A good user interface should have a clear, concise, easy to navigate, and non-burdensome overall graphical layout and design. However, an excellent user interface should also exhibit the qualities of simplicity, customization, and design consistency. Having that said, let us take a closer look at two of the most popular spreadsheet software, Microsoft Excel and Google Sheet, and evaluate which one does a better job at satisfying the above requirements. We will also take a peek at Valve’s Steam game distribution platform and see if it also meets the above requirements.

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel’s overall GUI design has gone through several iterations. However, the placements of key features such as toolbars and the cell layout have largely remained the same and left unchanged since its inception. This is a good sign of maintaining overall design consistency. Because if this had been drastically changed, the overall user experience would have likely suffered. So far, we have not seen many complaints over the past couple of years.

Google Sheet

Google Sheets, however, is a very different story in the realm of simplicity and customization. Even though Excel has proven time and time again to be the ultimate go-to spreadsheet software because of its functionalities and customization methods, the overall user interface is very archaic at best. Hence, it is not a very beginner-friendly software. Speaking from experience, I know people in my previous workplace who only know how to navigate through Google Sheets. When they are limited to using Microsoft Excel, they are completely lost. This phenomenon is highly evident with the pivot table functions. In Microsoft Excel, you will have to know how to navigate through the different tables. Whereas on the contrast, Google Sheets made it much simpler by implementing a state-of-the-art menu option on the side with helpful tips and a simple and easy-to-use drop-down menu.

Steam

Valve is a very interesting company because they are very traditional. They do not like to implement massive changes to their GUI. Their Steam platform’s visual appearance has largely remained this way since the early 2000s. Therefore, Steam has a very archaic and unappealing visual design. In addition, it does seem like Valve has no intentions or is hesitant to issue a complete revamp of their software in an effort to preserve maximum consistency. However, despite all of the criticisms of its overall unattractive design. It does, quite surprisingly, get its job done relatively well. The overall web design of the steam store makes up for the poor user interface designs of its main application. Similarly, their overall game distribution and cloud save data service are quite advanced. The overall game library interface is simple and straight to the point without any overly fancy decorations. This design kept the application running smoothly and was able to maintain maximum stability. Therefore, the conclusion is that, although it is visually unappealing, it does get the job done very well. After all, stability and reliability of service are what matter the most for a company that is heavily reliant on game distribution revenue.