Compliments on the new UI

Archives Open Design
#2

Compliments?
Really, seriously?

It is such a usability disaster!

Removing the separators between tabs makes just a row of icons and text.

The floating bubble for the “active” tab makes it just hang there, visually, totally disconnected from the content pane. So clicking it has no link for your brain that it will switch content panels, like all other tabbed UIs do.

The extra row of text in the title bar of tabs just distracts and clutters: when I open 10 tabs from a youtube page I do not need Firefox to put a text in each titlebar that background playback was blocked!! That little icon in the old UI was far sufficient for that and much, much, much less cluttered! It was quick to learn what it meant and did not add clutter because it did not require an extra line in the tab title bar.

Really, I was shocked to see this new UI after updating last night. It’s an instant-hate for me.

I instantly disabled FF auto-updates on my other machine, started switching themes to see if that would restore sanity (alas, no), and today started frantically searching for ways to leave feedback to Mozilla that this needs fixing!
I signed up for a forum account here only to scream from all rooftops that this is a disaster that needs fixing but alas, I’m afraid the UI dev team is deaf to user complaints as I see that the same complaints have already been voiced since April.

9 Likes
#3

Have to disagree here. The new “tabs” don’t make any sense from a UI perspective. Thanks to the drop shadow and disconnected appearance they are now floating ABOVE the current window, implying they’re a separate window or button. Why would they create a separation between the tab and the page it’s associated with?!? That’s the very definition of the word tab, that it’s connected to the thing. This seems like a huge UI blunder IMO, I hope they quickly resolve.

8 Likes
#4

Came here to say this very thing and see you have said it more eloquently than I could. It’s a big UI blunder IMO

3 Likes
#5

To me personally, it’s very easy and simple to tell which tab is which. I personally like the detached tabs more. They aren’t a part of the page, they are tabs. It might just be one of those things that take a while to get use to, for fans of the old UI.

1 Like
#6

It is not an esthetic issue, actually I find that aesthetically some themes look better with the new UI (white, with outlines), and some look worse (dark).

The main issue is usability, specially when you have a lot of tabs opened. Now each tab has a smaller with, which means you see less of the page title. There are also less visual hints which also make it more difficult and stressful to work with. We had the best UI in desktop web browsers, and now we have an usability mess worse than chrome. Sure you can try adapting to it, just like you can try playing a racing simulation game with a keyboard, but the issue is still there.

Personally I downgraded to version 88 and disabled automatic updates. I prefer to have security risks than to submit to this madness, but if they don’t fix it soon I’ll just change to chromium (been using Firefox since the XP era). If I have to submit to some big tech company anyway better be google, there is more support and they have my data anyway.

3 Likes
#7

I’m using Firefox as long as I can remember. Always liked its UI. Recent update feels cheap and looks terrible. I don’t know who has approved that update but management should consider moving this person to another department alongside the designer who created this UI.

5 Likes
Tabs are hard to see!
#8

Another person saying that this UI update is cheap and nasty. I’m a very long time Firefox user but this is close to pushing me to go elsewhere for the same reasons as others have said above.

5 Likes
#9

This new design is so terrible I’m using Chrome to write this.

  1. The rows are tiny now.

  2. THE BIGGEST MESS-UP ON THE NEW DESIGN: The Google websearch takes up half the home page, yet when you type into it, it takes you into the address bar. I like keeping the search separate from the address bar, because the address bar otherwise gets cluttered. But what’s the use of giving the option of having the web search when it isn’t even functional when it takes you to typing into the search bar instead?

  3. The tabs are floating above and makes it hard to view.

Until these are fixed, I’m going to either continue using Chrome or downgrading to the previous version of Firefox.

EDIT:
I downgraded to the last version, but it deleted all my bookmarks. Is there a way to restore it, even if it means going back to the newest version temporarily until I back up all my bookmarks?

I did notice when I was downgrading that it said something about importing bookmarks, but it asked if I wanted to import to Chrome or another, not Firefox. I had closed out of that dialog box and it gave no further options.

EDIT2: It upgraded it again automatically, despite me turning off automatic updates.

4 Likes
#10
  1. Open about:config
  2. Search for proton
  3. Set browser.proton.enabled to false.
3 Likes
#11

I don’t like when Mozilla decides about my browser experience. Minor design updates are OK but this update forces me to accept a lot of changes that I don’t like and never wanted.
I understand that browsers are vulnerable to attacks but I don’t think Mozilla has the authority to decide how my Internet is performing. I have my own security: firewall / vpn and so on.

@Mozilla, please give the people who don’t want the design in 89.0 to downgrade to the 88.0 without losing their profile / personal data.
I hate to say, but this update looks like the latest North Korea press conference:
“Hi great people of Firefox! The big leader has noticed that some people don’t like the new measures we made to your advantage. Do not fear, WE KNOW WHAT YOU WANT.”
Well Firefox, you do not know.

I have FF installed on 10 PC’s, work and private. Firefox was always the best browser, but now I’m thinking of Chrome. I hate Chrome.

4 Likes
#12

I feel you, I also hate the “Proton” UI disaster. But for the time being there are ways to back out of it via the about:config page, search for proton.

3 Likes
#13

Thanks, I have reversed proton to the classic look.

1 Like
#14

The design refresh is not better than before but it is distinctly better than Chrome, Opera, Edge, etc.

I’ll bet anyone that Mozilla will eventually make some stupid change again reverting this yet again after putting the huge effort in doing this abstract redesign.

I personally don’t mind the differences to the tabs toolbar and the icons surrounding it… it’s still short though. I’m always having to create rules to increase the height.

Fundamentally though, the tab bar and it’s functions have remained the same but I agree with others that say the new design does not look right with all themes. The themes designed and created up till now were done so with the previous UI in mind… now with Mozilla trying to change that drastically, it breaks the magic somewhat.

I don’t know who needs to see this but Mozilla, you need to stop changing your UI for Firefox. You are literally the most unstable open source project guilty of changing their UI willy-nilly for just about no reason. Nothing you’ve done has landed valid reasoning when it concerns the user.

Arguably, this would not be an issue at all if you simply allowed extensions to modify the browser UI as was allowed before WebExtensions took over.

When you decide to force a one-size-fits-all approach into something as critical as UI/UX, you will fail because you cannot accurately consider all practical use cases and innate human dependencies. What do we do about the people who are disabled?

Your sole dedication for this stupid refresh has been to simply give your brand a new appeal while still (again) ignoring the legitimate pleas from the people who are letting you succeed in the first place.

You remain fortunate due to your Firefox-specific tools/utilities and recognition, however it’s only a matter of time until you piss off the right amount of people. The seeds of distrust have already been planted and people will continue to criticize your decision until you actually listen to the people who use your software.

Maintainers like the guys who do PaleMoon might not be a dime-a-dozen but they’re out there and they’re hungry. Ever since the awkward leap to Quantum, you’ve been consistently making picky business decisions that have overlooked the user community entirely. You continue to claim that the decisions you do is for our benefit but I have yet to see that land the way you think.

1 Like
#15

New icons don’t disturb me the most, but what I really hate is that now buttons and menus are more separated, specially in COMPACT VIEW, resulting in an uncomfortable experience for people using mouse and keyboard.

Please, give us an option that allows us to have the icons as compact as we used to have.

3 Likes
#16

I totally agree with you, the new GUI is a complete disaster.

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#17

Agree with others, the new GUI is HORRIBLE, WHAT A DISASTER.

Already the previous GUI change was a step in the wrong direction, but this one is completely unworkable!!

5 Likes
#18

Also, before we got a normal window (one that use windows’ APIs) when we closed firefox with several tabs openened and when we clicked on a dowloaded file directly from the the recent downloads menu, what gave a design consistency that no other browser had on windows 7 and 8.1, but now we get those horrible google-like custom windows.
Mozilla, people used firefox because it gave them something the couldn’t get from any other 2021 browser: consistency. It isn’t late to revert these changes.
Please, listen to your users

3 Likes
#19

Where do you do that?

#20

You open about:config by typing literally that in the URL bar.
You then have to confirm that you are really sure you want to do this.

There’s a search bar that’s part of the about:config where you can quickly search for protonin the myriad of under-the-hood settings.

1 Like
#21

I do not normally comment on software because I am generally too busy. However in this case I feel a strong need to make an exception.
The changes to the user interface in Firefox 89 are not to my liking. It strikes me that the developers have made many needless changes and that these have served to irritate existing users. Hardly surprising! For something as ubiquitous as a browser, used by millions of people day in day out, consistency just has to be the principal consideration when changes are being contemplated. I don’t know whether Firefox developers work with anything as clear as a written set of general guidelines that they can run any contemplated change against, but if they don’t, then they should. “Is this change actually needed? and “Will it impact existing users?” should be two of the questions that are always asked!
Some of the earlier respondents have given really clear and well-reasoned statements about the changes to the user interface in version 89 and if Firefox has to remain as a piece of software based firmly in the community then I feel what they have said has to be taken very seriously.

The line of tabs with no bars between them is needless change.
When you right click on an item in the “bookmarks”, the order of actions presented to the user has changed. Needless change.
The back arrow and forward arrow shown on the top left-hand corner of any page are not the same as in previous versions. There is less difference in boldness between an arrow that can be followed and an arrow that cannot be followed. Needless change.

If indeed it is true that one’s bookmarks are lost if one does a reversion to version 88 that I consider this is of near criminal negligence. My bookmarks are a profound investment in my own time. I have thousands of them, they are structured carefully and they are important to me. I feel that Firefox’s decision not to allow this is tantamount to kidnapping users and it really goes against the grain of software supposedly developed by an open community.

It would have been far better if the effort in tinkering with mainly stylistic aspects of the user interface had given way to some useful development of the bookmark facility, which in common with most browsers, Firefox does a fairly Mickey Mouse job in providing facilities. For example

  1. When one alternates between history and bookmarks, the previous position is not remembered.
  2. There could be a facility to record and optionally make visible the date that a bookmark was entered and folders of bookmarks could be sorted by date as well as alphabetically.
  3. The ability to search for a character string in bookmarks is useful but having found it one cannot see which folder it’s in (this is really infuriating). Means to see this would be really useful as it often needed when one is adding bookmarks.

I hope that helps,

Jon

5 Likes