Recently active topics in Wuala tagged with usability

Hello,

Today, I come to you with some UI questions. Let me first tell you that we don't think the current UI is the end of the line and that in the long run, we'd like to have a completely new, super dooper UI :-) However, sometimes you can't change things in one day or night and have to make do with small, incremental changes. After quite a few people came to me with very similar usability problems, I thought it's time for some small changes :-) So here we go...

Recurring problems/questions:

1. Where is the "navigate up" button? Where is the "back" button? People are used to have it on the top left of their browser. This was also suggested by jhancock in the Satisfaction forum some time ago: http://getsatisfaction.com/wuala/topi...
2. How do I create a new folder etc.
3. When is an action (actions are the hyperlink commands in the header and the details pane, such as "New folder", "Download", "Recommend to friend" etc.) in the header, when in the details pane. There is a logic behind it (header = current context/folder, details pane = current item/selection). However, actions are sometimes very similar (e.g., "Download all" in the header, "Download" in the details pane) so that is confusing.

Suggestions:

Have a look at http://wua.la/Dominik/Public/Wuala/Sm...

- Version A, B or C (provided by jhancock)
- A new little "tools" button similar to the Mac finder, which basically opens the context menu (right click), so that you have all applicable actions in one place.
- Discard all "redundant actions" in the header and details pane (so that "download" would only be in the details pane), OR discard all actions completely.
- Mid-term: Make header and details pane smaller
- Long-run: Completely new UI (we've got ideas, but nobody to implement them) :-)

Version A, B, C don't look so nice. What could I do to make them look a bit nicer?

What usability problems do you have?

Please give me your feedback.

Thanks.

Dominik