Microsoft details new Windows 8 Explorer layout
Director of Program Management at Microsoft, Alex Simons, has detailed the future of the new Explorer interface in a blog post on MSDN.
Interesting statistics from the post include usage patterns in the current Windows Explorer. According to Microsoft, despite having over 200 commands in Explorer, “the top 10 commands represent 81.8% of total usage.”
Simons goes on to detail how the right-click context menu was the main method of executing commands at 54.5 percent, followed by keyboard shortcuts at 32.2 percent.
Microsoft also found that the command bar, the most visible feature on Vista and 7’s Explorer menu, houses two of the top 10 commands used in Explorer. Despite this, it was used only 10.9 percent of the time during file management.
Microsoft will therefore integrate the ribbon interface, a feature first introduced in their Office applications. This interface allows sets of related actions to be grouped together for easy access, while oft used actions will be more prominent.
The new interface will also feature live preview for files, expanded tool tips, and keyboard shortcuts for every command in the ribbon as a nod to power users.
Read the full story over at: Cnet.
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