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Re:Never-Ending Learning of User Interfaces by bee_rider on Saturday August 26, 2023 @06:15PM (#37277386)
The ribbon design apparently came out in 2007, which fits my memory—it was terrible, Office was already well into decline by 2010.

Although, really, it is just what some of the other comments mention here. Re-learning UI is just a pain in the butt. So, I guess the first version of office that we all hate is the first one that came out after we were kids and learning new UI was fun.

Re:Never-Ending Learning of User Interfaces by pessimizer on Saturday August 26, 2023 @06:39PM (#37277538)
> I guess the first version of office that we all hate is the first one that came out after we were kids and learning new UI was fun.

It's not (just) that. It's that the "ribbon" didn't simplify things, it just lowered the number of clicks to get to some things. But one of the reasons you organize things in submenus is to organize things.

It's easier and faster to find a particular thing hiding within a few dozen labelled boxes, each filled with another few dozen labeled boxes, than to find something when all of the contents of all of those boxes are dumped out onto the floor. Even more, within a hierarchy it's easier to find other, closely related things to the thing that you were looking for, if the thing you were looking for turns out not to do the job.

Re:Never-Ending Learning of User Interfaces by lockhouse on Saturday August 26, 2023 @08:00PM (#37278034)
Office on macOS still has a menubar. I think some of the options are only in the ribbon, but it's there.