Comments on: Office Trouble http://blog.cocoia.com/2010/office-trouble/ The Cocoia Blog is the website of Sebastiaan de With, a Dutch Icon and Interface designer. Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:02:28 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: UI 2.0 – Emotional Software on the iPad | Broadersheet iPhone Edition http://blog.cocoia.com/2010/office-trouble/comment-page-1/#comment-205872 UI 2.0 – Emotional Software on the iPad | Broadersheet iPhone Edition Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:13:57 +0000 http://blog.cocoia.com/?p=1859#comment-205872 [...] thrust into Windows? Have you seen how low the bar is in terms of design - the example of the Microsoft Office icons spring to [...] [...] thrust into Windows? Have you seen how low the bar is in terms of design – the example of the Microsoft Office icons spring to [...]

]]> By: Office Trouble « Day and Age http://blog.cocoia.com/2010/office-trouble/comment-page-1/#comment-205640 Office Trouble « Day and Age Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:41:51 +0000 http://blog.cocoia.com/?p=1859#comment-205640 [...] Sebastiaan de With digs into Microsoft Office 2010’s new icon set, and some basic history of all Office designs. [...] [...] Sebastiaan de With digs into Microsoft Office 2010’s new icon set, and some basic history of all Office designs. [...]

]]> By: sebastiaan http://blog.cocoia.com/2010/office-trouble/comment-page-1/#comment-205638 sebastiaan Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:22:16 +0000 http://blog.cocoia.com/?p=1859#comment-205638 @Craig: Well said, and nice bit of info on the Office for Mac icons. I suppose MS marketing realizes that after the sale has been made, the design really is secondary. @Craig: Well said, and nice bit of info on the Office for Mac icons. I suppose MS marketing realizes that after the sale has been made, the design really is secondary.

]]> By: Craig Hockenberry http://blog.cocoia.com/2010/office-trouble/comment-page-1/#comment-205637 Craig Hockenberry Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:20:52 +0000 http://blog.cocoia.com/?p=1859#comment-205637 Ryan nailed it. The icons are designed with an eye towards packaging, not how they are going to look in a dock or task bar. The current Office icons on the Mac were originally designed by Landor Associates in 2004: http://www.user-experience-blog.de/archives/2004/08/ms-office-2004-icons.html And although I have no inside knowledge of the situation, I suspect that the same is true for the new Office icons on Windows and Adobe's recent rebranding of the Creative Suite. It's abhorrent that customer experience with sales and marketing is trumping the user experience in engineering the product. Buying a product is a one-time event, whereas using the product is a daily affair. -ch Ryan nailed it. The icons are designed with an eye towards packaging, not how they are going to look in a dock or task bar.

The current Office icons on the Mac were originally designed by Landor Associates in 2004: http://www.user-experience-blog.de/archives/2004/08/ms-office-2004-icons.html

And although I have no inside knowledge of the situation, I suspect that the same is true for the new Office icons on Windows and Adobe’s recent rebranding of the Creative Suite.

It’s abhorrent that customer experience with sales and marketing is trumping the user experience in engineering the product. Buying a product is a one-time event, whereas using the product is a daily affair.

-ch

]]> By: Christopher Downer http://blog.cocoia.com/2010/office-trouble/comment-page-1/#comment-205635 Christopher Downer Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:32:50 +0000 http://blog.cocoia.com/?p=1859#comment-205635 Considering they are icons that belong to the same suite, there has to be some level of consistency which in all fairness Microsoft have achieved. Similar to Adobe. The thing they've failed to take into consideration (I can only guess they haven't from those images provided) is that the majority of icons in Windows are mostly the smaller sizes. (16, 32 and 48px. 24px too I think?) I'm having trouble identifying what some of those illustrations are in half of those icons and using the "Adobe style" letter in the icon is no help at all. Especially when most of them are the same. Take that icon on the bottom row second from the left for example. I have no idea what that represents, not to mention the white to transparent gradient going from left to right restricting half of the illustration part. And then you've got colour blindness or partially sightedness to take into consideration. And what about that settings (?) icon? That was obviously a last-second job thrown in there. Its pretty obvious that the company that were commissioned to make these icons (if there was one and this wasn't an in house affair) took inspiration off of Adobe. Which is a bit frightening. But in comparison, Adobe's icons seem amazing. Considering they are icons that belong to the same suite, there has to be some level of consistency which in all fairness Microsoft have achieved. Similar to Adobe. The thing they’ve failed to take into consideration (I can only guess they haven’t from those images provided) is that the majority of icons in Windows are mostly the smaller sizes. (16, 32 and 48px. 24px too I think?) I’m having trouble identifying what some of those illustrations are in half of those icons and using the “Adobe style” letter in the icon is no help at all. Especially when most of them are the same.
Take that icon on the bottom row second from the left for example. I have no idea what that represents, not to mention the white to transparent gradient going from left to right restricting half of the illustration part. And then you’ve got colour blindness or partially sightedness to take into consideration.
And what about that settings (?) icon? That was obviously a last-second job thrown in there.

Its pretty obvious that the company that were commissioned to make these icons (if there was one and this wasn’t an in house affair) took inspiration off of Adobe. Which is a bit frightening. But in comparison, Adobe’s icons seem amazing.

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