Put that Fresca down.

A link came across the old opinion desk today that I couldn’t help but find amusing: Fast Company’s take on the New York Times updating their sixteen-year-old mobile app by bringing back tab navigation. Naturally, since this is a design article, we need to slap a shiny new name on a well-established graphic element.

“The new app features a ribbon on top, which breaks the entire experience into sections, ranging from “news” sections including Lifestyle, Opinion, and a new Election 2024 tab. With the flick of your thumb left or right, you can hop between these different verticals. The core UX metaphor was borrowed from the NYT website (though categories were tweaked for the app), and isn’t so different than flipping through a newspaper to find the section you want. Visually, it’s all quite familiar. Functionally, the new ribbon is expansive.”

Oh for the...why do designers always feel the need to “invent” a name for something that already exists? Ribbons? Really? This isn't a ribbon. Ribbons are what Microsoft throws into their software because they can’t prioritize a feature to save their stock price. They’re what you use to hide bloated toolbars in poorly designed applications. Steve Jobs never said it out loud, but you know he thought it: “If you see a ribbon, they blew it.”

“Visually, it’s all quite familiar”—of course it is, because they’re tabs. You know, tabs! Like the kind we’ve had since 1995. Tabs: that good ol’ visual navigation method that Amazon kept stacking until their website’s top bar was five inches tall, as they weren’t content with just destroying independent book, music, and movie retailers. Tabs! The reliable, functional way to visually—and to some extent, accessibly—help users explore a site’s content.

Tabs: those rectangular shapes with rounded top edges and no border on the bottom. An accepted, easy-to-use navigation method that young, hipster designers decided was “too hard” to include in their light, airy web designs—so they tucked it all into an out-of-sight, out-of-mind symbol nicknamed after a sandwich.

Ribbon, pffft. And while we’re at it, who put that cloud in the sky? Look, I’m glad to see navigation design finally come full circle, but I can’t help but wonder—what took so damn long?

Also, the swiping is a nice touch.