A lighter, brighter GitHub for Windows

Today we’re happy to share some shiny visual updates to GitHub
for Windows. You’ll notice some big layout changes, as well as many
small improvements throughout. The result is a lighter and
brighter user experience.

History on the left-hand side

Just as we read from left to right, information in apps typically flows from
left to right. In the repository view, you’ll now find the list of past commits
on the left, and the selected commit to the right.

Wrapping diffs

Not a big fan of horizontal scrollbars? We hope you haven’t bought that
fancy dual-scroll mouse, because long diff lines now wrap. You can review
changes without having to scroll bi-directionally.

Relative commit times

We’ve moved to using relative times rather than just a date. Relative time is not
only time-zone agnostic, but also more relatable than a specific date. The Windows
team has people in Australia, Sweden and the US. Our commit history is filled with
changes coming in at all hours. We hope folks who work on open-source projects or
in distributed teams in general will enjoy this as much as we will.

Grouped actions

Did you know that you can easily jump to a commit on github.com? You’ll now
see all actions related to commits grouped together below the commit header,
making them easy to discover.

A bit of space

The new design makes great use of typography and white space for grouping
and separating elements. Boxes can do a good job of grouping, but
they come with the cost of introducing a lot of visual noise.

Hot off the press

If you’ve already got GitHub for Windows installed you’ll get this release
delivered as an update. If you don’t it’s available over at our newly updated
website windows.github.com. Go
check it out and download the latest version.

Written by

Markus Olsson

@niik