Comments on Suze Ingram: Tabs for Navigation are OK (There, I said it!)

Interesting post Suze... I think the key thing her...

2009-07-27T21:15:55.222+10:00

Interesting post Suze... I think the key thing here is that interface design is a language and all languages evolve over time. Tabs for primary navigation are now an acceptable convention which help connect the navigation with the content.

I think that tabs have been cut off completely fro...

2009-03-04T11:33:00.000+11:00

I think that tabs have been cut off completely from their original metaphor at this point, particularly as there are more and more "digital natives" on the Internet who have always seen tabs used in this manner.

At this point, tabs are functionally no different from a row of buttons.

Eric, you say "I'm having a hard time thinking of ...

2009-02-21T14:42:00.000+11:00

Eric, you say "I'm having a hard time thinking of any examples where tabs are used for "alternative views of the same information object"".

I think where Jakob got that from was configuration dialogs in desktop GUIs. You are setting the preferences of MS Word / options on paragraph formatting / config parameters of an AirPort base station and each tab shows you a different aspect of the object (Word / the paragraph / the base station). In that sense, he has a point.

I agree with both Suze and Jakob though that boiling-the-frog type increased use in other contexts by designers will water down the tab metaphor to mean nothing more than "a list of stuff".

I *dis*agree with Jakob's definition in the sense that while the tabbed nav on http://ht.com.au/keyword/mac/in_dym/1/list.hts fulfils his definition (it shows various sort orders of the same list), it is to me a very counterintuitive use of tabs.

Eric, thx for the comment. I agree, I think the us...

2009-02-20T14:28:00.000+11:00

Eric, thx for the comment. I agree, I think the use of tabs in modern browsers is pushing the metaphor even further. There's some great discussions going on about this very topic. Take a look at this: http://jboriss.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/improving-tabs/.

Cheers, Suze Ingram.

I'm having a hard time thinking of any examples wh...

2009-02-20T14:08:00.000+11:00

I'm having a hard time thinking of any examples where tabs are used for "alternative views of the same information object".

An extra note on the continuing evolution/subversion of tabs: consider the modern browser, where different pages from completely different websites are represented as tabs across the top of the browser window.