NIX Solutions reports: Microsoft Showed the Future Office UI

Microsoft has demonstrated the future look of the Office user interface. The new design includes significant changes, including the abandonment of the traditional ribbon interface, reports ITC.

Microsoft continues to look for ways to improve the Office experience and is gradually implementing design elements in line with the Fluent Design concept. Earlier it was reported that the new design language will appear in all mobile applications of the company, but it will not be limited only to them. In the future, the company intends to focus on simplifying the interface. Users will be able to move the simplified toolbar around the screen to the most convenient place, and will also be able to use responsive commands that depend on the context.

The move to responsive commands will mean that the current Office ribbon (which was introduced with the release of Office 2007) will be replaced by a toolbar to display desired actions using contextual commands. In this case, the panel can be detached from the traditional top of the screen.

Other changes include the use of a simple application icon at the top that notifies which Office application is currently running. Also, the new interface implies a transition to a centralized search or command bar. A similar feature already exists in Microsoft Teams. The company intends to further improve comprehensive search to display relevant information as the user needs.

The main goal of all these design changes is to improve user productivity. It is hoped that by reducing unnecessary distractions and focusing on tasks, you can speed up your work.

Microsoft is currently investigating how best to implement this new Office experience, and it is expected to appear in end-user products within 1-2 years, notes NIX Solutions. However, some of the changes are still research in nature, so their implementation may be delayed or the final implementation may differ from current plans. The fact is that the current coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on the work needs of users, and the company intends to take these changes into account during the development of its software.