New “Building Windows 8″ Post: Explorer Improvements

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Earlier today, Microsoft posted another entry in its new “Building Windows 8? blog. It begins by elucidating on the history and evolution of the popular tool Windows Explorer, from Windows 1.0 to Windows XP to finally Windows 7. Then some interesting data is shown: how often different commands are used in Explorer (the top 10 commands people use are 81.8% of Explorer command use and the top 7 are all for manipulating/managing files), how people access these commands most frequently (86.7% of commands are accessed by either way of the right-click menu or hotkeys, and only 10.9% come from the command bar, the most visible UI element in Explorer in Windows 7 and Vista.), and finally, which of the top 10 commands are found in the command bar (only Refresh and the command bar itself.) A clear user interface design principle is that frequently used commands should be easy to get to. The Windows 8 team, realizing that the last few iterations of Microsoft’s flagship operating system have not adhered to this axiom, set out to revamp Explorer.

                                                                                  Top 10 commands in Windows Explorer                                                                         

    How commands are accessed

These thoughts have materialized in a new ribbon interface which exposes a lot of the “hidden gems” in Explorer that most consumers don’t even know exist and gives quick and easy access to the most popular commands in a touch-friendly way. As an added bonus, the ribbon interface is already familiar to most users that have Office 2007 or 2010.  The new UI, despite the ribbon subtracting screen real estate from the top of the window (excessive toolbars in Internet Explorer, anyone?), actually ends up being more spacious than its predecessor because of a few smart rearrangements.

New ribbon interface with overlay showing Command usage pecent

Real estate comparison between Windows 7 Explorer and Windows 8 Explorer

You can also watch the new video here:

Related posts: Microsoft starting major improvements for Windows 8 soonInternet Explorer 10 spotted in Windows 8First Windows 8 screenshots of “Metro UI” featured in Internet Explorer and AppX PDF Modern ReaderWindows 8 Build 7955 video leaks – shows off Metro UI elementsMilestone 2 Windows 8 Build 7927?

View the original article here