Valve is continuing to push updates to its Steam client and store in its effort to modernize it piece by piece. The latest update has now gone into beta, and the company is targeting a complete refresh of the menu that appears above its store pages, as well as its search bar.
The new design combines the left column and the blue bar that currently appears to regular users when using the Steam store, while search and the menu bar will now appear on almost every page on the platform. While the entire bar disappears when scrolling down, going up will make it pop up again from any stage for quick access.
Combining many of the existing options, Browse, Recommendations, Categories & Tags all now have their own sections in the menu, each with their own destinations inside and personalized links based on the user"s owned and played games.
"With these changes, we’re aiming to make your experience smoother and more tailored to your needs," explains Valve. "We"ve been hearing from players, and experiencing ourselves, that some of the most commonly visited areas of Steam were hard to get to. So whether you’re a frequent shopper or a looking to build your game library, this new layout is designed to get you where you want to go with less effort."
Meanwhile, the new Enhanced Search Panel has sections for "Popular Searches", "Recently Viewed", as well as support for searching for categories, tags, publishers, and other elements. An Advanced Search link is also present to go deeper into the store filters.
To test this out, you can switch to the Steam Beta Client by heading to the app"s Settings > Interface section and changing the Client Beta Participation dropdown to the latest version available. You can give Valve feedback on the latest changes in the dedicated Steam Discussion page here.