The ribbon interface suffers from poor scan-ability. The problem is actually a common one with MS products since they introduced Metro: they use too much vertical space with irregular layouts. Your eyes just scan more quickly if there’s regularity in the layout and grouping along a single axis.

The trick I’ve found with the ribbon is to anchor against the labels at the bottoms of each grouping. Why they’re at the bottom and not the top, I can’t say, but those labels help me scan if I start from them.