User interface - GtkFileChooser-like mockup

It’s quite clear that with a navigational approach you need some control element in the user interface that tells the user which directory he’s visiting currently. While a location bar is the common approach to solve this problem, Auke Kok recently suggested to use the GtkFileChooser solution here, using a button bar as history.

So the UI prototype was extended to include the GtkFileChooser-like location bar. You can switch to it using View→GtkFileChooser-like.

Personally I see some problems with this design:

• The treepane doesn’t work well
• It doesn’t play well with the toolbar
• It looks odd without additional spacing around the main box

To sum up: It doesn’t look quite right yet, more work required on the UI.