Jensen Harris has a fine post on her MS Office user interface blog about steps they're taking on the new version of Office to keep the interface consistent on day 101 to what it looked like on day 1. (So after months of using Word you don't have twelve floating toolbars in your face that you don't need because you're afraid you'll never find them again if you close them.)

Or put more eloquently, Designing Against a Degrading Experience.