User Guideline or Example of Ribbon UI for Enterprise products

Question

We are planning to implement Ribbon UI for our products. I am evaluating the use of Ribbon UI for our Network Manager Products. The result of this evaluation would decide Go or NO Go for Ribbon UI. Presently, Ribbon UI design guidelines do not talk Ribbon UI implementation for Enterprise Products. I am looking for is how suitable is Ribbon UI for Enterprise Products.

Answer 1

See this. More specifically, Is this the right user interface? section:

To decide to use a ribbon, consider these questions:

Program type

• What type of program are you designing? The program type is a good indicator of the appropriateness of a ribbon. Ribbons work well for document creation and authoring programs, as well as document viewers and browsers. Ribbons might work for other types of programs, but other forms of command presentation may be more appropriate. Generally, lightweight programs should have a lightweight command presentation. (For a list of program types, see the Program Command Patterns.)

Discoverability and learning issues

• Do users have trouble finding commands? Are users requesting features that are already in the program? If so, using a ribbon will make commands easier to find by having self-explanatory labels and grouping of related commands. Using a ribbon also scales better than menu bars and toolbars for future growth.
• Do users have trouble understanding the program's commands? Do they often resort to "trial and error" to select the right command or determine how commands work? If so, using a ribbon with results-oriented commands based on galleries and live previews makes commands easier to understand.

Command characteristics

• Are the commands presented in several locations? If your program already exists, are commands presented in menu bars, toolbars, task panes, and within the work area itself? If so, using a ribbon will unify the commands into a single location, making them easier to find.
• Do the commands apply to the entire window or only to specific panes? Ribbons work best for commands that apply to the entire window or to specific objects. In-place commands work better for individual window panes.
• Can most of the commands be presented directly? That is, can users interact with them using a single click? If commonly used commands are accessed from menus and dialog boxes, can they be refactored to be direct? While some commands can be presented using menus and dialog boxes, presenting most commands this way undermines the efficiency of a ribbon, possibly making a menu bar a better choice.

Command scale

• Is there a small number of commands? Can the most frequently used commands be presented easily on a single, simple toolbar? Using a ribbon is worthwhile if adding core and contextual tabs results in a simple Home tab that can be used alone to perform the most common tasks. If not, the benefit of using a ribbon might not justify its extra weight for a small number of commands.
• Is there a large number of commands? Would using a ribbon require more than seven core tabs? Would users constantly have to change tabs to perform common tasks? If so, using toolbars (which don't require changing tabs) and palette windows (which may require changing tabs, but there can be several open at a time) might be a more efficient choice.
• Do users tend to use a small number of commands most of the time? If so, they can use a ribbon efficiently by putting such commands on the Home tab. Constantly changing tabs would make a ribbon too inefficient.
• Does the program benefit from making the content area of the program as large as possible? If so, using a menu bar and a single toolbar is more space efficient than a ribbon. However, if your program requires three or more rows of toolbars or uses task panes, using a ribbon is more space efficient.
• Do users tend to work in a specific area within a large window in the program for long periods of time? If so, they would benefit from the close proximity of mini-toolbars, palette windows, and direct commands. Making the round trip from the work area to the ribbon would be too inefficient.
• For efficiency and flexibility, do users need to make significant changes to the command presentation contents, location, or size? If so, customizable and extensible toolbars and palette windows are a better choice. Note that some types of toolbars can be undocked to become palette windows, and palette windows can be moved, resized, and customized.