Why did UI's turn from practical to form over function?
E.g. Office 2003 vs Microsoft 365
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.
Seriously? Big ribbon and massive padding wasting space, as well as the ribbon being clunky to use.
Why did this happen?
Eh, I've just moved on to something I like more. When I do have to use MS Office, I just get frustrated and try that much harder to not use it again.
It's crazy how we've gone from a seemingly inescapable monopoly on office software in the 2000s to it being optional. I remember working at a previous job where everyone used Google Sheets by choice and they would raise their eyebrows if you spun up Excel.
Yup, that's basically my previous org, and at my current company, we only really use Excel because corporate pays for it (we also have a Google Apps account for other reasons). I personally prefer Google Sheets because it has a good mix of important features and not being overly complicated.