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Firefox Release 89.0

mozilla.org

421–430 of 487 posts

Re: Firefox Release 89.0

#421
post #382

I love Firefox ethos, Firefox keeps redesigning itself over and over, and this time, for the worse. I have a 400 LOC userChrome.css file because the new redesign was barely usable since Firefox beta received this makeover. - There is no tab contrast, and very difficult to tell tabs apart. Made worse on sides without Favicons. - I loved the mic/speaker icon when a tab is playing/listening audio. They had to make it TW…

I use the Tree Style Tabs extension [0], which took some getting used to but is miles better for tab navigation.

Vertical tab sidebar means you can see more tabs at a time, the collapsible tree means you can organize them into logical groups, and it's super customizable.

Tab contrast and audio icons are identical to the way they were in FF 88.0 for me.

[0] https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/

Re: Firefox Release 89.0

#422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your day to day experience isn't necessarily the same as everyone else's. It hasn't been long since "View page info" was confined to a hidden menu and all context menu labels were changed for absolutely no reason.

My issue with the context menu is "Search [selection] with Google" is in the middle of the context menu, after "Print selection" and "Take screenshot". Why? I cannot be the only one that uses that functionality 100 times a day at least, and it's so not conveniently placed I used to misclick "View selection source" instead a dozen times a day, and now I'll be taking screenshots or opening the print dialog by mistake.…

It's awful. "Search with Google" is actually the only reason I ever use the context menu.

Copy? Keyboard/mouse buttons for that.

Select All? Why would I want to do that when I just made a selection?

Print Selection? How common can that actually be, to justify being positions above "search the internet for this thing"??

Take screenshot???? Really??

Why does "Inspect Accessibility Properties" get real estate there? That's a legitimate question.

Re: Firefox Release 89.0

#423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is that even a metric for a browser UI? Because they need to know where to focus their efforts.

I'm not familiar with how Firefox UI works. Would it require a non-trivial amount of work to maintain a compact theme? I'm assuming it's some form of style sheet and they share assets like icons.

A developer said the compact theme isn't much work as long as they have to maintain the touch theme.

Re: Firefox Release 89.0

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering how complex the web is, and how technologically complicated a browser needs to be regardless of UX, a car analogy is perhaps more appropriate; and you do have '21 models of cars.

Yet none of these new model cars re-arrange the pedals. They'll change the style of the brake lights, the trim, etc, but the basic "4 wheels, front two steer, wheel turns towards the direction you want to steer, brake, gas pedal" is fixed. But with software (including Firefox) even the operational aspects change, not just the cosmetics.

But the basic way you navigate the web doesn't change much either; there's still the address bar, back button, and html and JavaScript.

And you're underrepresenting how much change can happen for a given model: over decades the Honda Civic has gone from manual to continuously variable transmission, and entirely different chassis, etc. as technology and safety expectations evolve, and it's no exception.

Re: Firefox Release 89.0

#426
post #24

> "We’ve redesigned and modernized the core experience to be cleaner, more inviting, and easier to use." Why does the UI change with every single Firefox release? I find myself having to re-adjust every time a new update is shipped. What's wrong with having a consistent experience that survives for more than 6 months? It's just a URL bar, and a bunch of tabs. Just leave it be already.

The UX community seems to value rather than avoid breaking changes, and it's infuriating. Novelty and surprise are rarely usability virtues.

UX and designers don’t initiate changes. That is driven by product managers who define features, ask for new designs, review options and choose the final design.

The same can be said for developers. Few devs can just make arbitrary changes to an application. They take requirements, produce implementations, and go through review and revision.

Re: Firefox Release 89.0

#427

Does anyone feel that this new UI brings notable improvement? I don't think it is much worse, other than taking some extra vertical space but for the most part my reaction is "meh". I feel like these resources could have been spent much better in other parts of the browser. Am I missing some reason why this is worth the investment?

I've been using it for a while now with Firefox developer edition and I can't figure out a reason why it was done. Does it give a new look? Sure, but I too don't know if anything was made better because of it.

Many of these changes are made not to improve some actual user grievance but merely to satisfy designer egos or product managers' needs to remain employed.

Simply: it's make-work.

Re: Firefox Release 89.0

#428
post #379

I'm very excited to try this out on Android! Is there anybody else out there using Firefox Android for long-running web apps like Twitter? For me FF crashes a few times a day. Crashing so hard that my whole phone locks up for 10-30 seconds. Even the power button doesn't do anything.

I use Android to check Twitter. Works fine for me, despite some annoyances, but no crashes like the one you described.

Interesting. Since I'm using a stock Pixel 3a, I figured it must be Firefox. But I'll try it on another phone to see if it's as bad there. Thanks!

Re: Firefox Release 89.0

#429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> more info on tabs now, e.g. when a tab is playing audio. That was present for a few versions now. Playing tabs had the audio icon which could be used to mute/unmute.

True - my only gripe with it is that video icon is in the same place - if I have 5 YouTube tabs, 1 playing, that one with audio icon is very hard to distinguish from the other 4 with video icons. Not sure if video icon is useful to some people at all, especially since it's shown even if video is not actively playing.

[deleted]

Re: Firefox Release 89.0

#430
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, Microsoft has given up trying on Windows as well. Every Microsoft application feels different and MS Teams even ignores the Windows notification infrastructure.

2 wrongs don't make a right.

There is no definite native UI on Windows. If you can point me to one, I might believe you but even the settings menus on Windows use different UIs.
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