Like any UI element there are plenty of reasons to knock on the ribbon, but the lack of analysis, editing, or afterthought is not one of them. The premise of t

Like any UI element there are plenty of reasons to knock on the ribbon, but the lack of analysis, editing, or afterthought is not one of them. The premise of the parent post that this is accidental and the result of ignoring a few design guidelines is just wrong. Have you read Jensen Harris' exhaustive blog posts on building the Ribbon for office? http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jensenh/archive/2008/03/12/the-story-of-the-ribbon.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jensenh/archive/2008/03/12/the-story... Calling the ribbon poorly analyzed is jumping to an unsupported conclusion. Some of your specific suggestions were tested during the building of Office and found wanting.