Bloat (Premium)

Even as a younger man, I sought out apps and services that were simple but effective. The right tool for the job, if you will. 20 years ago or more, I realized that Microsoft Word, arguably the app I've used more than any other in my life, was too complex, too much, that I used and needed only some tiny percentage of its feature set. As is the case with so many of the digital tools I use, I then spent the subsequent decades trying to replace it. With something simpler.

The battle between simplicity and complexity is multi-faceted. It's about trying to find the balance between functionality and usability, the distractions that come from visual overload, and the confusion that comes when an interface is so minimalist you don't even know where to start. And the problems are compounded by experience. The negative reactions to Windows 11 came almost entirely from a single faction of the user base, those who know Windows the best, the power users, and they were tied to missing functionality they relied on that had been removed in the name of simplicity.

Microsoft's initial introduction of the ribbon to Office 2007 triggered a similar, equally visceral reaction, and from the same audience. Where many if not most mainstream users simply went about their day using this new software, those who knew it best—the power users—reacted as if they were suffering from phantom limb syndrome. They were particularly uninterested in the data showing that most of the top 10 feature requests for Office were for features that already existed but couldn't be found, that this new interface surfaced functionality intelligently, often only when needed, and that it was a significant advance over the messy toolbar- and menu-based UIs of the past.

But the ribbon suffered from the same problem as the Central Artery in Boston, an elevated highway erected in 1959 that divided the city in two. Which is this: Almost as soon as it was completed, its makers knew that it would have to be replaced. Boston addressed its Central Artery problem first with baby steps—it immediately canceled the follow-up projects that would have expanded this highway in different directions—and then with the Big Dig over 30 years later. With the ribbon, the rise of even simpler new UIs tied to web and mobile app platforms triggered yet another rethinking, but we're still living in the era of baby steps in this case. You can see the transition to come in products like the Office apps for iPad and the web, all of which feature simplified ribbons that take up less space and offer less visual overload. And in more modern apps like Loop and Teams that dispense with this kind of UI entirely despite being quite feature-rich.

Simple always wins in the end. But how we get there—and get there without alienating power users—is an open question, one that may be best answered on a case-by-case basis.

I'm going to focus on Office and related productivity tools here, but before moving on, I do want to...