Why did UI’s turn from practical to form over function?

E.g. Office 2003 vs Microsoft 365

Office 2003

It’s easy to remember where everything is with a toolbar and menu bar, which allows access to any option in one click and hold move.

Microsoft 365

Seriously? Big ribbon and massive padding wasting space, as well as the ribbon being clunky to use.

Why did this happen?

  • NutinButNet@hilariouschaos.comEnglish
    233·
    2 months ago

    It seems easier to find things for users. Probably part of dumbing things down.

    My mom went through this last week with Libre Office. She said she couldn’t find anything because the ribbons from Word weren’t there. I found the option and enabled it and she said that was much better.

    Whereas, I use Word 365 on a daily basis but I still know where things are from the classic menus.

    But users want big pictures and less words, less menus.

    So UI designers have done that.

    You see that in the change between Windows 7 and Windows 8 in heavy ways. More buttons and less menus.

    I fucking hate the dumbing down, especially on servers.

    • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      What’s dumber about visual grouping instead of menus? Functionality is more grouped and readily visible in a visual menu? Being clear, intuitive, or more readable is not “dumb” lmao. It may require more knowledge to use a textual menu, but that doesn’t make it smart-- in fact, it’s a pretty dumb design.

      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        I swear some people want computers to be more adversarial and difficult to use because it makes them feel smarter for being a tech enthusiast or something

    • oldfart@lemm.eeEnglish
      36·
      2 months ago

      Thankfully, the normies are moving away from computer and maybe the ecosystem will heal in our lifetimes 🤞

      • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        2 months ago

        We can only hope. Unfortunately phones were headed that way too, but we seem to have maxed out how big a phone people are willing to carry. I dread the idea of folding phone screens, because people will use the same excuses to take up more and more space for fancier UIs (and ads), while decreasing usable screen space to push us into folding phones.

        I’m sure it’ll be just like the guy above justifying wasteful UI because of “bigger screens”. No, the other way around: bigger screens became necessary because of wasteful UI.