Comment Re:"getting used to it"??? (Score 1) 675
From the article:
[Larson-Green] previously led a redesign of the Microsoft Office interface that, in 2007, replaced text-based menus with a more visual “ribbon interface,” an initially controversial change that is now widely accepted as an example of good design.
The awfulness of Windows 8 makes more sense, knowing it was designed by the same people that consider the ribbon an example of "good design". So many features are not easily discoverable in both cases. Though funny enough, Office for Windows RT basically has a menu on top which then brings you to the ribbon, rather than having the ribbon always be there (probably because it was an inefficient use of screen real estate, especially since Windows RT defaults to landscape, and has a virtual keyboard on the bottom, leaving very little vertical space).
I'm really curious what part of their user experience feedback determined that their menus should be all in CAPS on their new applications. I have to wonder why Visual Studio and Office are shouting at me. It seems every one of Microsoft's recent UI innovations has made their products uglier and more cumbersome. It almost makes you wonder how the same programmers managed to get so much right in Windows 7.