Each control in Elegant Ribbon is designed with three major considerations in mind:
- It can be used in different contexts, for example, on the ribbon, on the form and in pop-up menus (see Figure below).
- It must be windowless, when it is possible, which saves Windows system resources and prevents a potential problem of the hard-coded limit of 10,000 NT User handles.
- It can have several visual representations. For example, when used on the ribbon, a control can be represented with a large icon, a small icon with text, and a small icon and change its appearance when the ribbon width changes.

Context sensitive controls, when the same control can be used in different contexts