MicrosoftI re-positioned the navigation buttons to the classic look at the bottom of the screen for now. I don't like to revert to an old look and feel, but this is necessary until the new feature is configurable with easy to find right-click options to position it at the top, bottom, or side. The location at the top was a hindrance to my productivity.
I have a use case that I did not see mentioned. I have multiple large monitors. One monitor is in Landscape mode which is primarily for Excel spreadsheets, where it is beneficial to view more columns. The monitor that I use for Outlook and Word is tilted sideways in Portrait mode. This enables me to read long documents and view more of the document on the screen. As I move my mouse from monitor to monitor, the mouse is along the bottom of the screen. The positioning at the top requires me to move the mouse nearly 2 feet and hit the tiny icon, which slows me down since I frequently switch back and forth from calendar to email views.
It was also a jarring change to the UI. Like any end user, I spend many hours per day having gotten accustomed to the location of the navigation button, which is now a reflex habit. When this is moved, I reflexively go to the old location, and then move the mouse up a considerable distance on a large monitor.
I also agree with the wasted space comments. The classic location takes up a small space, underneath the folder hierarchy, leaving more room for my business content. When it is along the left screen, it narrows the reading space, which has the folder hierarchy and then the reading pane, on a portrait view which is already compressed. In portrait view, the wasted space is even more pronounced, since the white space runs the ENTIRE length of the large monitor top to bottom, with only 2 inches used by the icons.
