Microsoft Licenses Office 2007 UI

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Microsoft Licenses Office 2007 UI

By Nathan Weinberg

Microsoft has done a cool and smart thing, and decided to let (almost) everyone use the Office 2007 UI.

Office 2007 features an entirely innovative UI; while it takes cues from some previous ideas, it is hard for anyone to point out any previous software which uses even a similar UI system, and Microsoft could have easilly copyrighted and maybe even patented the entire system, and kept it entirely exclusive for a long time. Even smarter, they could have limited use of it only to Windows applications.

Instead, they decided to free it.

So, anyone can license the UI, and as long as they license it, they don't get sued. And since licensing is free, that's a pretty good deal. Of course, since you have to get the free license, that means Microsoft gets to make a few demands in how it is used (which is the whole reason its a license, and not generally hefker*).

The first rule is a doozy: The UI can be used for any software program, except one that competes directly with Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook or Access. Microsoft may be giving away their innovation, but not so you can clone the software. Design whatever the hell you want, but no email clients allowed, or word processors, and so on.

That's going to be the biggest bone of contention, but it's exactly the biggest reason Microsoft wrote the license. They worked hard creating this, and through blogs like Jensen Harris', they are giving away the reasons behind it, reasons that include tons of expensive research and user studies. They didn't do all this work so someone could clone their software, but they don't mind if you use the same concepts in the next version of Photoshop.

And it isn't all bad. The rules allow creation of applications on non-Windows platforms. Microsoft would have been well within its right (and typical late-90s evil) to bar the UI from Macs and Linux, but they didn't. They figured the non-compete portion is enough. I have no idea how the license protects future Microsoft software that bears the UI, but I guess that's something Microsoft will just have to deal with.

Other than the non-compete, the licensing requires you comply with certain user experience guidelines, while suggesting others. The reason behind the requirements: The UI guys know which parts of the user experience, if left out, will leave a really crappy application, and sour everyone on the experience of this new type of UI. If you are going to ruin it, the license says, just stay home.

Some examples:

The Ribbon must change its layout if the windows is resized. This is so windows do not have to be fixed size, or that horrible hacks ensue if the windows gets too small for the full Ribbon. These changes must be in real time. How this is accomplished has several requirements and several optional suggestions.
There are specific rules for how the Ribbon pages over when the application is too small for even the most minimal Ribbon.
The Ribbon should, but does not have to, completely dissapear if the application is resized below 300250.
The title bar does not need to be modified to use UI elements.
The theme can be in any color scheme desired by the developer, not just Office blue.
The application must include a Quick Access Toolbar, when usable.

The fully detailed 120 page UI guidelines will be released soon. For now, you can read a preview to get an idea of what to expect, and check out the Office UI development website for updates. Channel 9 also has a video (complete with an appearance by a lawyer!).

Some companies that have partnered with Microsoft over the licensing (some were even involved in drafting the license, making sure it didn't hamper them too much):