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Safari 15 on Mac OS, a user interface mess

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Re: Safari 15 on Mac OS, a user interface mess

#71

Post by TwoBit »

oneplane wrote: post #17
geerlingguy wrote: post #8

The new tab/address bar thing could be the reason I switch back away from Safari after using it as my main browser for a few years due to its energy efficiency compared to Firefox and Chrome. What UI designer thought taking away more space for the tab bar was a good idea? Does that person even use a web browser?

Do you honestly think this is a one-person job? While you might question the outcome of product development, assuming that a multi-billion R&D budget accounts for 1 designer is just unhelpful. Even just the WebKit commits with Apple engineering contacts is enough to build a whole company around...

I'm not arguing this change as good or bad, but the pattern of one or two key people deciding something and others getting on board to implement it is common.

Re: Safari 15 on Mac OS, a user interface mess

#72

Post by bluedino »

threeseed wrote: post #30

> Two things any user, no matter their tech-savviness, has needed in a browser. A wide Address bar to see exactly where they are, which webpage it’s loaded, the whole URL This is clearly wrong and brings the judgement of the author into question. People care that they are on "Facebook", "Google", "Youtube". They are not remembering that a stupid cat video belongs to URL: ?v=X2KsttcwC04

Surprised browsers haven’t just removed the address bar, it’s almost useless now.

Re: Safari 15 on Mac OS, a user interface mess

#73

Post by dashwin »

rpastuszak wrote: post #59

Am I the only person who likes this change? Normally, I’d have 4-5 tabs that I keep switching between fairly often and then 20-xx most of the time useless, de facto bookmarks. I use a keyboard shortcut with fuzzy find to pick the right one. Reclaiming the address bar space to cram more tabs on the screen is a marginal gain, at least in my case.

I like this change as well. I don't use tabs at all, I use pinch to show all tabs and switch more often than having to align my mouse along the top of the screen to switch to a tab after reading the text. It's similar to the KonMari method for laying out your things.

Re: Safari 15 on Mac OS, a user interface mess

#74

Post by rubyist5eva »

I vehemently disagree that vertical space used is negligible. Due to standard aspect ratios, the vertical space of the display is at a premium. 1920*1080 means you have 840 less vertical pixels than horizontal - it makes a lot of sense to me to try to reclaim some of that space for actual content instead of widgets.

Re: Safari 15 on Mac OS, a user interface mess

#75

Post by nlitened »

alanbernstein wrote: post #35

Why do browser updates keep fucking with the basic interface design? None of these changes are ever necessary. If designers need to justify their jobs, fine. They should design the interface layout with modular components that can be entirely customized by the user. IMO no user should ever be forced to use designs that are the product of meaningless fads in the design world.

From what I understand, the question is similar to “why do developers keep inventing new frameworks and new programming languages?”

Maybe developers are justifying their jobs. Maybe younger developers are excited about ditching the old crufty frameworks and languages, and exploring something new. Maybe every 10 years they reinvent the old wheels, and older developers are grumpy that the change was not needed in the first place.

Re: Safari 15 on Mac OS, a user interface mess

#77

Post by willyt »

rpastuszak wrote: post #59

Am I the only person who likes this change? Normally, I’d have 4-5 tabs that I keep switching between fairly often and then 20-xx most of the time useless, de facto bookmarks. I use a keyboard shortcut with fuzzy find to pick the right one. Reclaiming the address bar space to cram more tabs on the screen is a marginal gain, at least in my case.

I’ve not tried 15 yet, but I really like the idea of named groups of tabs. I have groups of stuff in windows for things that I’m researching and i hate having to open and look at every minimised window to see if that is the group of tabs I’m looking for as it’s often hard to tell from whatever tab url I left that window at before i minimised to the dock.

Re: Safari 15 on Mac OS, a user interface mess

#78

Post by chadlavi »

I don't mind it on macOS because of keyboard shortcuts, but I desperately want my refresh and share buttons back in the iOS version of Safari. Pull down to refresh is great if you're already at the top of the page, but when you're at the bottom you have to open a menu just to refresh the page?

Overall though I think the new look is fine, and the author is being a real disagreeable crank about the inevitable merging of iOS/macOS aesthetics.

Re: Safari 15 on Mac OS, a user interface mess

#79

Post by chadlavi »

Tempest1981 wrote: post #76

What's the recommended way to move a window that has no remaining title bar? (Honest question, not specific to Safari.) Or am I supposed to only use full-screen windows now?

the entire top bar area can be grabbed to drag the window around. Just click and hold anywhere that isn't a button or tab (including between and just below the tabs).

Re: Safari 15 on Mac OS, a user interface mess

#80

Post by mark_l_watson »

rpastuszak wrote: post #59

Am I the only person who likes this change? Normally, I’d have 4-5 tabs that I keep switching between fairly often and then 20-xx most of the time useless, de facto bookmarks. I use a keyboard shortcut with fuzzy find to pick the right one. Reclaiming the address bar space to cram more tabs on the screen is a marginal gain, at least in my case.

I like it as well, for the same reason: I usually only have 2 to 4 browser tabs open and the new display works very well for users like me. I usually focus on some task or activity, and like to keep my working environment tidy. I have worked with many people who keep a huge number of tabs and perhaps browser windows open - that would bug me, but each to their own…

So, I didn’t like the new interface at first, but now I really like it. On my M1 MacBook Pro I really like the ability to run a few iPadOS apps, and the watch/phone/iPad/laptop handoff experience is also very good. I am very happy with the beta OS releases from last week.

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