Please don't remove the lines between tabs

Firefox Development
#1

I appreciate all the hard work that goes into Firefox, and I know design changes receive lots of deliberation. I am therefore a little confused by the upcoming removal of lines between tabs in the Photon redesign (image taken from a Bugzilla attachment):

image
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And for comparison, the current design: image
Without the lines, the tabs seem to blur together and it gets a lot more difficult for me to use. I have been using and advocating for the use of Firefox for over ten years, and it is hard for me to understand why such a change would be made. Would it be possible for anyone to link to some discussions or design justifications about this change? Thank you.

13 Likes
#2

Agree the tabs look unfinished and should have outlines.The active tab seems to be just floating in there not being a part of anything.

5 Likes
#3

+1. It’s much harder to read a bunch of tabs now, especially for runs of tabs without favicons. It’s just text that might include spaces, slightly larger space, more text that might include spaces, slightly larger space, repeat. If tab titles aren’t truncated, then you can’t even rely on the fade out to help determine where a tab ends. Bars are an intuitive way to separate similar objects.

3 Likes
#4

New tabs UI is at least unfinished, you can’t tell when a tab ends and another begins
immagine

#5

While the rest of UI changes that came with Proton seem like something one can get used too, removal of lines between tabs is not just a matter of aesthetics - it’s a matter of accessibility. My eyes strain at the attempt to distinguish the new tabs, and it is really difficult to find the one I am looking for - which I never encountered before, using many versions of many browsers.

For now, I turned it off in about:config. Really hoping this will be addressed in the next version.

2 Likes
#6

Also turned it off here, the lack of separation is the biggest problem with it. The fact its also gone transparent instead of solid colour like the rest of the browser has not helped too. Definitely an ‘accessibility’ issue for those that need the clearer tabs and text.

2 Likes
#7

I love Firefox and wouldn’t use any other browser…but the DUMBEST DUMBEST DUMBEST thing Firefox ever did was to remove the line separating the tabs in version 89!

Many of us have dozens of tabs open and need to rapidly parse their contents…but now all the tabs blend together. Boo…and and a big two thumbs down (and LOTS of frowny faces).

Please please please restore the ability to have tab separations be made visible.

Thank you!

3 Likes
#8

I have to agree the latest theme is terrible for me, when your eyes aren´t the best the tabs are a blur. The new colour theme is terrible. Please give us people with accessibility problems an option to go back to the old way in version 88

3 Likes
#9

You can set about:config proton stuff to false to get the old UI back, but I hear it’s getting removed at some point? I’ve turned off updating for FireFox for this one, which makes me sad.

2 Likes
#10

Which about:config option is that? Please help me :frowning:

#11

I hate these visual updates too and despite complaints in this thread going back to April, no change and no reaction from the Firefox development team! :angry:

What use is feedback from users then?

Removing the lines between tabs is a bad idea, and disconnecting the tab itself from the window pane contents, making it floating, is another bad idea. That’s really just poor UI design.

The extra info in the tab-bar below the title is not needed either. It just clutters up an already busy area of screen real-estate.

3 Likes
#12

OK. Silly me. Knowing this is called “Proton” it wasn’t that hard to find it.

#13

Unfortunately disabling “proton” in about:config does not fix this usability hit. Please, Mozilla, revert to drawing a line between tabs so the eye can separate them, or at least provide an obvious Preference setting (NOT buried in about:config) to customize this.