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Behind the design of the fresh new Firefox coming June 1

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Behind the design of the fresh new Firefox coming June 1

#34

Post by alanbernstein »

gcommer wrote: post #12

Their video on the front page contradicts itself. They highlight the UI coded by "user interaction" and no surprise, the Pocket button in the URL bar has tiny usage. And yet, in the new design? It's bigger and more prominent. And they try to say this is data-driven in the voice-over. Now, yet again, I'll have to just pin Firefox and stop updating it everywhere for a few months until the inevitable "undo all these cha…

Also "remove clicks" and "remove clutter" are directly contradictory... I want to be able to configure my browser to minimize clicks FOR ME, and I'm ok with having a lot of "clutter" i.e. functionality.

Re: Behind the design of the fresh new Firefox coming June 1

#35

Post by jchw »

kijin wrote: post #19
jchw wrote: post #4

I wasn't a huge fan of most of the UI refreshes lately in both Chrome and Firefox, but this is definitely the least welcome so far. I do not really expect these tabs to grow on me. (Also, it obviously looks fine, but I really dislike the new trend of adding a bunch of empty space for no real reason other than aesthetics. The first thing I do in Firefox right now is remove the spacers next to the address bar...)

Those spacers on both sides of the address bar made absolutely no sense, I agree. But there's some logic to the growth of empty space everywhere. Even laptops have touchscreens these days. Click targets need to be bigger because fingers are fatter than mouse pointers. I just wish they'd keep around a compact option for non-touch devices, but unfortunately another recent trend is to get rid of user-configurable option…

Yeah, this is basically the problem. Similarly, IMO, using GNOME 3 adapted for phones via Phosh feels far more natural than using GNOME 3 on desktop. It really should be an indictment of the insistence that it's possible to make one single design that works well on all form factors, or even just two form factors as disparate as a tablet and a desktop PC. If it's possible, the "state of the art" isn't really selling it.

Windows 10 honestly comes closer than expected, but then misses in such a way that it can feel both awkward to use on a desktop (the settings app is pretty uncomfortable, along with photos and to some extent even calculator) and on a tablet (tablet mode is hard to navigate; I double click an image in File Explorer, it launches Photos. I hit back, it goes back, but the picture remains open. I go back to the photo and try to close it, and now I am all the way back to the start menu. Mission failed successfully. WM_POINTER is also buggy with split panes, so I hope you didn't want to draw while doing something else...)

I guess everything has to be mobile-first now, but it's increasingly close to "desktop-barely."

Re: Behind the design of the fresh new Firefox coming June 1

#36

Post by masklinn »

roca wrote: post #16
jchw wrote: post #4

I wasn't a huge fan of most of the UI refreshes lately in both Chrome and Firefox, but this is definitely the least welcome so far. I do not really expect these tabs to grow on me. (Also, it obviously looks fine, but I really dislike the new trend of adding a bunch of empty space for no real reason other than aesthetics. The first thing I do in Firefox right now is remove the spacers next to the address bar...)

I disliked the new tabs at first but after a few weeks I'm totally used to them.

From FDE, I disliked the new tabs at first, and I still do. They have no redeeming qualities.

They’re not denser, they’re not more readable, and they’re definitely not more usable as they’re floating in the tab bar unmoored from the rest of the browser. They don’t make any sense and they’re visually unappealing.

Re: Behind the design of the fresh new Firefox coming June 1

#37

Post by gforge »

inamiyar wrote: post #10

I'm pretty excited about this. In general it looks fine, but I really gotta ask - why do browsers always redesign tabs? They don't change in functionality for the most part and yet they always get refreshed. Regardless, excited to try the new design, hopefully they really have streamlined it. I personally find the firefox menu navigation a bit weird and hard to...well navigate through so that's what I'm hoping has be…

I love the new tabs, I found the old ones clumsy and ugly. Design is unfortunately something that is constantly a moving target. If Mozilla stops updating they will surely die - for most users the technical details don't matter, what matters is that their friends go, wow what is the browser you're using? And thus, redesign is just a way of staying alive...

Re: Behind the design of the fresh new Firefox coming June 1

#38

Post by mrweasel »

gcommer wrote: post #12

Their video on the front page contradicts itself. They highlight the UI coded by "user interaction" and no surprise, the Pocket button in the URL bar has tiny usage. And yet, in the new design? It's bigger and more prominent. And they try to say this is data-driven in the voice-over. Now, yet again, I'll have to just pin Firefox and stop updating it everywhere for a few months until the inevitable "undo all these cha…

The new tabs also look nothing like tabs. It’s now a button bar.

It looks great, but it’s not really an inprovement and is clearly designed on a large monitor.

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