3 ms·

The Microsoft "ribbon" got a lot of flack circa 2007, but it was essentially a menu / menu bar but with icons and large tap targets. Something like that would

• Yhippa 8y ago
  In retrospect I wonder if the ribbon got flack because it was "different" and "weird". The best thing about it is that you don't have to guess at what buttons do which is a major problem I have with mobile, desktop, and web applications.
  • addicted 8y ago
    The original version of the Ribbon had no way for it to be minimized, and did not display the keyboard shortcuts that could do the same job. I’m not sure about this, but at the time I believe you could not use the Alt key to access any menu item the way you could before and still can now (IOW, it also killed the menu bar completely). At a time when laptop sales were eclipsing desktop sales, using up all that valuable vertical real estate for the menu, combined with seriously gimping the power user experience, and also definitely, suddenly changing the experience, it was unsurprising it received a lot of flack. Later versions of the ribbon showed how powerful the concept was, but it may have been a better idea for MS to have introduced it with their non power user apps first (I.e. Not Office, or at least, not Excel) until the kinks were worked out, and they may have avoided a lot of the initial flack. Personally, as someone whose primary computer was a desktop with a massive screen, and was already adept with all the KB shortcuts, I was always a fan of the ribbon