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How to make a better default Firefox UI

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Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#61

Post by Yaina »

I don't know, this post wants to convince readers that there are UX rules from which the theme author created an objectively better Firefox theme, yet most of the changes strike me as personal preferences.

It's obviously well made and maintained, but personally I don't think it's visually very appealing and looks in parts more cluttered. So I think people have different preferences, Firefox went with one design but they also enable support to make these changes, and that's all nice.

But I find the post to a bit silly, in that the author wants to prove that their preferences are empirically right.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#62

Post by mvdtnz »

medstrom wrote: post #56
mvdtnz wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edge has vertical tabs out of the box. And yeah we get it, because vertical tabs people and tree tabs people are the vegans of browser discussions. Please, we get that you like vertical tabs. No need to keep going on about it.

Please, don't perpetuate the myth that vegans "keep going on about things" unless you've seen someone do it in real life.

I have.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#63

Post by qwertox »

Where can I vent about that "upgraded"-page which wants me to click through many dialog boxes of stuff I don't want to know about?

A bigger problem with it is that it unfocuses from the last used/selected tab to this newly added tab so that it's hard to find where I left off, which can get a bit hard when using many nested tabs in Sidebery because the tab gets appended at the very end.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#64

Post by alimbada »

thecosmicfrog wrote: post #10

Is anyone else not at all bothered by the tabs "being buttons"? I feel like I'm the only one sometimes. Are they really that jarring for first-time users?

I never noticed it and even after it's been pointed out it's not an issue. Seems very nitpicky by those for whom it is an issue.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#65

Post by marionauta »

jasonjayr wrote: post #38
tomxor wrote: post #14

The main issue I've had with their new UI is the massive size of everything, it's fair enough for fat finger phone displays but is annoyingly wasteful for any regular sized desktop. This is partly due to the increased padding as per the article, but also because they removed the "compact" UI density option. However you can bring this back under about:config browser.compactmode.show Then go to menu > more tools > cust…

Is there any insight as to why do they mark it as "not supported" ?

It's corporate talk for "if it breaks, don't complain"

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#66

Post by black7375 »

Yaina wrote: post #61

I don't know, this post wants to convince readers that there are UX rules from which the theme author created an objectively better Firefox theme, yet most of the changes strike me as personal preferences. It's obviously well made and maintained, but personally I don't think it's visually very appealing and looks in parts more cluttered. So I think people have different preferences, Firefox went with one design but t…

The UI is definitely a matter of taste, which is why I created the distribution in three different shapes.

However, it was confusing that when muting, there was no indication that it was loading or there was no tab separator.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#67

Post by FirmwareBurner »

yoavm wrote: post #57
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rise and fall reflects user popularity. And Firefox is less popular than ever, with both the new generation who grew up only knowing Safari and Chrome, and also with the old generation who they pissed off by trying to copy the shitty parts of Chrome instead of staying true to what made them popular in the first place such as speed, light weight, and getting out of your way by not charging the UI every 6 weeks.

Sure, maybe everyone left Firefox because of the "what's new" tab and the UI changes. But maybe it's because Safari is default on some devices, and Chrome has the world biggest marketing company behind it.

Of course Google won the browser war mainly because they're World Heavyweight Advertising Moneybags World Champion, but Firefox also did itself no favors by annoying it's old and faithful userbase with often, unnecessary and unpopular UI changes a while ago.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#68

Post by AlienRobot »

black7375 wrote: post #2

I'm the author of Lepton, a popular theme for Firefox. You can see how I made various decisions from my perspective and how I improved on some of Mozilla's less-than-stellar decisions. I think that might explain how we improved it and made it popular. This article is part of a series. - https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix/wiki/%5BArticle%...

That's very interesting, specially that telemetry is being used to justify removing interface items. In my opinion the address bar is so incredibly large you could put 10 buttons in there and you would still have space, so I can't imagine a reason to bother removing things besides wanting to remove everything until there is nothing you can remove left.

You seem to be knowledgeable about UI/UX. May I ask you a question? I have a theory that monochrome icons are worse than colored icons. Do you know if there are studies about this or if there's any consensus? Thanks in advance.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#69

Post by prmoustache »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #29
hobs wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn that new tab must pop up for me like... once a month! What a distraction! I guess giving all my data to Google is probably worth it.

Joke all you want but Firefox's market share agrees with me as most users value convenience above all else. At least Google knows not to be intrusive and not fuck with the UI so often. Chrome looks almost exactly like it did over 10 years ago. Why can't Firefox imitate that quality of life feature? It's not that hard to not change shit at the surface. They've been bleeding market share for years including faithful lo…

> Chrome looks almost exactly like it did over 10 years ago.

I suggest you look for screenshot of Google Chrome in 2008.

Market share is what it is because google is pre installed in the majority of the mobile market, that firefox had bad performance rep in some areas, and that google is a synonym of internet in the mouth of the majority of people nowadays the same way explorer was a few decades ago.

Most people don't care about those UI changes.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#70

Post by pxoe »

the real UI/UX nightmare of firefox is the legacy cruft. it's like every single basic browser function opens in it's own kind of a different view.

settings - browser tab. history - a sidebar. actually that's just when you hit ctrl+h, manage history? ctrl+shift+h? that's a separate window. bookmarks, downloads - also that window. (that Library window that seems to be dragged up all the way from firefox 3/4.) downloads have their own little popup, but ctrl+j and manage downloads open that window. bookmarks - ctrl+shift+o opens that window, but ctrl+b opens a sidebar. profiles? just kidding, there isn't really a user-facing user-usable profile function, but there is a what looks like a legacy interface hidden at about:profiles. passwords? browser tab, with it's own look that doesn't really correspond to anything.

there's one bit of cohesion - settings and addons are both browser tabs and even have links to each other. everything else, an absolute mish mash of browser tabs, windows, sidebars, popouts, different uis everywhere. and it's been a mess like this for a while, and seems like it will be like that for a while still, because there is just no singular vision and no real effort to straighten that out.

they added a firefox view thing recently - and it just seems to be a yet another thing that piles on to those different uis with a yet another different ui. (it has history there, so there's like three different ways to view history, which is at least one too much.) one could guess that maaaybe they are trying to fix it with that, and maybe port functionality from Library window to View tab, but at this point in time, it's just adding to the mess.

to a degree this is an exaggeration, cause well, other browsers have recently taken a liking to sidebars and have their popups and menu things as well. but the real sticking out thing is (legacy? it looks legacy) Library window that pops up here and there, and how that contrasts with some functions (settings, addons, passwords) that open in a browser tab. it ends up making opening browser functions somewhat unpredictable as to what kind of thing it'd open, definitely so at first and with just a persisting feeling of 'everything opens up differently just because'. you get used to it, but it's still a mess.

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