Mozilla has embarked on yet another redesign for Firefox, codenamed "Nova," and here is your first look at what it could look like when it releases.

I hope it’s just a joke

  • jwt@programming.dev
    0·
    10 days ago

    I’m thoroughly convinced UI designers are under the impression we cut ourselves on sharp corners.

    • Otter@lemmy.ca
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      10 days ago

      I like it too 😅 Although I’d prefer to be able to reduce the spacing as much as possible

      • ᥫ᭡ 𐑖ミꪜᴵ𝔦 ᥫ᭡@feddit.org
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        10 days ago

        speaking of spacing, here’s one of the main reasons I’m still using Firefox, if that goes away, I’ll stop using it altogether, I’m not a grandpa to deserve all that spacing!

        • Otter@lemmy.ca
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          10 days ago

          I wasn’t that interested in rounded corners for a while, but I do see some value in it now. When it’s done well, the UI becomes more usable and intuitive. The problem is when a lot of GUIs do it poorly in order to be trendy.

          It helps with the grouping of visual elements for one, for Gestalt reasons

          Zen browser has iterated to something pretty good now: https://zen-browser.app/

          The Firefox screenshot has a few issues imo. The floating task bar doesn’t make sense to me, since that’s a core part of the program. The other items are either attached or contained within it, it shouldn’t be isolated off like that. Otherwise yea, too much wasted space

          • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
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            9 days ago

            Ah, no, the “taskbar” is Tree Style Tabs, usually full of tabs. But screenshoting that here, i could as well post my browsing history.

            Or you do mean the “Awesomebar”. But then i don’t get what you mean, since i’ve just removed the borders from the urlbox & co (the reverse of them being isolated).

            • Otter@lemmy.ca
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              9 days ago

              Ah sorry I meant the screenshots from the article, I should have specified.

              I like yours. Best for me would be something with that layout and spacing, and modern design elements

    • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
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      10 days ago

      I’m seeing this trend towards rounded corners in quite a few places, though. Certainly feels like early days of a larger design trend…

      • BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.com
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        10 days ago

        Yes, my first thought went to JetBrains IDEs recent “Islands” redesign, but it somehow looks better in dark mode than it does in these mockups.

  • Majestic@lemmy.ml
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    10 days ago

    No thank you. I like Firefox the way it is. I hate big changes for the sake of designers keeping their jobs changing my tools and workflow and making things ugly.

  • ghost_laptop@lemmy.ml
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    10 days ago

    I really like it, I feel like it fixes some of the issues with groups and tabs looking a bit weird currently. Lol, I always like Firefox redesigns and really cannot understand how people go apeshit when that happens. I swear some people would use NetScape GUI if they could.

    • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
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      10 days ago

      All 10 years or so is fine. General design (what people are used to) does change. But all 3 years, is annoying.

        • catscape@lemmy.ml
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          10 days ago

          no, but it almost is

          it’s a custom build of seamonkey using pale moon’s UXP engine

          • hexagonwin@lemmy.today
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            10 days ago

            is this iceape-uxp or something? would appreciate if you share some links or info :) seamonkey seems to have a lot of compatibility issues lately, i have to use firefox for most stuff these days :(

            the tab bar on the top also looks pretty interesting, i don’t think i can do that on seamonkey…

            • catscape@lemmy.ml
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              10 days ago

              it’s an updated fork i’m working on. i don’t have much to share yet because it’s still a WIP but it’ll be available here in the future

        • catscape@lemmy.ml
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          10 days ago

          yes and yes

          it’s a custom build of seamonkey (the continuation of the mozilla suite/classic netscape) using pale moon’s goanna engine.

          works well enough for most sites, the browser itself is super modular and useful (it has a really strong addon ecosystem courtesy of seamonkey and pale moon’s addon libraries respectively), and honestly i just enjoy utilitarian retro UX

        • catscape@lemmy.ml
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          10 days ago

          firefox’s photon theme uses the same amount of space and that’s without the menubar enabled ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

          • TheUnicornOfPerfidy@feddit.ukEnglish
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            10 days ago

            But the space isn’t wasted. Its used for greater legibility and generally improved accessibility and UX. But also, I dont think you’re right 🤔

            People have different tastes of course. Mine are dictated by a reading disability amongst other things.

            • catscape@lemmy.ml
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              10 days ago

              But also, I dont think you’re right i am right

              i respect the need for accessibility, but i don’t like not having options. if your vertical resolution is lower than 1080 going into about:config and re-enabling the deprecated compact mode is almost a necessity, and who knows how long that’s going to last.

              the netscape theme does use a lot of space by default, but importantly, it doesn’t have to. text below icons can be turned off, icon size can be reduced, toolbars can be merged, etc. and if it’s still too much, this browser a complete theme library, which was something firefox killed off years ago.

              • TheUnicornOfPerfidy@feddit.ukEnglish
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                10 days ago

                Hey. You’ve cut a whole extra bar off the top of the Netscape theme! 😆 Still it is interesting to me that they’re pretty equivalent. Personal I’d find the tabs particularly annoying, but like I said, people have different tastes.

                I wonder why compact mode was deprecated. Are there still many devices out there with a significantly less than 1080 screens? Steam Decks I guess?

              • unwarlikeExtortion@lemmy.ml
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                10 days ago

                But the space isn’t wasted. Its used for greater legibility and generally improved accessibility and UX.

                Just looking at the photo you provided, OP’s words fall flat.

                I know people are expected to understand the one and only design language currently in use (with its bajillion little dialects).

                Even this is the same inherent lanuguage. “Home”, “Back”, “Forward”, “Address bar”, etc.

                It’s the same exact stuff, just displayed differently.

                But the space isn’t wasted. Its used for greater legibility and generally improved accessibility and UX.

                But whatexactly makes the Netscape UI “inaccessible”?

                The fact that it has large buttons? The fact that the buttons are realistic drawings, and not abstract lines? The fact that the buttons are labeled?

                If anything, the older UI is more accessible.

                Someone who doesn’t know how to use either UI is bound to prefer the second one. Because it is more accessible.

                There are two types of accessibility I can think of when dealing with UI: accessibility to stuff like screen readers, and accesibility to new (as in never used a computer before) users.

                The Netscape UI is better in both regards: it doesn’t have dropdowns (which are quite comolex to model for screen readers, and are usually full of jank). The old UI also has helpful captions for the actions. You know, the things the screen reader reads to the user. In the new Firefox, they may become “Left Arrow” if accessibility is an afterthought and generic alt text is used. Modern UI designers heading the project surely won’t bother with screen readers too much anyway.

                So let me ask again: Which of these is more accessible, and to whom?

      • morto@piefed.socialEnglish
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        10 days ago

        I’d use it if it provided blazing fast performance. For me, usability and performance beats any nice looks

    • GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml
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      10 days ago

      While I agree overall it looks nice, I hate gaps and rounded corners. I’m sick of wasted space. And I’m sick of rounded corners.

      I swear some people would use NetScape GUI if they could.

      Now that would actually be nice!!

      • ghost_laptop@lemmy.ml
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        10 days ago

        i think the space is the same but its just camouflaged to look like it’s wasted, maybe we should count the pixels tho

        • ltxrtquq@lemmy.mlEnglish
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          10 days ago

          I don’t think pixel count would be a fair comparison for a 30 year old browser. You used to actually be able to count all the pixels back then.

    • solrize@lemmy.ml
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      10 days ago

      Mostly we want them to make the browser itself not suck before worrying about cosmetics.

  • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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    10 days ago

    Ultimately I just need Firefox to always support about:config, manifest v2 compatibility, and userChrome.css and userContent.css.

    That said, usually changes like these break my extremely minimal redesign and configs I have on my desktop. So… boo, Mozilla, boo…

    • unwarlikeExtortion@lemmy.ml
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      10 days ago

      Ultimately I just need Firefox to always support about:config, manifest v2 compatibility, and userChrome.css and userContent.css.

      Isn’t userchrome.cc already deprecated for quite some time?

      • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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        9 days ago

        It’d be news to me, I’ve used the same userChrome.css and userContent.css for years now and I keep my Gentoo Linux desktop up to date with weekly updates, so the Firefox I’m using is confirmed to be the latest version.

        Additionally, a quick search on ddg reveals no recent mentions nor plans for deprecation of the feature as far as I can tell.

    • flameleaf@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      userContent.css is absolutely essential for me. I use that to limit the size of images on Thunderbird.

  • WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    The mobile client and fork I use both have that design language now. It’s a little cutesy for me and I dislike having to click twice to get the full menu but otherwise no complaints.

  • LiveLM@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    Firefox hasn’t looked good since they changed “Photon” for “Proton” with those awful floating tabs. Thank god for Zen Browser.