VanUE April 13, 2006

We are delighted to have Jensen Harris who is the Lead Program Manager on
the Microsoft Office User Experience team come up from Redmond to speak to
the group. Jensen is one of the key designers behind the new user interface
being introduced in the next version of Microsoft Office. Jensen joined
Microsoft in 1998 and has contributed to a number of products for Windows
and the Macintosh, including leading the redesign of the Outlook 2003 user
interface. He has focused on the overall UI model for Microsoft Office since
2003.

Prior to working at Microsoft, Jensen graduated with degrees in music
composition from Yale University and Interlochen Arts Academy. He is the
author of widely used software, including the cross-platform, caller ID
system YAC. He publishes his thoughts daily in An Office User Interface Blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh

TALK ABSTRACT:
Farewell, menus and toolbars. More than 20 years after the introduction of
the Macintosh, software has outgrown the basic building blocks of today's
standard user interface. The upcoming version of Microsoft Office does away
with the top-level menus and toolbars in favor of a new task-oriented,
contextual user interface.

This talk will provide a historical perspective on the evolution of the
Office user interface and the battle against the mounting complexity of the
product. You'll get a behind-the-scenes look at the different design
iterations, and an in-depth look at the new Office UI constructs, including
the Ribbon, galleries, contextual tabs, and the Mini Toolbar. You'll also
learn the ideas behind "results-oriented design," which Jakob Nielsen wrote,
"might well be the way to empower users in the future."

With 400 million Office users potentially making this transition, would
embracing these concepts solve problems in your own products? A question and
answer session will follow the talk.