AYON users regularly move between the web app and desktop tools as they work. Over time, the web experience has developed significantly, while tools such as the Launcher, Loader and Workfiles have continued to use an older desktop interface.

We’ve been working on bringing those experiences closer together.

An upcoming update to AYON Core introduces a new Browser alongside refreshed Launcher and Workfiles tools. They use the same interface components and many of the interaction patterns found in the AYON web app, so people who already know their way around AYON in the browser should find more of the desktop experience immediately familiar.

The biggest change is the Browser. The Loader has been rebuilt from scratch, bringing flexible filtering, Views, grouping and new ways to browse published work into the desktop experience.

Meet the new Browser

The Loader is becoming the Browser, but its purpose remains familiar.

Choose the project and folder you’re working in, find the published work you need, then load it into the current production context. What has changed is how much control you have over finding and organising that work.

The Browser follows many of the patterns already used across AYON’s web interface. Instead of relying on a fixed row of controls, you can add the filters you need and combine them around the task in front of you.

Folders, tasks, products, versions and representations can all form part of the query. Common filters such as latest versions, hero versions and reviewable media make it easier to reduce a large project down to the work you need.

You can also exclude selected values, which is useful when the question is less “show me Approved work” and more “show me everything that isn’t Approved or Omitted”.

For people already working with AYON’s web tables and filters, the approach should feel familiar rather than like learning another interface from scratch.

Set up the Browser around the way you work

Once you’ve found a useful way to look at a project, Views let you return to it without rebuilding the same setup every day.

A View can remember your filters, grouping, visible columns, column order and whether you were using a table or card layout. Your working View also remembers where you left off, while studio and project defaults can give everyone a useful starting point.

Personal Views can reflect the needs of individual users, while teams using Power Pack can share Views with others.

The Browser also introduces a card layout for times when thumbnails are more useful than rows of metadata.

Grouping has expanded as well. Published work can be grouped by information such as Product, Status, Tags and other version or product attributes, with counts showing how the current result set is distributed.

Columns can be shown, hidden and reordered, while Folder and Task links can take you directly into the relevant part of the AYON web app.

Rather than presenting everyone with the same fixed layout, the Browser can be shaped around the way different people work.

Launcher and Workfiles now feel more like AYON too

The Browser is the largest part of the update, but it isn’t the only desktop tool getting attention.

Launcher and Workfiles now use the same shared AYON interface components, bringing their buttons, menus, lists and general behaviour closer to the web app.

There are useful workflow improvements alongside the visual changes.

Status icons beside folders and tasks make it easier to see what is in progress, on hold or approved before opening anything. Workfiles shown through the Launcher can display their file size, making a zero-byte or unexpectedly small file easier to spot before trying to open it.

Task information has also been tidied up to make better use of space in smaller windows.

These are small changes individually, but they affect tools people may open many times throughout a working day.

More consistency across the desktop tools

Notifications now follow the same visual language as the web app.

Toast messages across the Launcher, Browser, Publisher and Workfiles use clearer status indicators and show how long they will remain on screen. Hover over one and the countdown pauses, giving you more time to read it when needed.

Larger folder trees now show placeholder rows while loading rather than leaving the interface empty. Smaller changes to selectors, disabled controls and scrolling behaviour also help the desktop tools behave more consistently.

Together, these details reduce some of the differences users previously encountered when moving between AYON’s web and desktop interfaces.

Faster as well as more familiar

The work isn’t only visual. Folder lists used by the Launcher, Workfiles and Publisher have been improved for larger projects, building on recent performance work that substantially reduced the time required to load large folder trees.

The Publisher also resets more quickly in scenes containing many publish instances, particularly when work spans a large number of shots.

Fuzzy folder searching has already made it easier to find folders without typing an exact name, while the new Browser extends that direction by making large amounts of production data easier to narrow down, group and revisit.

For studios working with large projects, those navigation and performance improvements sit alongside the interface refresh as an important part of the update.

One AYON, in more places

AYON’s web and desktop tools serve different parts of the production workflow, so they won’t always behave in exactly the same way. They should, however, feel like parts of the same product.

Bringing familiar filters, Views, grouping and interface patterns into the desktop tools means less relearning as users move between them. Just as importantly, the shared interface components give us a stronger foundation for continuing to develop the desktop and web experiences together.

The new Browser and refreshed desktop tools are currently in development and will arrive in an upcoming AYON Core release.

For users who need more time before moving across, the legacy Loader will remain available as an option.