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The future Firefox UI

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Re: The future Firefox UI

#101

Post by wmf »

dpark wrote: post #95
Silhouette wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I don't like about these Chrome UI's is that they don't respect my OS settings Hear, hear. On our new serious workstation, we mostly run a variety of developer tools and browsers, some basic office software, various graphics/DTP/modelling stuff from companies like Adobe and Autodesk, and a bunch of tools to automate things and join the dots. On a quick look, exactly none of the major products there uses the st…

> I wish Microsoft would define a robust, standardised set of UI conventions again, based on usability rather than flashy stuff, and then at least stick to it themselves instead of inventing a whole new bunch of tricks for every new version of Office, IE, Visual Studio and so on. This, to me, is one the biggest pluses for Macs at this point. Microsoft keeps trying to reinvent the GUI, but they don't get rid of the ol…

Unfortunately the Delicious Generation (including some of its adherents inside Apple) threw out the HIG. And now we have the weird iOS-OS X hybrid that is Lion.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#102

Post by dpark »

wmf wrote: post #101
dpark wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wish Microsoft would define a robust, standardised set of UI conventions again, based on usability rather than flashy stuff, and then at least stick to it themselves instead of inventing a whole new bunch of tricks for every new version of Office, IE, Visual Studio and so on. This, to me, is one the biggest pluses for Macs at this point. Microsoft keeps trying to reinvent the GUI, but they don't get rid of the ol…

Unfortunately the Delicious Generation (including some of its adherents inside Apple) threw out the HIG. And now we have the weird iOS-OS X hybrid that is Lion.

I haven't used Lion yet, but from what I've seen, it's still far more consistent than Windows.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#103

Post by 51Cards »

drgath wrote: post #66
51Cards wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And for me the Chrome UI is the primary reason I can't stand Chrome and stay with FF. Whatever they do to the default layout in FF doesn't bother me, just keep giving me the option to put it back the way I like it. So far, so good... other than needing a plug-in now to get a bottom status bar.

You don't need an add-on to get the status bar back. Just enable it: View > Toolbars > Add-on Bar.

True, Status bar, no. Status label on the bottom bar, yes.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#104

Post by hnbla »

Silhouette wrote: post #74
blauwbilgorgel wrote: post #61

What I don't like about these Chrome UI's is that they don't respect my OS settings. I am on Windows 7 with the classic NT skin. iTunes and Chrome are one of the few programs that don't respect this skin. While in this case it is simple user preference, in other cases it could mean an accessibility concern, or even give room to malicious attacks: With all these custom browser skins, pop-ups over the HTML body (link d…

> What I don't like about these Chrome UI's is that they don't respect my OS settings Hear, hear. On our new serious workstation, we mostly run a variety of developer tools and browsers, some basic office software, various graphics/DTP/modelling stuff from companies like Adobe and Autodesk, and a bunch of tools to automate things and join the dots. On a quick look, exactly none of the major products there uses the st…

You forgot one point, every application reinventing tabbed windows. I don't know if microsoft tried to solve this or not with the new superbar in windows 7 but if they did they failed big time. One important reason is that they forgot a standardized alt-tab-within-application hotkey.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#105

Post by kstenerud »

sp332 wrote: post #64
kstenerud wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that chrome's version obscures the navigation links in a lot of websites, which means you have to be quick to point and click in order to be able to navigate before the popup info tooltip blocks your click.

That doesn't happen (anymore?), because the popup will move out of the way of your cursor if you get close.

It happens to me all the time when I use Review Board on a big commit (which spans multiple pages). Just had it happen now on the latest Chrome.

I have to move the mouse around and play dodge-the-tooltip and hope I get lucky.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#106

Post by MatthewPhillips »

gkanai wrote: post #67
yaix wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be faster than Chrom(ium) with regards to start up speed and JS execution. I abandoned FF after having used it since it was "Phoenix 0.1", because it had become slow and bloated, like NN had been before. Would love to switch back, but not if I can open 5 Chromium instances in the same time it takes to open one FF window.

Have you tried a new profile? A long-time user will end up with a really crufty Firefox profile. Sync will move all your data to a new profile quickly and you can see what a new profile in Firefox is like.

I don't use Firefox at all, but I just did some testing and the first time I started Firefox it took about 3 seconds to show its window. Subsequent starts got faster but always took at least a second and half. Chrome starts before I can say "one".

Re: The future Firefox UI

#107

Post by MatthewPhillips »

blauwbilgorgel wrote: post #61

What I don't like about these Chrome UI's is that they don't respect my OS settings. I am on Windows 7 with the classic NT skin. iTunes and Chrome are one of the few programs that don't respect this skin. While in this case it is simple user preference, in other cases it could mean an accessibility concern, or even give room to malicious attacks: With all these custom browser skins, pop-ups over the HTML body (link d…

That's because you mistakenly think Chrome is a Windows app, a Mac app, and a Linux app. It's not. It's an operating system that runs on top of those. They aren't going to, and shouldn't, waste their time trying to mimic UI decisions for various OSes. They aren't trying to be like Seesmic or Evernote (meaning, they aren't trying to be an "app").

Re: The future Firefox UI

#108

Post by dpark »

aberkowitz wrote: post #97
pbreit wrote: post #17

Why has Firefox been so slow to slim down its UI? The back button is still way too big and the button colors not subtle enough. A browser should disappear into the background to some extent. It's just a window into the interwebs after all.

The back button is intentionally bigger as it is one of the most used buttons in a browser. In accordance with Fitt's law, the size allows a user to get to it quicker than a smaller button.

I understand the logic of the bigger back button, but I think it is a poor choice. It's rather awkward-looking, but more importantly it causes the entire toolbar to be several pixels taller. It's an amazing waste of space.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#109

Post by MatthewPhillips »

paulrouget wrote: post #83
mchusma wrote: post #76

The final design was awesome, just get rid of the home button and it will be even better. I can't remember the last time I used that button.

It's not the home button but the home tab: http://blog.mozilla.com/faaborg/2011/06/10/home-tab-and-new-...

I love that design, makes me really excited about the future of Firefox. They're finally started to catch up with Chrome in regards to speed of innovation.
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