New Documents UI/Folder Structure

Ryan_Duke

After a few weeks now of using the new UI structure, I can say that it is one of the worst UI experiences I've had in the past 5-10 years. My initial thoughts were negative, and after giving myself some time to adjust, my thoughts haven't changed. All of my coworkers share the same sentiment. I don't aim to be blindly negative, but I will be blunt about my thoughts and experience. I'm really struggling to understand what the change was aimed at to achieve. I think the added column customization was the only thing somewhat useful. I will outline a few of my criticisms below.

1. It's completely counterintuitive. It completely goes against the standard hierarchical file structure that almost all file systems use. With something like windows file explorer, each level to the structure is a folder. Everything on that level is located in the same window (folders and files). With Onshape's new UI, the folders and files (documents) are split up into two windows for some reason?
2. Navigating the structure is a pain and it feels unnatural. Instead of having a full screen to see all of my files and folders while I am scrolling, I now only have half a screen, and the other half is just dead space. Depending on what I am looking for I end up having to move around the window break point A LOT in order to just see more than a few lines at a time. The window that I am not currently scrolling through is wasted real estate and provides no additional benefit to taking up that space.
3. It fights against itself for what it's trying to train you to do. With the split of folders and files/documents, the UI is training you to look at the top of the screen for your folders and the bottom of the screen for everything else. Well, that is all fine except when you reach a level where there are no longer any more folders. The top window where the folders were located will automatically minimize which causes all of the files and documents to now move up to take up the full screen. So the things I was being trained to look for at the bottom of my screen is now at the top. However, this minimization/transition isn't instant, and the documents actually start at the bottom and jump to the top after a second or two. This can sometimes be jarring.
4. It just doesn't work very well technically. Navigating folders seems to be slower than before. This is just an anecdotal feeling so I'm not sure whether it is or isn't. In the case mentioned in #3 where you reach the lowest level of the structure and the folder window is auto-minimized, if you go back a level, the "folder" window up top stays minimized. I now have to manually undo something that I didn't want to do in the first place. Something I recently noticed that I think is a bug, is when that auto-minimization happens, it doesn't always show all of the documents on the current level. In order to make the missing ones reappear I have to maximize the empty "folder" window and re-minimize it.

All in all, I feel like it is a step backwards. Now I know that there is probably some case out there where this new UI is beneficial. Like I mentioned at the beginning, the added column customization and sorting/filtering is nice. However, as someone who uses Onshape all day long for work, it has become a real nuisance when trying move around the folder structure. I think some have mentioned it, but being able to choose which version of the UI to use would be great (old or new). This way you can use whichever one benefits you the most. I am just struggling to see what the value added is with this change.