Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS
Office 12 interface revealed - OS X UI designers weep
Honestly, I'm trying to get past that old "they're ripping Apple off!" complaint, but then stuff like this shows up and just gets my blood boiling again.
You're looking at the recently unveiled interface of Microsoft's forthcoming Office 12. (Warning: the site's been Slashdot'ed so it'll be sluggish, if you get in at all) Yes, that window's title bar looks incriminatingly like brushed metal, and yes: the selected "Write" button and all those other options and settings (bold, italic, underline, justification, etc) look amazingly Aqua-ish. In a way this shouldn't be surprising, as you could stack this up alongside their other recent offenses, such as IE 7's blatant "long-lost-brother" resemblance to Safari RSS.
In my opinion: sad. I don't want to blab on or start pointing fingers at burned out Microsoft UI engineers, but feel free to weigh in if you agree (or not) that this is close to a UI crime against an adolescent UI industry.
You're looking at the recently unveiled interface of Microsoft's forthcoming Office 12. (Warning: the site's been Slashdot'ed so it'll be sluggish, if you get in at all) Yes, that window's title bar looks incriminatingly like brushed metal, and yes: the selected "Write" button and all those other options and settings (bold, italic, underline, justification, etc) look amazingly Aqua-ish. In a way this shouldn't be surprising, as you could stack this up alongside their other recent offenses, such as IE 7's blatant "long-lost-brother" resemblance to Safari RSS.
In my opinion: sad. I don't want to blab on or start pointing fingers at burned out Microsoft UI engineers, but feel free to weigh in if you agree (or not) that this is close to a UI crime against an adolescent UI industry.
Get a WordPress.com Blog
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
David said 2:12PM on 9-13-2005
I quite agree - as Apple start to drop the brushed metal Microsoft seem to adopt it! Personally i hate the brushed metal look and think that this new layout ms are going for will most likely cause alot of problems for non IT literate people.
Reply
narco said 2:16PM on 9-13-2005
I do agree with the selected aqua-ish buttons, but that doesn't really bother me. They can add that, but it still looks like garbage.
Fishes,
narco.
Reply
Brian said 2:17PM on 9-13-2005
I thought the same thing as I looked at it earlier this morning. The good side of this is that those of us who have to use Windows at work will at least get a better interface, even if it is copied.
Reply
heipei said 2:18PM on 9-13-2005
so what, you want a law against that? it is completely understandable that windows user too want a cool looking gui. as long as it remains clear who copied from whom i see no problem, also mac users will probably be always one step ahead, as wen can see with tiger and the upcoming vista. so while windows users are still drooling about their brushed metal, mac users are already enjoying the next best thing (as seen in iTunes 5 maybe?) :P
Reply
Alan said 2:18PM on 9-13-2005
Actually, it doesn't look Aqua-ish or Brushed-Metal-ish to me. Maybe it's the font, I dunno... but something made me think "WINDOWS" when I first saw it.
Reply
gd said 2:32PM on 9-13-2005
it is to Apple GUI as Yugos are to Maseratis.
You can copy the look, but as soon as you start smashing it about with a sledgehammer and belt-sander, all the lustre is gone.
Reply
heipei said 2:33PM on 9-13-2005
and btw, i mean, even if they went out and copied the aqua ui 1:1 making it look exactly like the lateste mac os x, it still wouldnt be as good. think about the whole programs mac os x is built around, about the opendarwin core, the unix userland programs and stuff like hfs+ and metadata. which is the reason i switched to os x, i never had a problem with the windows gui, just with the underlying techniques
Reply
Joshua Ochs said 12:13AM on 9-14-2005
This might be a copied OS X "skin", but the interface looks abysmal. Looks like they've merged the toolbars and menus in a strange way, and there seem to be some sort of docking panels or palettes around (of course, all sporting a new non-standard interface). Jeez, Office 97 might have been its pinacle...
Reply
Keith Russell said 2:45PM on 9-13-2005
Please, tell me that Firefox failed to correctly render the [sarcasm] tags.
That "brushed metal" isn't even brushed. It's just the latest version of the same Battleship Grey MS has been using for control surfaces since Windows 95. And blue has been the primary highlight color in the Windows user interface since the 16-bit days, so making it a slightly different kind of shiny than Windows XP doesn't suddenly make it an Aqua ripoff.
I know some people have been pre-conditioned to respond to a new Microsoft UI with "They ripped off Apple!" But is "The 'Write' button is blue and shiny on a grey background!" really the best you can come up with?
Reply
Tony said 2:55PM on 9-13-2005
Here's a non-Slashdotted link: http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=30382&category=main
Reply
AHM said 2:53PM on 9-13-2005
I'm horrified, but not because of the supposed copying (who cares? no, really, why does it matter?); rather, because they've managed to make an already cluttered and dysfunctional interface even worse by throwing out all GUI standards and coming up with a new metaphor. Not that I object to innovation, but this just looks awful.
Reply
Mark Newhouse said 2:50PM on 9-13-2005
After taking a look at the linked site, I have the following observations. They are trying too hard. The "aquaesque" interface elements look forced and draw attention to the fact that they are trying to be 3D and liquid and beveled, etc. The "brushed metal" looks like they were happy with the default gradient in Photoshop (or more likely MS Paint).
That said, they do have an interesting take on the menu-ing system. Rather than a dropdown menu, you get tabs that reveal more of a toolbar than a menu of choices. Not sure how well it will work since it's just a description and screenshot, but they are doing some innovation in the UI there.
Reply
Sean said 2:51PM on 9-13-2005
The faded colors look is a bit of a copy, but that's fine. They still screwed up the interface royally. Look at all of those different size buttons and the willy-nilly placement of everything. It looks like the Las Vegas Strip. Everything is out of proportion, nothing is as close ( or as far ) as you think it is, and it costs way too much money.
Copy the colors all you want, MS, you still missed the whole point.
Reply
weave said 2:54PM on 9-13-2005
i don't really see the Apple connection here, either. its definitely not brushed metal and the aqua isn't very evident either.
the primary impression i get is it looks cluttered and cumbersome. thats purely ms. its all they know.
i enjoyed the recent forbes article about microsoft's mid-life crisis. they've got big problems. it's like ibm all over again.
they aren't copying. they're drowning and are desparately trying to grab on to anything that will help keep them afloat.
Reply
torque2k said 2:56PM on 9-13-2005
I think that, more than ripping off Apple, we should be concerned that MS has really dropped the ball on usability! This GUI looks like an end-user nightmare, and I can see the future of Help Desk calls now...
"Where did the BOLD button go?"
"Ma'am, I think you may have simply collapsed it... Why don't you try..."
"Oh, NO, so it's broken? Why would you put software like this on my computer?!"
{sigh...} Looks like Office 2000 will still have a little bit of life in corporate America. No IT group would force such a drastic change on end-users. It's suicide!
Reply
Tony said 2:58PM on 9-13-2005
weave,
I thought the same thing until seeing the full screen shots. The overall effect is quite brushed metal-like. As for the aqua thing, MS has gotten really into glass lately, and I guess that is similar to Aqua, but not only is Aqua getting kind of old and tired at this point, but they didn't copy it very well if they wre trying to. To me it resembles the latest Windows Media Player more than OS X.
Reply
Peter Koritschan said 3:00PM on 9-13-2005
In my opinion this is very far away from the OS X GUI...
and has anyone else thought "kids" when he saw those Office 12 screenshots? I mean the icons and buttons look like some program for children, with big, shiny candy buttons yet they look very cheap...
I don't know, looking at this, even the current Office 11 / WinXP combination looks better...
well well well... I wouldn't even use Office for MAC at home anymore (what's the need...), if my company hadn't struck a deal with MS to hand out "home use" licenses to employees for USD 25.- (try to beat that price for a legitimate copy of Office).
I basically only use Office for opening PPT and Word files that I get by mail... Excel, Access and entourage I do not use at all...
Reply
Frank Patrick said 4:10PM on 9-13-2005
In a recent podcast on Window UI, Chris Parillo made the observation that he believes windows doesn't have any UI designers on staff. Why spend the payroll if you're monopoly allows you to put out crap on the one hand and steal from the competition on the other.
Reply
cpryce said 4:38PM on 9-13-2005
How come every time Microsoft changes colors people scream they're copying Apple? XP has been out a while now, and that Luna interface that people got all upset about...well I've never ever felt like I was using a Mac when I've used that theme in Windows. Why do people assume colors and button shapes are the same as a UI? Yeah, those screen shots look like gray and look like shiny buttons, the same as Apple has come out with in recent times, but the UI ain't the same by a long shot. And with all the grousing by Apple fans about the different buttons and colors and even UIs Apple has thrown at us (Finder vs Safari vs Mail 2.0 vs iTunes 5.0), it looks like there is just no way in the world to please them. I very much prefer MacOS to Windows, but I just can't let negative energy build up within me over these things. The day actually_using_Windows makes me feel like I'm using a Mac I'll start questioning things, but for now I won't let screen shots get my goat.
Here's an interesting poll question: If you are an Apple fan, and also are "forced" to use a Windows computer, do you apply an Aqua like theme to Windows, and ALSO get angry at Microsoft for making UI elements that remind you of your Mac?
Reply
J.T. Mill said 4:37PM on 9-13-2005
This thing set a new record for being /.ed. When I found the link didn't work I went to the comments section because they usually have a backup listed there, to my suprise there were no comments. The link had been /.ed in about 4 seconds.
Reply