Forum Discussion
MicrosoftIntroducing the new downloads experience
My main objection to this - as a web developer - is that with the bar at the bottom and all new downloads appearing a the left hand spot on the bar, it's easy for me to create screen instructions for someone to click the downloaded file to open it (with a big obvious arrow pointing to it). That's completely impossible with this new design - no way for the developer to know where that downloads tab will appear relative to the web content. So it makes it much harder for me to create instructions that work for multiple browsers - I have to detect edge and then show them screen shots of how it MIGHT look depending on a lot of factors. The old method (pretty consistent between various browsers) would allow me to create easy to understand and follow instructions for (for instance) firing up a zoom meeting, or downloading a CSV. Now I need to craft all sorts of different instructions for edge. Not friendly. It's hard enough to explain this to users without moving crap around arbitrarily. If you like the new downloads bar up top fine, but expect it will cause MORE confusion for those not intimately familiar with browser tech because people already can't follow instructions and if those instructions point to a nonexistant toolbar they'll be even more confused.
- Spoiler
Lee Drake wrote:My main objection to this - as a web developer - is that with the bar at the bottom and all new downloads appearing a the left hand spot on the bar, it's easy for me to create screen instructions for someone to click the downloaded file to open it (with a big obvious arrow pointing to it). That's completely impossible with this new design - no way for the developer to know where that downloads tab will appear relative to the web content. So it makes it much harder for me to create instructions that work for multiple browsers - I have to detect edge and then show them screen shots of how it MIGHT look depending on a lot of factors. The old method (pretty consistent between various browsers) would allow me to create easy to understand and follow instructions for (for instance) firing up a zoom meeting, or downloading a CSV. Now I need to craft all sorts of different instructions for edge. Not friendly. It's hard enough to explain this to users without moving crap around arbitrarily. If you like the new downloads bar up top fine, but expect it will cause MORE confusion for those not intimately familiar with browser tech because people already can't follow instructions and if those instructions point to a nonexistant toolbar they'll be even more confused.
the new flyout downloads experience is WAY better than how it looked before.
it always appears in the same place, you don't see the flyout menu appearing at the bottom right, bottom left or top left, it's always there at the top right side of Edge, in the specified toolbar area.
Edge is not the only browser using this improved flyout experience, the old downloads bar came from chrome and it was awful.
Internet Explorer also had similar experience like the new Edge, Firefox does too right now.
