Let me try to explain the difference in the simplest terms. This is not about the discomfort of learning a "new" UI, but about learning one that is demonstratively and functionally inferior. It might test well in a well lit, refreshment stocked room for an hour or two but beyond that controlled environment, it is an extraordinary and inexplicable step in the wrong direction.
Your present missteps are gutting the value proposition of Revit by not only failing to develop long requested functionality, but by breaking the functionality that is there by forcing the user to jump through a maze of hidden, contextualized and subjectively displayed GUIs to get to it. Not just occasionally (as the users have become accustomed to) but every single time and with every single mouse click.
The sales manager that came to my office last week basically said, "The ribbon is here...get over it." Any other business (restaurant, bookstore, coffee shop...design firm...) that said this to its customers would lose them at the first opportunity.
So if you're going to make create a cross-product GUI - go for it! But make it wonderful and amazing and a joy to work with for 10 hours a day. Don't make it new. Make it better. Ultimately, it should be a pleasure to learn a new UI because of the functionality to which it elegantly provides access. Not as a burden with diminished returns. The cross-platform GUI that you eventually create should reflect a rigor, care and attention to detail that is expected of those that will use it to create their efforts. It should inspire.
6 comments:
Every day I try to wrap my mind around Autodesk's ribbon, and every time I find a new, unfathomable element. They took Microsoft's idea, but misunderstood the reasons, and applied it where it did not fit. My guess is that this change is to an overwhelmingly unwelcome, though captive, audience. Thus I contend that the silent majority agrees with the vocal critics, even though Autodesk will attempt to spin it the opposite way. The captivity indicates a silent acceptance, without reflecting any of the reluctance and dissatisfaction that exists.
So I have a suggestion that you (Phil) could promote: The AIA National Convention is next week. Everyone should visit the Autodesk booth and politely explain their dissatisfaction with this change. This is one of the very few chances for a large number of people to directly interact with Autodesk, and even though the booth is usually dominated by marketing people, a message can still be delivered.
My message is that our firm will probably skip 2010 due to the mental gymnastics it requires, despite wanting a few of its enhancements. The things we REALLY want Revit to do, are apparently not a priority.
Phil
This behavior has happened for years with Autodesk. They copied the Office 95 interface years ago. Then they started to use the common dialog boxes made by Microsoft. Its easier to let Microsoft do all the interface research and development and just sit back and use that. Autodesk is married to Microsoft for better or worse. This is why we do not have a linux or mac version of Autodesk software, it would cost too much to develop the common interface features from scratch. I doubt there is anyone in the Revit product managers that could even approve such a change to the traditional UI. I think we are just stuck with it. This has happened for years with AutoCAD "features" We are just stuck with them. When Autodesk purchased Revit they got on the cash cow and little innovation has happened since. This is how Autodesk has operated for years. Since there is no competition to Revit, yes I am discounting Bentley and Archicad, we are all held hostage. I'm not offering a solution just agreeing that there is a bigger problem here.
There are two things about this new Revit Ribbon that really freeze my cube:
It's no more than a 'branding' exercise. And not a very good one either. I am reminded of certain car-makers who 'theme' their designs so that each model is recognizable as belonging to the entire brand. The resulting line of cars has one model looks pretty good, but all the others look like they've been forced to fit the mold. Autodesk can't even boast of a single good model because they copied their entire line from another maker: Microsoft.
The other item is that Microsoft handed Autodesk a sooper-powerful toolkit in the form of WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation - The API that the Ribbon comes from) and the only tool Autodesk seems to have found in it is a hammer. In WPF, developers were handed an almost infinitely powerful and flexible toolkit around which to wrap their UIs. And what did Autodesk do? Did they demonstrate the imagination and creativity one would expect from an industry leader in the field of...wait for it...DESIGN? Heck no. They just copied MS Office and expected us to be all impressed.
Autodesk has sold us a suite, but they've given us a bed of Procrustes. Procrustes, for those of you who attended American public schools, was the Greek fellow who would lure weary travelers into his house for a good night's sleep in a certain iron bedstead. However, before tucking the travelers in, Procrustes would make sure that they fit his bed by making certain adjustments to his guests: those deemed too short he would have stretched out on a rack and those too long would have their excess length chopped off.
I agree with the others that this new UI is a major blow to Revit ever since its creation, and furthermore I'm pretty much sure that the whole idea of ribbon is not quite justified, As a hardcore Word and Excel user (yes in my past I used to employ them heavily) I can't eat Microsoft ribbon which I should admit is much more well thought out and presents possibilities for arranging your ribbon the way you like it and still I can't use it - forced to stick to old 2003 and you guys are fretting about by this ribbon in revit..))
Most interesting fact is I have been eagerly awaiting when they present ribbon for 3dsmax.. and they, well expectedly, haven't done so yet because what it would have done to 3ds? total disruption of use by its users - because 3ds users are not trapped within confinements of 3ds - they have plenty of choices where they can switch to unlike us - revit is still unbeatable for its fundamental core and unfortunately none of the competitors will be able to present any comparably level of convenience and logic as revit does any time soon.
The only hope is that Autodesk will extend its UI to a sort of a classic style option with the next release or present same level of UI adjustments as Microsoft does. With that possibilities people should definitely start wasting their time on UI reprogramming and rearrangements, same old thing as with AutoCAD. Lastly I want to point out that revit had a unique interface which didn’t require customizations even if used by a hardcore users used to fully re-implement interfaces in other programs. Revit had truly invaluable interface I ever used cause I never wasted time on it..
Amen Phil.
Wow Nelson. You write good! You use big words and make rest of us pedestrians feel unworthy. You bring up obscure Greek reference and make slobs feel bad. Please, oh please give more of big brain. We likey your brain! It big and guuuuuuud!
Like the rest here, I am disgusted by the new interface, I am amazed that Autodesk can just scrap off the way everybody works and say "it's all wrong, we are doing it this way now" without an option to go back to the old GUI!! in what other industry can anyone do this? unless of course you have monopoly, and monopoly is what Autodesk got (at the moment) that's why they allowed such action.
I hate the Ribbon, simply because it does not work. the fact that they provide a QAT confirms this exact point.
as usual with Autodesk, the people making the decisions are basing them (by the look of things) on a very narrow view of things.
How come Autocad users can still go back to the classic menu? well, there is a lot of competition to Autocad and Autodesk are well aware of this fact and they will not take such a drastic step with the GUI, different story when it comes to Revit, and this is where we suffer because of monopoly!
the minute something slightly better than Revit comes along, I know I am going to jump on it!
let's start our own software... :)
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