Limitations of the Tab Metaphor

The idea here is to move out of the tab-based UI in favor of a vertical list of choices and a display block. Here are the problems with tabs:

Tabs show a horizontal list of choices. This list will always be shorter than a vertical list when the vertical scroll is prioritized over the horizontal scroll.
More than four horizontal choices feel harder to read than more than four vertical choices. I’m sure there is use-ability research supporting this opinion. Somebody get Mr. Nielson online.
AJaX makes building a vertical list of choices and a display block easier to maintain than a client-side DHTML-only design.So now we have the way to incorporate our new, RESTful, object-oriented PHP design concepts into site redesigns.