I remember when I was first thinking about designing good pages, I picked up a book called something like "Ugly Websites" and it was drilled into my head that "mystery meat navigation" is always a bad idea.
And that late 90's advice still holds true. Though I am seeing a lot of it lately.
When I saw your comment my first thought was "Bluetooth" but in the context of the article, I can't figure it out either.
The Microsoft Word example is terrible too. The ribbon didn't fix anything, there's still too much to fit on screen at once. The old menus and toolbars were at least scannable, since everything lined up; the ribbon requires much more hunting to find what you need.
Somewhat related: I often say that CLIs are GUIs. Letters are pictures to which we've assigned meaning, just like icons. They are just simpler and less ambiguous, and we're all taught a standardized usage from a very early age to the point that it becomes embedded in our brains for highly efficient processing.
jjeaff|6 years ago
And that late 90's advice still holds true. Though I am seeing a lot of it lately.
d3ld0t|6 years ago
teddyh|6 years ago
mark-r|6 years ago
The Microsoft Word example is terrible too. The ribbon didn't fix anything, there's still too much to fit on screen at once. The old menus and toolbars were at least scannable, since everything lined up; the ribbon requires much more hunting to find what you need.
mrec|6 years ago
sixstringtheory|6 years ago
marcosdumay|6 years ago