this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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Emphasis mine. I think people should stop treating interfaces like bread, as if they were going to get stale and mouldy over time.
LibreOffice UI hasn’t changed in years and I love it, my muscle memory is retained.
Also while ribbon style UI might be visually pleasing and initially approachable, I find simple toolbars with icons in a line are actually easier to scan and navigate. Whereas a ribbon typically has dividers and buttons of varying sizes making them easy to miss.
While I'll agree with the not broke/don't fix it when it comes to 'we made the buttons sparkly' type updates, there have been trends in UI design over the years that make it easier to get places without the old mile long branch menus that people should make use of where possible.
My issue here is specifically with the usage of the word "dated".
Typically, when people use this word to refer to interface, they don't highlight the differences in features or trends; and they don'ty take into account that different users might do different things, and thus require different designs. The whole thing gets oversimplified as "its newer so gooder lol lmao", or as if the old design had an expiration date.
But they do. Back in 2003 LCDs were still the new fancy thing and had resolutions like 1024x768 with questionable color accuracy and contrast in most cases. Today, even the cheapest office monitors are 1440p with decent colors. You can do much more with that. And that is not even considering 20+ years of shared experience how UIs should work.
But MS Office style ribbon that everyone considers more modern is complete crap at using modern monitors at their full potential. Ironically, the old toolbar ocean manages to use the increased screen real estate more efficiently
Not really, imo? Navigating the ribbons is much easier and faster if you don't use the software everyday. But fun fact: LibreOffice has ribbon UI, it's just a little hidden.
Iirc newer versions ask you on first run what UI you want.
I have both LibreOffice and MS Office at work. I use Libre most of the time because I find ribbon very clunky and I always have troubles to find what I need. While working in Libre feels like a breeze to me.
And anyone can point out a thousand examples arguing the opposite: that interfaces are becoming "worse", downgraded. Or argue that neither is true, interfaces are the same quality-wise, and all we saw was "sidegrades".
It's still treating what's a subjective matter of features as if it was an objective matter of age. It's all an "it depends"; you can't simply assume "newer thus better lol lmao", as the usage of "dated" implies.
At most what a designer can do is to say "doing things this new way will improve usability for
$cohort1but decrease it for$cohort2. Since$cohort2is not part of our core target audience anyway, so let's implement it".(I was going to include a bunch of examples but I feel like they'd make people miss the point.)
Manager bros hired a team of UI/UX specialists & panels to redesign the UI (+marketing), and it worked, the project was successful & the sales/engagements are up!
What's the logical next step?
Have the great team redesign the UI every few months bcs that means they well have such business success each time!
/s(jk?)
That's what is happening in a lot od major sw companies. And what isn't happening in most foss projects. And why foss is better for the user.
Yes, this! Good example: Look at Steam, they stick to what is working. Wish Microsoft would have done the same with both their menu, filemanager, control panel and printer dialogs ... Love Libreoffice gui - I can actually find what the tools I need on the toolbar or in the top menu (instead of hidden deep within some hamburger menu system)
Steam has changed their UI quite a bit over the years. https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-versions/
They had one big change ages ago, then for years and years they've just slightly tuned the interface 😊 I think that is the way to go
The newer versions of LibreOffice support a ribbon UI, if that's what they're looking for.
I find the "dated" ui to be better organized and take less screen space, so I can view more of the document I'm writing.
I really don't want my ui changing unless its clearly better. to much ui is change for the sake of change.