Saying that, I mostly don't mind the Ribbon. Particularly in Outlook, where I've never used the more complicated features available - so pretty much everything I want is in one place. The only problem is when they move stuff and I have to find it again.
The same's true with Excel. I now mostly don't use the shiny bells and whistles, so most of the simple commands are on one screen - and that actually makes it easier for new and casual users.
The whole thing breaks down when you try to do more though - and last time left me cursing. Because stuff I wanted was randomly scattered all over the place - and it takes much longer to click on a likely looking tab and have to scan the whole width of the screen, than it did to click on a likely menu and see if the option you wanted was in it.
If only they'd left the menus as a fall-back option - they could have made everyone happy. But no! Modern UI designers are apparently infallible geniuses! Despite the abominations they keep producing. Whose stupid idea was it to replace perfectly good buttons with hyperlinks in the Windows 8 settings interface? And what is this obsession with removing all lines and obvious cues to the eye where to look for stuff?
What we need is to create a new group of "User Interface Designer Trainers" - and equip them with cattle prods and sticks with nails in. Then the next person who designs a website with dark brown text on a light brown background can experience the same pain that I do from eyestrain.
The designers or iTunes might not survive the experience...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
