Common Usability Terms, pt. VIII: Tabs

On the internet, and especially in forum discussions like we all have here on OSNews, it is almost certain that in any given discussion, someone will most likely bring up usability and GUI related terms - things like spatial memory, widgets, consistency, Fitts' Law, and more. The aim of this series is to explain these terms, learn something about their origins, and finally rate their importance in the field of usability and (graphical) user interface design. In part VIII, we focus on the tab. The tab is a user interface element that has existed for a long time, but only gained a strong foothold during recent years. The tab was first introduced by IBM's Common User Access, a set of interface guidelines which heavily influenced the early development of Windows. The goal of the CUA was to standardise the myriad of different key... [read full story]