This File Explorer concept is exactly what Win10 needs

[Dot Matrix]

5 minutes ago, Ian W said:

No Ribbon UI? No thank you.

The Ribbon is still there. There's no iconography with it, though.

[Ian W]

3 minutes ago, Dot Matrix said:

The Ribbon is still there. There's no iconography with it, though.

That is not the Ribbon that I have come to know and enjoy.

[Active.]

The Windows Explorer would benefit from more visual structure not less, as is the case here.

 

[BajiRav]

The concept is promising but I wonder how it can tackle the Ribbon especially the View tab.

[Dot Matrix]

On 12/17/2015 at 0:43 PM, Ian W said:

That is not the Ribbon that I have come to know and enjoy.

I think it looks fine. Just layed out a bit different, but the functionality is the same. 

[Andre S. Veteran]

Why should the Windows explorer get rid of:

 

 - The filetree

 - Use of color in iconography

 - Structured layout of elements in the ribbon

 - Use of iconography in the ribbon

 - Consistency with the Office ribbon

 - User-selected theme color in title bar and edges

 

What is the supposed advantage of all this? Note that even for dark themes, actually Visual Studio went back to colored icons in recent versions. Our eyes have two types of photo-receptors, using only one doesn't just sound dumb, it is.

 

In addition, this design presents legibility problems, with low-contrast grey on black fonts everywhere.

[Dashel]

So where is the mockup of what happens when you hit Properties?  That's where your irrational hatred of dense UIs appears.  As Hawkman notes, this is a dark skin to Explorer...with smaller hit areas.

[Ian W]

2 hours ago, Dot Matrix said:

I think it looks fine. Just layed out a bit different, but the functionality is the same. 

The new UI presents fewer commands than the ribbon—I dislike it very much—and it removes features such as the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT). It is opposed with almost all of Microsoft's goals for the ribbon design:

• Provides the ability to put the most important commands in very prominent, front and center locations.
• Makes it easy to find commands predictably and reliably. Every important file management command could be given a home in the ribbon, and customers would always know where to look for them.
• Exposes a large set of commands (~200) in one easy and consistent experience and organizes commands into scenario-focused groups without the use of nested menus, popups, dialogs, and right-click menus.
• Aids command identification with support for grouping, a variety of button sizes and icons, and aids deeper investigation with live previews and expanded tooltips.
• Takes a similar approach to Office, Microsoft Paint, and Windows Live Essentials, which means that many of our customers will be familiar with the model and not have a lot to learn.
• Provides a consistent, reliable UI that doesn’t degrade over time like traditional toolbar and menu-based user interfaces do. See Jensen’s earlier blog on this topic from the development of the ribbon.

Note in particular the emphasis on exposing a large set of commands simultaneously, visual aids (e.g., different sizes and icons) to help users quickly identify commands, and a UI that "doesn't degrade over time." The Ribbon provides all of these things, but the new UI is essentially just a toolbar.

[Dot Matrix]

25 minutes ago, Andre S. said:

Why should the Windows explorer get rid of:

 

 - The filetree

 - Use of color in iconography

 - Structured layout of elements in the ribbon

 - Use of iconography in the ribbon

 - Consistency with the Office ribbon

 - User-selected theme color in title bar and edges

 

What is the supposed advantage of all this? Note that even for dark themes, actually Visual Studio went back to colored icons in recent versions. Our eyes have two types of photo-receptors, using only one doesn't just sound dumb, it is.

 

In addition, this design presents legibility problems, with low-contrast grey on black fonts everywhere.

The Filetree is still there, just collapsed (I'm assuming).

The use of color has been removed in other apps in favor of wireframe iconography. Any File Explorer addition would do the same.

Structured layout is still there.

This mockup closely resembles the new Ribbon in the Office 365 apps.

Doesn't look like there's much of a traditional titlebar there.

 

15 minutes ago, Dashel said:

So where is the mockup of what happens when you hit Properties?  That's where your irrational hatred of dense UIs appears.  As Hawkman notes, this is a dark skin to Explorer...with smaller hit areas.

Not sure. This isn't my mockup. I'd assume you'll get a flyout or dialog closely matching the new one's found in Windows 10. Dense UIs are problematic. Appropriate use of white space helps UI appearance and functionality.

[Andre S. Veteran]

1 hour ago, Dot Matrix said:

The Filetree is still there, just collapsed (I'm assuming).

The use of color has been removed in other apps in favor of wireframe iconography. Any File Explorer addition would do the same.

Structured layout is still there.

This mockup closely resembles the new Ribbon in the Office 365 apps.

Doesn't look like there's much of a traditional titlebar there.

Well, if you want to use the new Universal Office apps as an example, all the screenshots show colorful icons, not wireframe ones.

If by structured layout you mean a horizontal list with barely visible separators, then that's not the structure I was referring to. The ribbon (as explained by Ian above) has elements of different sizes, organized in a hierarchy, it uses both horizontal and vertical layout, and it provides a consistent experience between desktop applications on Windows.

[ATLien_0]

Two things I have come to love in OS X that I would love to see a windows file explorer adapt. Tabbed windows and column / cover flow views. I have both a Windows 10 machine and OS X machine that I use daily, have gotten used to finder. 

[Dot Matrix]

I still like my mockup best.

 

 

There's been quite a few cosmetic changes to Windows since I last made this. Perhaps it's time to dust off the Paint.net PDNs and update this.