UI

Steel Contributor
  • Consistency on UI. Add Fluent design effects like shadows and highlight effects.
  • Add History, Download, Favorites button on the top bar like in "old" EDGE.
  • Add History, Download, Favorites on one place. One page with 3 tab maybe?
  • Add a option to display the Open/Save as when download like "old" EDGE.
  • Preview page when hovering it in app bar.
  • The Account tab when press on the bar button is too small (on my device, Surface GO), the text is very small and almost not readble.
103 Replies
@Jason_Smith can you post some screenshot comparisons? I haven't noticed any tonal difference. In fact what I notice is that fonts are aliased better, giving most pages a cleaner look. However I do not use MSN at all. It could be that MSN is designed specifically for UWP Edge. Perhaps it is best to look at some pages that obey W3C web standards ( https://validator.w3.org/dev/tests ) and are not optimized for any particular engine.

I agree with what others have been saying, for me my biggest three isuses are:

  • No open/save/save as dialog - this has been my favorite feature of Edge. If you are downloading a lot of files that need to be organized being able to place them exactly where you want them instead of rummaging through a downloads folder is a huge time saver.
  • Text looks washed out - It looks like text on most pages is displayed using a dark grey instead of black. It's not as easy to read as the true black used in the old Edge.
  • Round corners on UI elements - The browser is named Edge! It shouldn't have rounded coners anywhere in it. It just doens't feel like a MS product with the current rounding of everything.

@vovchyk I have the same washed out page issue. I've included a side by side picture of what I'm seeing.

 

Edge Classic vs Edge Canary TextEdge Classic vs Edge Canary Text


@muellech wrote:

... the address bar ... looks weirdly too large ...


Try the experimental options (edge://flags). One or two of them allow you to change the size of the omnibox and its text, e.g. edge://flags/#omnibox-ui-desired-font-size


@exa2552 wrote:
  • Add Dark Mode (ouch, my eyes!)

edge://flags/#edge-follow-os-theme

@Damix I'm sure they already are working on adding fluent design, after all we are only in the beginning of the Anaheim testing (just the start of development for MS Edge team as they started assuming it was in December, 2018 which has only made 5 months of development) at this stage. With time (and effort with feedback support) they will eventually add it, I would prefer however that Downloads has its seperate page as in my opinion I agree with how Chromium puts the Downloads in its own area so if I wanted to see my downloads I know where to go. For favourites and history, they should be integrated on the top bar as you said. Overall, Edge will eventually carry its old features over to the new but for now its pin pointing what's needed in this current stage.

 

Thanks for reading, peace :)

Eddytronpie

@Elliot Kirk, is there a time in particular when our build gets updated? I'd like to know when to expect Edge to have changed? I'd like to know when I should start looking for fixes. It really boils down to my earlier request to be informed about changes. The more informed we are, the better a job we can do for you.

Not everyone likes fluent design. I like new Edge design although somewhere wastes the pixels (Bookmark bar and Address bar should be slightly narrower)

@tojtojka

 

Around 63% of the world's browser users agree with you.  A majority of people who post here may like Fluent better, but keep in mind that they represent a vast minority of the only 6% of users who use Edge.  So we're talking about a subset of a subset of a subset.

 

StatCounter-browser-ww-monthly-201803-201903.png

@vovchykI think that is an oversimplification of design preference. The huge popularity of Chrome over other browsers stems from its ubiquitousness on Android devices and their prevalence in the market. That is not going to change by Edge changing its look and feel. Microsoft needs differentiators to attract users otherwise just use Chrome.  I for one would stop using Edge, if it was basically a Chrome clone.

Maybe I have the unpopular opinion, but I actually really like the new inteface. I don't want to clutter my navigation/address bar or tab bar with more icons like others have mentioned. I wouldn't mind those things being optional, but I really do like the lean/minimal look compared to stable edge which has a few more buttons in the way of my browsing experience. In my opinion the browser should do what it can to get out of the way and let the content of the web be the focus of why I'm using the browser in the first place. The browser just needs to be good at letting me interact with the web. I'm all for the idea of Microsoft hopefully steering Chromium in the right direction when it comes to web standards.

I felt the combined/tabbed History/Downloads/Favorites on Edge Stable was convenient, but felt a bit cramped. I only ever interacted with it in a sidebar, and maybe would have felt better about a full page. I think having those things along with Settings and Extensions and such in a single easy to switch between interface would be nice, but not as a sidebar like it was in Edge Stable.
Well that raises the question - if you stopped using Edge because it was a Chrome clone, what would you use? There are only three viable engines out there: Gecko, Webkit and Blink (which descended from Webkit).

I have never had a problem with HTML5 on Chrome or Firefox or any modern browser. Keep in mind that it is the engine itself that renders HTML5, so all the Blink browsers (Chrome, Vivaldi, Opera, now Edge, etc) should be expected to behave the same, as would all Gecko browsers (Firefox, Pale Moon, etc), as would Webkit browsers (Safari, or any browser available on iOS).

The hard reality is that with only 6% of market share, it is no longer financially rational for Microsoft to be sustaining its own separate browser engine. As (full disclosure) a holder of Microsoft stock, I think this is a brilliant decision. Nadella is doing everything right that Ballmer did wrong. Edge is an albatross, regardless of the vocal protestations of a tiny minority. Edge is mostly used on Windows to download Chrome and be closed forever. These metrics are not lost on Microsoft. A decision like this will allow a fraction of the staff to create a more valuable and compatible product. They can bundle it with the operating system as an afterthought, give a majority of people a browser they are instantly familiar with, and focus more on the areas where they do provide value; namely, business enterprise.

I'm curious. Could you please elaborate more on how Google is unwilling to follow web standards? I personally feel Blink is the only engine that quickly adds support for a new feature. See inputmode attribute support on caniuse.com and Chrome's score on Can I Use homepage.

I'd like to see in this new Edge a diferent UI or the same as the old one, but, at moment, the team have things more important and with more priority to do.
A new UI can be developed any time soon, but, for me at least, I want a browser that works, which give to the user great performance, great stability, that does not consume huge amount of RAM....
For example, Chrome the time in time,
I do not care if the current interface stays in the next times, as long as the whole browser itself is the best.

@amazingcaio I was a little overzealous with my claim and realize it only muddled the point I was trying to make. I have removed that portion from my comment. Additionaly, in all fairness to Google I can find no credible source to support it.

@vovchyk I don't disagree that given its current market share this is the correct path for MS to take financially. I do disagree that the reason for this has anything to do with the aesteic of the browser itself. I'd written out a lot more but I feel I'm starting to digress from the purpose of this forum so I'll stop with that. Needless to say, I'm a fan of the MS app look (Office, OneNote, Windows 10, etc.) and hope they continue that with the new Edge.

 

And to answer your question, I'd most likely switch to FireFox if Edge became a Chrome clone.

@hferreira107* I forgot to finish the sentence I had started about the Chrome xD
Chrome in time to time become slow, buggy, not responsive, and the worst problem is that he consumes a huge amount of RAM even with a few tabs opened.
At this point, this new Edge works lots better than Chrome.
I did a RAM consumption test with the same amount of tabs (same pages, same usage), both with no extensions enabled, and the Edge consumes less memory, but, I think, a few more improvements can be done.

One of the things I love in the current Edge is that the pages load very fast and, even heavy pages.
For example, the Facebook feed loads very fast, almost in real time as you scroll the feed.
Something that does not happen in the Chrome or with this new Edge, Firefox or in other browsers.

 

I think the EdgeHTML and Chakra engine have more performance than the Blink and V8 JS engine.
I hope the devs can do the same work, optimizations, improvements, implementations, etc, but for the Blink and V8 JS engine.

 

As @BruceLH said, if Edge is to become a Chrome clone, I will definitely switch to Firefox.

I have been asking for Favs Bar toggle in the current Edge, already, for a long time. Should have the same here. In the meantime Ctrl+Shift+B turns the Favs Bar on & off. Cheers, Drew
@BruceLH that's fair. I am currently migrating to Firefox (and by extension any of its future clones). The reason I am doing this has less to do with aesthetics (I prefer Chrome/Chromium's aesthetic) and more with functionality. There is disturbing talk about eliminating or severely restricting element blocking in future versions of Chromium. It is coming.

This will have a downstream effect on Chrome, Vivaldi, Edge, Opera and any other browsers that build from Chromium. What it means practically, is that "deeper" blocking tools like uBlockOrigin will either not work, or be required to be reimagined from the ground up. You will be forced to use "approved" ad blocking that gets rid of the absolute worst of the garbage, but lets plenty of other nastiness in under the hood.

I do not like this sort of move that clearly bows to the advertisement lobby, cloaking the language in vague references to "security." It takes more and more out of the user's hands in terms of resources they want to permit to load, and those resources they do not.