New Steam Client beta update improves storage management

Being the biggest and most widely used PC storefront, the Steam Client can’t afford to make major changes to its UI or navigation without affecting tens of millions of PC players. It looks like Valve will be changing the way the storage management works in a major way, giving it not only a face lift, but also bringing new functionality.

The latest Steam Client update for beta users comes with a bunch of new user-facing features, including the downloads page in the Steam client being replaced with a new implementation, as well as updated Steam library folders dialog to better manage various game content installed on your drives.

On storage management front, a lot of changes have been made, with just a few being:

• A minimal and more focused design with stronger CTAs (Calls to Action)
• Game key art/logo featured in the header for whichever game is actively downloading
• More accessible colour palette for the visually impaired
• When a game/update is actively downloading it will now display the total progression completed for the download or update. Previously the progress bar would only display the downloading content progress but not the disk allocation process which would make an update to appear completed when it was not.

On the library side:

• Game counts in various places in the UI will no longer include Tools unless the Tools filter is selected in the left column.
• The Recent Friend Activity shelf has been removed.
• Fixed some errors for users whose account name was the maximum length.
• Fixed duplicate events appearing in the app detail activity feed

The full list of changes and additions can be found HERE. Steam’s user interface is much older looking than many of the newer PC clients. While feature-wise Steam is the most robust, it is starting to show its age and so it is encouraging to see Valve slowly but surely modernising the way Steam looks and works.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of the changes? Are you enrolled in the Steam beta? Would you like to see a UI overhaul? Let us know down below.

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