News: 0175006775

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Microsoft Has Scrapped Edge's Big UI Refresh With Rounded Tabs (windowscentral.com)

(Monday September 16, 2024 @05:25PM (msmash) from the change-of-heart dept.)


Microsoft has [1]abandoned plans to overhaul its Edge browser interface, scrapping the design choice unveiled in February 2023. The redesign -- featuring a sleeker look with rounded tab buttons and increased blur effects -- aimed to give Edge a distinct identity as the company pushed into AI services. The new design never officially launched and the company has no intention to launch it later, according to Microsoft-focused news outlet Windows Central.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to Windows Central that the company is moving away from the rounded tabs concept. Some elements of the redesign will remain, including webpage borders and a repositioned user button, but the majority of the proposed changes have been shelved. The decision marks a retreat from Microsoft's efforts to visually differentiate Edge from Google Chrome and align it with Windows 11's design language.



[1] https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/microsoft-has-scrapped-edges-big-ui-refresh-with-rounded-tabs



Edge (Score:3)

by mukundajohnson ( 10427278 )

I don't see how there's any edge at all if it's just the same product but worse.

Economic loss due to UX need to recreate (Score:2)

by will4 ( 7250692 )

What's the 15 year economic loss due to UX needing to recreate, redesign, recolor, and otherwise neverendingly change things which have limited or minimal impact on the product's users?

One has to question, where is the diminishing returns line in UX changes?

How much extra electricity is used worldwide by Microsoft or Apple pushing out a trivial UX change to a widely used app?

Community suggestion (Score:2)

by will4 ( 7250692 )

Community suggestions: Start calling UX reskins as "uncompelling non-features" when you discuss products, upgrades and timelines.

Hopefully, vendors will come around to not pushing "UX reskin" as the main feature for a release as has been done by Microsoft and others for the last decade.

Skins, UX changes, etc are no compelling features. If your company pays $10,000,000 a year in maintenance for a Microsoft product, getting only a UX reskin and a token trivial feature and a to be unused integration hardly wa

Re: (Score:3)

by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 )

For most users, rearranging menus & buttons & stuff like that is like rearranging the furniture in a blind person's home.

Re: (Score:3)

by groobly ( 6155920 )

Not minimal impact. Every UI change makes it harder for the user, either only at first to learn the change, or always because the change is counterproductive.

Re: (Score:2)

by ewibble ( 1655195 )

Yes what is the economic cost of moving settings to different places, changing icons. Say even if you it only takes the average user 10 minutes to adjust, which I think is way to small, multiply that across 2 billion users that's 100 million hours wasted. That doesn't even include all the documentation/videos that on the internet that needs to updated, the wasted time that results in finding some documentation that doesn't quite apply to your version. Or the real problem it causes for old people who have di

Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

by cbm64 ( 9558787 )

Actually, except from the crap MS marketing keep pushing regarding changing defaults, Edge is my favourite chromium browser, for Windows. On Windows it is significantly ligther on system resources and battery life than Chrome (and FF), starts up faster, smooth scrolling, and has some useful features and options built in, like strict tracking prevention by default, good PDF reader with PDF editing capabilities, tab groups/vertical tabs, etc. I just wish they let the default setting dark pattern UX crap go.

Re: (Score:2)

by Tablizer ( 95088 )

"Our suck is prettier suck"

Re: (Score:2)

by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 )

"Innovation" these says seems to consist of switching back & forth between cosmetic features, like square tabs & rounded tabs, & no start menu to bringing the start menu back, & moving stuff around on the menus, & adding nagware features & advertising embedded at the OS level. I just wanna get work done & Windows would get in my way if I had to use it.

It's "sleeker" (Score:2)

by byronivs ( 1626319 )

Like you said, they took off all the Edge.

Floating tabs (Score:4, Interesting)

by caseih ( 160668 )

Glad MS abandoned that idea. Now if only Mozilla would come around and abandon it too on Firefox.

A stroke of genius? (Score:3)

by paul_engr ( 6280294 )

Certainly what edge needs is literal window dressing to make it a compelling product. Certainly!

Re: (Score:2)

by Tablizer ( 95088 )

Our genius PHB spent the budget painting the walls instead of replacing a clunky leaky app. The PHB is close to retirement such that if the app bursts, they'll just retire instantly. The kiss-up math is that the paint job is definitively visible and makes them look like a "doer", but the leaky app only has say a 20% of bursting any year, so the PHB did play the logical odds: kiss-up math "works" on superficial humans.

"Windows 11 design language" (Score:2)

by paul_engr ( 6280294 )

Incoherent gibberish, disguised like it's your old friend, but they're long gone

Priorities (Score:3)

by sunderland56 ( 621843 )

So, Microsoft could make things faster, or they could make them more secure, or they could change whether corners are round or not. Hey MS, priorities.

And, if there's a debate as to how a UI element should look..... just make it a user preference.

Re: (Score:2)

by zlives ( 2009072 )

i mean rounded corners was supposed to be the security feature to take the edge off a bit...

that is called security by design, but now we are left with same old sharp edges.

Re: (Score:2)

by Malay2bowman ( 10422660 )

Yeah, I don't want my fingers getting cut up over old tiny sharp browser edges. Also, feelings.

Re: (Score:2)

by Hadlock ( 143607 )

UI/UX fluff is window dressing execs can wrap their head around, so they fret about it a lot more than nebulous stuff like "performance" which isn't easily measured by subjective means.

But a new UI change? Your colleagues can tell you over drinks at the executive off site, "hey I heard your redesign really bombed , way to fuck that up"

Re: (Score:2)

by gweihir ( 88907 )

I do not think MS can make things more secure. And they probably know that. So they try to woo people with irrelevant detail.

Who purposely uses Edge? (Score:2)

by schwit1 ( 797399 )

It gets launched here but only because it's hard coded for certain situations.

Re: (Score:2)

by RitchCraft ( 6454710 )

"Who purposely uses Edge?" - the same people that purposely use Windows 11. You know, the Sheople.

Re: (Score:2)

by Oddroot ( 4245189 )

> "Who purposely uses Edge?" - the same people that purposely use Windows 11. You know, the Sheople.

I would counter that the many people who use Windows 11 most likely do it because it came with their computer when they bought it, and/or if you are like me in a professional environment, that nearly all of your daily-use software is written for Windows only and there is simply no alternative.

Re: (Score:2)

by RitchCraft ( 6454710 )

Yep, hence, you are part of the { set:Sheople }

Re: Who purposely uses Edge? (Score:2)

by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

At work I can use chrome or edge. Edge is standard. Chrome is even more irritating with more ads and is the same engine underneath anyway, so I use edge.

Um.... (Score:2)

by Malay2bowman ( 10422660 )

I want to use my browser for browsing the web. I don't care about superfluous crap like rounded tabs (let's copy Google's roundyeverything!) or blur effects. In fact, let's focus on making Edge just a little bit less craptacular. Aka less fashion design and more engineering.

how about stop treating eber ui redesign (Score:2)

by Growlley ( 6732614 )

as if its being used on a mobile phone!

make the tabs go to the top damn it (Score:3)

by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

I'm tired of grabbing the window when I'm trying to grab a tab and drag it out into its own window.

Microsoft UI designers are universally ass clowns.

Re: (Score:1)

by gweihir ( 88907 )

> I'm tired of grabbing the window when I'm trying to grab a tab and drag it out into its own window.

> Microsoft UI designers are universally ass clowns.

They always have been. It just has become more noticeable. MS is really looking older and more incapable every day.

Bike-shedding (Score:3)

by chuckugly ( 2030942 )

This seems like bike-shedding raised to an industrial level.

Re: (Score:2)

by gweihir ( 88907 )

Indeed. This is just irrelevant crap, at best.

What kind of crap "news" is this? (Score:2, Troll)

by gweihir ( 88907 )

It seems Microsoft has nothing to offer that actually has relevance...

I liked my FIREFOX rounded tabs (Score:2)

by williamyf ( 227051 )

I was sad to see them go. For a while I was able to bring them back by editing the (FireFox) chrome files, but alas, that's also gone...

Would have I switched to Edge for rounded tabs? No, but it wouild have made the experience of using it as an alternate browser for stuborn sites (like one of my banks) more palatable.

2 years of work... (Score:2)

by JackAxe ( 689361 )

After 1 year at Microsoft, with a team of over one hundred people, Team Tab-Rounders finally delivered:

border-radius: 20% 20% 0 0;

1 year later, after daily meetings of belly filling with lots of back patting, Team Tab-Rounders realized that they would no longer have a job if they delivered on their difficult task:

/*border-radius: 20% 20% 0 0;*/

People want "just a browser" (Score:2)

by xack ( 5304745 )

There was a reason why Internet Explorer lasted so long, while the engine was bad the UI was simple enough that it was the internet for everyone, something modern browser devs should figure out.

They do have a brain! (Score:1)

by CEC-P ( 10248912 )

They noticed people hate it. They stopped doing it. HOLY CRAP it's a miracle. That is not at all what MS does. I feel like there's another feature with a worse reputation but I don't Recall.

Why are apps constantly changing the interface? (Score:2)

by BlueCoder ( 223005 )

Seriously stop it. It's an investment to learn an interface. Stop making me relearn apps over and over. The first one did everything I needed it to.

Instead make the interface modular. So old interfaces and new interfaces all work with the same core app's functionality, and updated security. When you really need a feature that isn't compatible with the interface your know then and that's when your motivated to learn to a new one.

For example if I wanted the windows 3.1 interface on Windows 11 then I should be

Re: (Score:2)

by sunderland56 ( 621843 )

Functionality engineers always have something to do. Bug fixes, new features, security improvements.

UI engineers have very very little to do after release 1.0 and get bored.

Lightning strikes.