Windows 7 & Firefox 4.0 GUI Redesign
In mid 2009 we saw the first indications that Mozilla were planning a major redesign of it’s browsers Graphical User Interface for the next major Firefox update – 4.0. Mozilla are redesigning Firefox for Windows and the new theme that their playing around with is very similar to Windows 7.
A Mozilla developer has shared some newly updated mockups and information regarding the new look. On his personal blog, Chromatic Pixel,( at the time of writing, this site appears to be down – view a cached version here ) Stephen Horlander shares plenty of information, ranging from the design change itself, to the reasons behind the changes.
One of the major focuses of the new UI is the App button. The Mozilla devs are playing around with lots of new ideas, ( see below ) all of them aim for the same things, simplicity, and space saving. Stephen Horlander said that this new approach to this app button would be similar to the single menu approach taken by Windows 7 native applications (Paint, WordPad) and by MS Office.
3.5-4.0-Comparison
The UX team feels this approach has several advantages over the previous idea:
- It is less complex
- Takes up less space
- Instead of two potentially conflicting locations for menu items, there is now only one unified location
- Can be placed in the upper left analogous to the Menubar paradigm it is replacing
- Similar to the far more ubiquitous Office 2008/2010 + Windows 7 application menu
- Reduces clutter on the Navigation Toolbar
- It also creates a more flexible and rich canvas for perhaps doing some decidedly non-menu-esque things
Another feature they are thinking of using is the use of text instead of an icon on the button, like Office 2010.
Firefox 4.0 Mock Ups
They aim to give Firefox 4.0 a similar look and feel to the rest of Windows 7, making it more user friendly and more recognisable.
Stephen noted that these GUI updates would not be coming to Firefox 3.7 as they wouldn’t be ready in time, instead they aim to deliver them in Firefox 4.0.
The new layout certainly does save a fair bit of space compared to the current Firefox 3.5 layout, what do you think about it? Will it be more user friendly if it’s GUI is similar to Windows 7?
Let us know in the comments
Sources:
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Category: Discussion, Windows 7 News
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[...] Robert B wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt In mid 2009 we saw the first indications that Mozilla were planning a major redesign of it’s browsers Graphical User Interface for the next major Firefox update – 4.0. Mozilla are redesigning Firefox for Windows and the new theme that their playing around with is very similar to Windows 7. A Mozilla developer has shared some newly updated mockups and information regarding the new look. On his personal blog, Chromatic Pixel,( at the time of writing, this site appears to be down – view a cached version here ) Stephen Horlander shares plenty of information, ranging from the design change itself, to the reasons behind the changes. One of the major focuses of the new UI is the App button. The Mozilla devs are playing around with lots of new ideas, ( see below ) all of them aim for the same things, simplicity, and space saving. Stephen Horlander said that this new […] [...]