Different strokes for different folks but I really love vim split views. I have Ctrl-h, Ctrl-j, Ctrl-k, and Ctrl-l mapped to navigate between my splits with ease as well as using the vim plugin Golden Ratio[1] to make the current focused split larger than the rest. If you really need the tree view, I've heard great things about NERD Tree[2]. Feel free to check out my .vimrc[3] for other neat tricks and plugins :)