Feature Suggestion: Quick Action Live Folders

[Spinn]

Quick Actions are great, but I hate being limited to only 4. I have them all filled up and there are more that I want to add. Here is my attempt at a solution to this problem. I have put together my proposal in a Microsoft Sway.

If you like it please vote for it on User Voice. I welcome feedback. I'm heading off to work, but I will do my best to reply when I can.

(I can't post links so you'll have to copy them.)

Sway:
https://sway.com/o_IvSODbNb3bNhOM

User Voice:
https://windowsphone.uservoice.com/forums/101801-feature-suggestions/suggestions/6953669-quick-action-live-folders

 

[dKp1977]

Why not just make the entire bar containing the quick action buttons horizontally scrollable?

 

[Spinn]

Why not just make the entire bar containing the quick action buttons horizontally scrollable?

I thought about it. Scrolling is better than what we have now. Part of what is nice about Quick Actions is the ability to see their status at a glace. Horizontal scrolling sort of defeats this purpose.

With Live Folders, you get logical grouping of actions, you can still see the status of all the Quick Actions (e.g. Wifi on, which network you are connected to, etc.), and they are at most one click away.

The upside to horizontal scrolling is the ability to have an unlimited number of Quick Actions. With my solution, you are limited to 16.

 

[manicottiK]

Why not just make the list of Quick Actions unlimited in length without switching to horizontal scrolling? Instead, extra rows would be used as the user increased the number of slots. The Notifications+Actions settings page could add a button that says "add row" that create 4 or 5 more slots (or more for a 3rd row).

This way keeps the buttons at their current size (so that their already-too-small text remains semi-readable) and saves one click (no need to expand the Action Folder) or swipe (no need to screen horizontally just to see the status of something). It also clears up the need for the divider lines that were drawn in the mock-up of expanding folders..

Since Quick Action slots are reserved for specific settings, there's already a finite limit on how many you can have. This "add row" method lets users allocate Action Center space between Quick Action buttons and notifications in the way that best suits the user.

 

[Spinn]

The thought had crossed my mind but I was concerned that multiple rows of Quick Actions would make the Action Center look cluttered. I suppose that might just be a trade-off the user would need to make if they wanted more Quick Actions. I felt that grouping them would keep things cleaner - of course, as you pointed out, that would make the Quick Action text even smaller when the Live Folder is collapsed.