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Reminds me of Microsoft Office's latest big UI change, removing drop-down menus in favor of "toolbar ribbons". Went from being a power user / expert to a complete novice over night. I always wonder if there's a better way to make those types of transitions.

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> I always wonder if there's a better way to make those types of transitions.

Yes, there is. It's actually pretty simple and takes one step:

1) don't.

I can expand on that though with a few more discrete steps:

1) don't screw over people who already spent time (money) learning your product

2) don't screw over people who paid money (and time) for certifications in your product

3) don't assume that everyone will work better with the new flow

The toolbar ribbons tanked discoverability, readability, and usability.

Something needed to be done though. I use LibreOffice every few weeks, they still use the toolbar UI by default, and it's faster to google where an option is than to go hunting for it.

As a dev I'd love a ctrl+p sublime style search.

One favorable way would be to use the Unix Philosophy[0] to create a new product, rather than a complete re-design.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy

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