the Office 2007, and specifically the toolbars is that they give a sense of calmness. The old interface was a visual mess. Every single element was in a constant battle for screen space.

The new interface seems much more uncluttered. The dark interface (of Vista/Office) calms your eyes - even though it does take a little while to get used to. The new Calibri font (default font face in Vista/Office 2007) is very readable.

Some usability problems too

Not everything is brilliant and fantastic. There still is a number of usability problems.

First of all there is a poor "out-of-the-box" experience for existing users. The problems is that the change is so drastic that you feel lost. I admit that the feeling is quickly replaced by the feeling of being in power, but the first 30 minutes of use is not a good experience. We all know how resistant people is to change.

Another problem is lack of space for toolbar elements. Take the style bar. it sure looks nice, but you cannot read the style descriptions (an so far I have found no way of expanding the text).

Then there is rather peculiar problem. Since Office 2007 features "Live Preview", you often find yourself spending time waiting for the preview to render, before you click the button. "Live Preview" is great for when you don't know what you want. But it gets in your way when you do know - even though there is nothing stopping you from just clicking the button in the first place. I expect that the problem goes away ones you have grown more accustomed to the program.

You also got a problem of "modes". Every usability practitioner knows that forcing people to work in modes is not a good thing. But, that is exactly what the new toolbars do. You switch between groups of toolbars to do your work.

It is not a problem if you are simply writing a document, then you only need the "Home" toolbar group. But, if you are reviewing a document, you constantly have to switch between "Home" and "Review" to get your job done.

BTW: Why have a toolbar called "Home", give it a useful label as "Formatting" instead

Publish your work

One really exciting things about Office 2007 is the publish feature. You can now publish your work directly to your blog - and use Word as WYSIWYG editor. This is a great thing. I always write my articles and reports in Word because using a "textarea" is very limiting.

I have been puzzled by the lack text editing capabilities in blogs. A blog is about writing, and not being able to have writing tool is literally a disaster.

It a bit like when 37Signals made Writeboard, a collaborative writing tool with no tools for writing. I simply don't get that.

Thankfully, Word 2007 solves this (and soon a whole bunch of other Office products will too)

Comments

Folletto Malefico - May. 27, 2006

I hardly see how the keyboard shortcut could be slower than the MiniBar. Sure, the MiniBar is "right there", but still there's only one hand on the mouse, the other is already on the keyboard and since you've already planned to do the "bold" task, you already have the shourtcut ready. The total time in this situation is just the time of the selection and a quite null portion of time to press the shortcut.

Doing this with a formal test, like GOMS, could be something like:

Shortcut: PPK = 1,1 + 1,1 + 0,2 (two mouse points and a keypress).

MiniBar: PPP = 1,1 + 1,1 + 1,1 (three mouse points, start, stop, button).

Now, I'm sorry if I seemed unpolite, but I took that detail as a good reflection on interfaces and I re-read some about GOMS. ;)

For the rest, I've tried it yesterday and I feel just like you said: at home.

With just a recrimination: the "file" menu is simply silly. That doesn't seem in any way something to be pressed, and doesn't give any clue about it.

Again, good analysis, and sorry if I seemed too picky about that point... ;)

Thomas Baekdal - May. 27, 2006

Folletto,

Yes, you are absolutely right, but there is very important difference in our calculations.

In my calculation I assume that the person has his hand on the mouse, because that was what he used to select the text. So I have added 2 x 0.4 seconds to account for the time it takes to move your hand to the keyboard, use the shortcut, and move it back again. I have also added time for deciding what to do next (alt=hough this is added to both).

It is surprisingly few people who can use both their hand. But that I mean, most people will let go of the mouse, even though they use the other hand for the next task (unless they copy/paste repeatedly, then they do use both hands).

BTW: I am curious about why you define the shortcut operation as "two mouse points and a key press". I would define as this:

press key [CTRL] = 0.1 (half of tapping a key)

Mental time = 1.3 (might be faster for power users)

tap key [C] = 0.2

Release key [CTRL] = 0.1

Total time: 1.7 seconds

(again here we assume the hand is already on the keyboard).

I also think the "file" menu is very strange, but I guess it a matter of habits - but it would help if Vista programs embrace it.

Thanks,

Folletto Malefico - Jun. 6, 2006

Sorry for the late answer.

I think that "It is surprisingly few people who can use both their hand" clears everything out. You 'surprised' me, but with an afterthought I understood that you're right.

My previous calculations skipped the mental time (since I put it before any action and it's common for both tasks).

Also, I did another error due to "experience bias": I took the shortcut as a single keypress, and here I'm plain wrong.

The two mouse points are common to both and are the operations of selection: point to the start of selection, keep the mouse pressed, point to the end of selection (1.1 + 1.1).

So, the only difference will be the shortcut (0.2 + 0.2) versus the mouse point (1.1).

I made myself clear? :)

Folletto Malefico - Jun. 7, 2006

Uhm, just rereading KLM-GOMS and making some tests...

Am I wrong if I say that:

Using Mouse and Minibar:

MPBPBPBB = 1.2 + 1.1 + 0.1 + 1.1 + 0.1 + 1.1 + 0.1 + 0.1 = 4.9 sec

(think, point start, mousedown, point end, mouseup, point button, mousedown, mouseup)

Using Shortcut:

MPBPBHKKH = 1.2 + 1.1 + 0.1 + 1.1 + 0.1 + 0.4 + 0.2 + 0.2 + 0.4 = 4.8 sec

(think, point start, mousedown, point end, mouseup, hand on keyboard, shortcut * 2, hand on mouse)

Am I missing something? :)

Thomas Baekdal - Jun. 7, 2006

Foletto,

Am I wrong if I say that...

Nope, that seems to be the correct.

Take a look at my Usability Analyzer. This was what I used to calculate the efficiency of Office 2007. It combines GOMS, FITT's and HICK's in one.

Anonymous - Oct. 6, 2006

The Calibri font sucks. If you don't have font smoothing, it is really hard on the eyes.

Thomas Baekdal - Oct. 6, 2006

Well, I must admit that I do not understand why you would turn font smoothing off in the first place.

Arnošt Löbel - Feb. 1, 2007

One's not understanding does not make the other a fool, does it? When someone states having problems with reading a font, it should be a reason enough to think about a change, maybe.

F.Y.I., there are certain QA test tools that require having font smoothing turned off, because some tests depends on comparing raster snap-shots, and that could be screwed by smoothing. This is just one example but there is probably more, alt=hough it should not matter as I stated earlier.

As for usability, what do the three text boxes here in "Post Comment" mean? Or do they mean anything?

thomas Baekdal - Feb. 1, 2007

Hi Arnost,

Calibri is specifically designed to work on screen with ClearType turned on. I do not consider people who do not like it to be fools, I just wrote I did not understand why anyone would do that.

Too me it is like driving a ferrari off-road. That is also going to suck. Neither Ferrari, nor the off-road path is designed to work together. Just as switching ClearType off and using Calibri doesn't work.

If you do not like it, or - as you describe - happen to be in a situation where it would cause a problem, then you are free to choose a different font, and turn ClearType off. And, set is as default if you like.

Arnošt Löbel - Feb. 2, 2007

Thomas, I think you are missing the point. To the user, it does not matter what you think. Let me give you an example. Canvas (the once famous versatile graphic application) was not designed to load huge DWG drawings and/or GIS maps, yet many users tend to do that anyway. One might say it's like a Ferrari of-road, but the users obviously have chosen that combination for whatever reason, and I believe it is Canvas' duty to make their ride as pleasant as technically possible.

Anyway, you did not explain to me what the three text boxes are here in "Post Comment" section. Do they suppose to have some kind of labels in front? Is the first one like "name", the second "an email address", etc.? Are the labels left out by design or is it an intelligence test of some sort?

Jesper Rønn-Jensen - Feb. 14, 2007

Excellent usability review. Thanks a lot for sharing. Now I can just wait for our corporate IT strategy to upgrade to the new Office.

This article completely slipped under my radar when you published, but it's definately worth paying attention to.