points by okanat 3 days ago | 0 comments
I actually like Ribbon and I disagree. It made functions easier to find, for people who didn't have a muscle memory of those functions. It actually taught them how to use the program and exposed conditional menus like picture options better than the toolbars that appear and disappear.
Of course people who got used to traversing 3-level menus got annoyed but they still have all the same keyboard shortcuts. However, spending enough time, you also get used to Ribbon and it usually requires fewer clicks not more.
I still find a tastefully done Ribbon is better than a menu and a toolbar combination. The problem is, not everybody has put the same effort that Microsoft did which created monstrosities like Solidworks Ribbon.
I actually find it difficult to scan for a specific function since the most of the text in the ribbon is centered and may have multiple lines. With the current design, I am expected to look up top to check what tab I am on, then look down bottom to find the container that might have my desired functionality, and then finally scan the middle text (which may be one or two lines) for the button.