When Microsoft first announced several months ago that the Explorer feature in Windows 8 would have a "ribbon" user interface on top that would allow people to see and access more features, the reaction was decidedly mixed. Some Windows fans felt that the ribbon UI made Explorer look and feel "bloated" while others welcomed the idea of having more access to features that normally would be hidden.
However users might feel about the Explorer ribbon, the release of the Consumer Preview version of Windows 8 a month ago exposed the new design to a much bigger audience. While the final verdict is still to be determined, the official Microsoft Build Windows 8 Twitter page posted up an interesting statistic about how Consumer Preview users interact with the ribbon UI.
The message states, "Windows 8 CP usage stat -- in 22.5% the Explorer ribbon is expanded (closed was the default) and kept that way."
So what does this mean? It would appear that a sizable fraction of Windows 8 Consumer Preview users actually like the ribbon UI so much they want to keep it exposed all the time rather than hide it. It will be interesting to see how more users react to the interface when the final version of Windows 8 is released later this year.
Image via Microsoft
41 Comments - Add comment