Visual Studio 11 RC UI Changes

08May12

The Visual Studio blog just shared an update on the UI improvements coming the VS 11 beta.  I know the 2 biggest complaints I had and heard from others was on the complete lack of color and the ALL CAPS SCREAMING AT YOU FROM THE TOOL WINDOWS.  Both of these have been fixed for the upcoming Release Candidate.

Microsoft has added color throughout VS 11, and are saying they’ve increase the “energy” level of VS.  Maybe this just means that glancing at it doesn’t make you want to fall asleep.  They’ve done this by adding color to the most commonly used icons, more accent colors throughout, and adding color to object icons, such as file type and Intellisense icons.

Apparently someone on the VS team is a screamer, because they haven’t gotten rid of all caps.  They just moved them.  Now, tool window titles will be properly cased, but the top level menu titles are now all caps.

I do like the changes.  I think the toolbar buttons now have a nice balance between the busyness of the 2010 icons and the beta icons being indistinguishable from each other at a glance.  I’m not crazy about the top menu titles being all caps, but at least the toolbar window titles will be a little easier to read.

Here’s a screenshot from their original blog post showing the differences between VS 2010, 11 beta, and 11 RC.

Microsoft hasn’t announced when the RC will be coming, but I’m looking forward to getting my hands on it!

Filed under: Developers, Visual Studio 11   |  Closed