UI

[Damix]

• 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.

[#2]

I agree, really would like to see Downloads, History, Bookmarks all in the same popout window just like in Edge. I really like/perfer the old UI rather than the chrome copy. Also, make it so New Tabs open with your "Homepage" if set. Currently i have my homepage set to bing.com and opening a new tab does not open with bing.com, even though i set new tabs to open with a specific url.

[#3]

@Meier23 

Maybe New Tabs open with your "Homepage" if set is not the best option. There is the Home Button to do that.

[#4]

@Damix Hey, yeah i have that also enabled, and when i open a new tab it doesn't go to bing.com. Im sure its probably a bug early in developement that they will address soon enough. Its not a critical error, its just convenient to access bing rewards and outlook.

[#5]

This has good notes but maybe we can link all the different same comments toghether. 1 Vote for this though+

[#6]

Speaking about consistency, I really dislike how the new Edge looks - it is like a Frankensteinian monster put together from Chrome and Windows 10. While the icons have been adapted to the Windows 10 look and feel, most controls have not (or only partially). Most importantly, nothing should be round, neither the tabs nor the address bar (which looks weirdly too large as well) nor the context menus.

[#7]

This is all great feedback.  Thank you everyone.  I am ensuring that the right people are seeing this thread.  Keep in mind, we are not done making changes to the user experience, so check back often and let us know if we are getting better or not as we go.

Thanks,

Elliot

[#8]

@Elliot Kirk 

Is there any kind of development map or plan that we can see? Some way of knowing if, say, the UI development is done, etc. It's no use loads of people talking about the lack of fluent UI if it's never going to happen, etc. Or even timescales for new edge as an insider build and planned full release?

[#9]

Give them time, Chromium already came with a UI to work with, im sure it will look more Fluent soon. I would love it to use Fluent Design as well@Damix 

[#10]

We don't have a timetable yet. We do, however, have a lot of work going on. We are also trying to understand which areas are the best investments for our customers. We really want to make sure that we build the features that you all want, and we build them well. Please keep sending us your feedback and suggestions as that is our best guide.
Thanks,
Elliot

[#11]

Main reason i use Edge is because fluent desing, 

I hate this chrome design 

Bring back Fluent Design to fullest!

[#12]

@Damix Totally agree.

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@Damix  ha escrito:

• 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.

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[#13]

@Elliot Kirk This is the beginning of some really great work.  People will always hate on aesthetics - can't please everyone.  For my part, I like it.  I don't spend my browsing time staring at the menus, but interacting with the content on the page.  But, I do like the subtle rounded edges more.  Also consider that people are more likely to complain than to affirm; my sense - as a service provider myself - is that there has to be a certain amount of dilution applied for vague complaints ("it's new I don't like it").

Specifics: one thing that was problematic with UWP Edge was the font rendering.  Font rendering across UWP has been really bad across all the apps, even on quite high DPI monitors.  It is nice to interact with fonts properly rendered, as they are in the preview build.  Very good work.

My hope is that this will spur Microsoft to get back into the consumer service game, reimagining Maps and Groove for the Android/iOS platforms in order to present the user with a viable alternative ecosystem to the Google hydra.

[#14]

The thing that really struck me when first using the Edge Insider was how washed out all web pages look. For example, the MSN home page looks awful compared to to that rendered in Edge for Windows 10.

Is this how it's supposed to look and Edge for Windows 10 simply exagerates the colours to make it look good? Or does Edge Insider have an issue with rendering things correctly?

For me, this simple issue is ruining the experience.

[#15]

• Add back the option to "Always clear this when I close the browser" under the "Clear browsing data" settings
• Make the color used to highlight content in the url address bar the same as the one Windows 10 uses
• Make the tab area transparent if transparency is enabled in the Windows 10 settings

[#16]

@Damix 

• Add Dark Mode (ouch, my eyes!)
• Add "Set tabs aside" feature or provide an Extension (My No. 1 feature from legacy Edge)

[#17]

I would like to add more:
- Make new Edge Chromium to have exactly similar UI from existing Edge UWP like with sharper corners, menu animations, button sizes, titlebar height (currently they are few pixels different and the window buttons are in different sizes than on Edge), and few UI animations that in Edge like icons.

- Maybe not a popular suggestion, but it would be great to have an option to auto-hide the scrollbar and only shows the small bar when you scroll. This maximize the webpage window more. It just looks so modern and nicer with web sites not having out-of-place looking scrollbar.

- Slide/Swipe gesture animation for Forward and Back like on existing Edge UWP. Chromium already does support this gesture, but only arrow shows up which is not an obvious UI action behavior like a whole webpage slides left or right. Old Metro IE actually did it best as there is a saved preview of the webpage as you swipe.

- Edge Chromium hopefully will make touch usability as a priority too, hopefully even better than Edge UWP. We need a tablet mode that is optimized for tablet use especially on smaller screen sizes, which is also beneficial when you snap Edge window.

- New Tab pinned websites needs to have drag-and-drop functionality. Make it square like Live Tiles and have sharper corners for design language consistency. Just retain the shadow effect and add Reveal Highligh effect from Fluent Design. It needs to allow more pins too.

- New Tab page needs to follow dark theme also.

That's all for now. Looking forward for more Edge Chromium improvements! :)

[#18]

The way I see it, Microsoft better make this new Edge just like the original one, the UI was perfect, and only modify the under-the-hood stuff like they did now to use chromium javascript engine instead of Chakra.

[#19]

I like the new aesthetics as well...:thumbs_up:

[#20]

Indeed! It would be perfect if they can literally copy the Edge UI pixel by pixel would be fine. For now we just need same Edge we know and love but based on Chromium included its added improvements that Edge UWP didn't have.

Basically clone copy of Edge UWP at UI level, but Chromium underneath.

Edit: I would also want to add, keep the New Tab page, this one is definitely an improvement from the old Edge UWP.

[#21]

@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.

[#22]

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.

[#23]

@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 Text

[#24]

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@muellech wrote:

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

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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

[#25]

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@exa2552 wrote:

• Add Dark Mode (ouch, my eyes!)

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

[#26]

@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

[#27]

@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.

[#28]

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

[#29]

@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.

[#30]

@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.

[#31]

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.

[#32]

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.

[#33]

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.

[#34]

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.

[#35]

@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.

[#36]

@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.

[#37]

@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.

[#38]

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.

[#39]

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

[#40]

@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.

[#41]

@Damix 

Im not sure about the rounded corners on the tab selector. But I do like that they rounded out the url/ search bar. The right click menu does look very good but is not the most consistand with windows.

[#42]

I have attached 3 files which highlight the tab bar, address bar and fav bar for Old Edge, Chrome and New Edge.

Obviously Chrome and Old Edge look way better when considered the following:

• Address bar:
  • Font Size
  • Nav button size and spread
• Fav bar icons

Hopefully Microsoft can make some changes when they finally ship this off, otherwise this is a nice productNew EdgeOld EdgeChrome

[#43]

Yeah, it really really needs some transparency, acrylic and reveal effects, as well as the smooth animations that actually make sense from the old Edge, for example: the context menus had an animation coming from where the cursor actually is, not just some basic fade-in effect.

[#44]

Yeah, this would be nice if they can also replicate the UI animation eventually on Edge Dev/Canary builds. I don't expect them to happen soon but hopefully before the official public release to replace Edge UWP. This include Reveal Highlight effects which is kinda exist already in Chromium if you check the latest versions of Chrome/Chromium and click the buttons in the browser navigation bar, if its possible to modify the effects to clone the Reveal Hightlight in Fluent Design, that would be great.

About Acrylic material on the titlebar/tab bar area, I can see this a challenging thing to replicate since that area used in Edge Dev/Canary is an actual system titlebar still based on Aero (still exist, just no translucent effects). My guess of possible solutions are:
- Either that Edge Chromium will have its own implementation of Acrylic-like tab bar just for Chromium,
- Implement XAML Islands to Chromium that Edge Dev/Canary uses. So canning the Acrylic Tab bar/titlebar for the meantime.

For me, I would rather have the animations and UI design layout minus the Acrylic to be eventually implemented on Edge Chromium, making it exactly like Edge UWP plus some feature changes and additions from Chromium. That way we have Edge Chromium replacing Edge UWP that still looks consistent to current Windows 10 Fluent Design version. This is an exciting development to come.

[#45]

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@muellech wrote:

Speaking about consistency, I really dislike how the new Edge looks - it is like a Frankensteinian monster put together from Chrome and Windows 10. While the icons have been adapted to the Windows 10 look and feel, most controls have not (or only partially). Most importantly, nothing should be round, neither the tabs nor the address bar (which looks weirdly too large as well) nor the context menus.

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Hear! Hear! on the controls being round.  Chrome still looks like it should be on XP and now newEdge does too.  And I don't want to be reminded that this newEdge is Chromium based.  To me it's bad enough that Microsoft gave in, but please don't make me look at "Chrome" all the time.  I hate Chrome (use oldEdge almost exclusively at home and Firefox at work).

[#46]

Absolutely. Along with privacy and security, UI is one of my top concerns and interest areas for this new Edge.

[#47]

Definitely ":Add History, Download, Favorites button on the top bar like in "old" EDGE."

[#48]

yes, even Edge for android and ios has the favorites button that shows Favorites, reading list, download and history

[#49]

@Elliot Kirk Which is why a "timetable" or something similar, with planned features community can vote on to speed-up the development would be great. Otherwise, everything is just a disorganized mess with people posting their ideas, not even being aware of the ideas of some others-which might be an improvement of their own-because they are too lazy to read them all.

[#50]

Something like feathub or uservoice could be cool.