I think MS did excellent work bringing design consistency across the Office applications . That is a very big deal. The designs also seem very coherent and well thought out. I really wish however that MS went several steps further and improved the design aesthetics of the applications much more.
The icons in the applications look flat, bland and almost 20 years old. If MS e.g. copied Office for Mac 2008 designs into Office for Windows 2010, it would be a dramatic improvement (design wise) over what I've seen in the screenshots, and would garner complementary gasps from (almost) everyone. My left brain appreciates the design and development effort that appears to have gone into Office 2010. My right brain however is not impressed. I think MS has to both inspire and offer real utilitarian gains with Office 2010. I believe it does the latter very well, but not the former.
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