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batata
Strollin' around
Status: In review

The latest controversial proton redesign added new two lines tabs, however it haven't been put to great use.

I think we can do better and at the same time bring back the compact mode by merging the search bar and the tab bar.

00.png

While we put the url directly into the tabs, other icons could go in the tool bar, making a better use of the window surface.

01.png

The url is a clickable text area

02.png

and expands to show the full search bar when we start typing.

03.png

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UPDATE 1

To elaborate a bit more on my original idea

  • We could put the hamburger button on the left because it looks a bit weird next to the reduce button (at least on windows)
  • The same way the download icon is hidden unless we're downloading we could hide the back and forward buttons unless there's something in the history
  • The refresh and fav button could be on the tab (and visible only on hover maybe ?)
  • The many icons that can appear on the left of the address bar could be fused all together in one single tabbed panel. The displayed icon would change based on priority :
    Sans titre.png
    (btw the Extension label could be removed and only show the extension name)

Which gives an even slicker look :

99.png

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UPDATE 2

With larger active tab and refresh/fav icons.

With many tabs it could look like this :

99.png

I also added the sound indicator icon instead of the "Playing" text (this icon is already used on pinned tabs).

And since the Lock icon is not always visible with my unique icon idea I talked earlier I though we could color code the domain, green = secured, red = not secured. 🤔

80 Comments
nirbok085
New member

Please bring back the compact option for all menus in the menu bar: File, Edit, View, History, Bookmarks, Tools, Help.

Davecn
New member

I've been using Waterfox for a few months now out of frustration with the large gaps between bookmarks in Firefox. Waterfox seems exactly the same except without the stupid (to a PC user anyway) menu gaps. Why oh why dosen't Firefox make this optional?

brochard
Making moves

Such a cool concept to think about, at first glance the first problems I have with it are
- Too little horizontal space if you have more than 3 tabs

- Too little horizontal space if you have multiple extensions

- No easy access to the search bar

- the domain name isn't very obvious (usually used to prevent phishing)

- the URL is where the sound indicator is right now, so one of them has to move

(I think it would work well with vertical tabs but it's not my thing)

With improvements I'm sure it could go somewhere tho

steel835
Familiar face

tabs still could hide the url (i wish the address bar could do that and show address on hover, because titles are too lengthy for tabs nowadays. Yandex Browser does that, looks nice)

Looks like unified tab strip in Safari, and I kinda like it https://9to5mac.com/2021/11/05/safari-in-macos-monterey-whats-new-how-it-works/. Though I'm not sure that current tab should look like an addressbar, the fact that it expands to an address bar on click when it's active is enough for me.

batata
Strollin' around

@brochard

The number of visible tabs depends on the user, how many icons/extensions are shown ? do you browse windowed or fullscreen ? what's your screen res ? on a 4k display there’s plenty of space !

I probably didn't think about all the use cases but for the domain name we could set a min width on the active tab to have it always visible, for the sound indicator we could place the 🔊 icon below the favicon.

Ultimately the compact mode could just be optional, also the personal bar would still be a thing and could be used to declutter the tab bar for those who prefer it that way, it would remain customizable.

 

@steel835 

Yeah I got some inspiration from safari, combined with the fact that firefox tabs can have two lines of text I think it can be great.

qwertyzxcvbnm
New member

I agree that I would like the small spacing of pull down menus to be user adjustable.   How hard can it be to let the user have control of the font size on the menus and of the spacing between menu items?   I have used firefox for years and hated it when the space got so big.   just let us set the menu font size and spacing for ourselves.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Please put compact size back. I activated it by goin into about:config.

why the hell would you remove that option??

bigjsteele
New member

Give me back my compact spacing

For god's sake why do you think i want to waste all that screen space?  why do you think you know how each individual user prefers to function?  Stop forcing how YOU THINK we should want to work on us when you have no clue about how we actually want things to function efficiently.   This is pretty much the last straw with your browser I'm done.

jscher2000
Leader

Firefox has a hidden compact density mode that applies to toolbar height and the spacing of specific panel-style menus (such as the main menu and the bookmarks toolbar drop-downs). If you ever come back to Firefox, you could check it out.

https://support.mozilla.org/kb/compact-mode-workaround-firefox

Andrew
New member

The spacing issue is just one manifestation of a widespread problem, name the tailoring of UIs to Smartphones. What's needed is a reset of the UI for Windows.

canuck617
New member

This work around is not working.

Every time there is an update, there is some kind of monumental useless change.

Why in gods name would someone want double spacing in their drop down menu's so that one has to scroll an extra few miles for something that needed NO CHANGE to begin with!

I am so sick and tired of all these idiotic changes, if it AIN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT..!

It's not that hard...

 

 

 

Anonymous
Not applicable

this idea is amazing

Anonymous
Not applicable

@batata @steel835 @brochard @everyone Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee look at this idea Hi all! I have this idea: "compact bookmark"... if have new-compact-design:

compact_bookmark.png

Anonymous
Not applicable

I have a revolutionary idea. Based on the compact design for Mozilla Firefox. Here:

redesign1_firefox_compact.png

Key points of this idea:

  1. There is no toolbar. This toolbar is hidden, it only appears when the user clicks on the tab. If the user does not click on the tab, the toolbar will not appear.
  2. This is super interesting, most users have never used a computer in their lives, only mobile. If this is true, it would be worthwhile to have a compact design for Firefox, as it would be very important to have that part of mobile users using Firefox. This is the first thing the user sees:

ideafirefoxcompact2.png

Notes

  1. This allows for greater productivity.
  2. In addition to letting mobile users know how to use Firefox.
  3. This is great for users' health, it doesn't strain the eyes.
  4. Browsers like Safari and Minimal have a compact concept. However Safari and Minimal browser were still not as good as Mozilla Firefox in terms of ui/ux proposed here.
  5. As I said before, if the user clicks on the tab, the toolbar appears below.

user navigation

  1. Normal view: Toolbar retracted.
  2. Hover over the bar - Toolbar uncovered
  3. Address bar on focus (Click on tab or open a New Tab - toolbar extended)

For software developers - Functional requirement:

  1. Option to customize the toolbar display.
  2. Note: Customizing the toolbar includes the option to show or not show the Toolbar.

References

  1. https://www.apple.com/br/safari/
  2. https://minbrowser.org/
  3. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/alternative-chromium-browsers/
  4. I'm not promoting another browser like Safari, MinBrowser when leaving the reference link, I'm just referencing to you guys understand what I'm talking about
steel835
Familiar face

Not sure about boosting productivity or making it easier for mobile users, since it's about saving space trading off more clicks + this doesn't quite look like mobile. However, showing lower toolbar on hover is an interesting idea.

I tried to imagine a true compact mode though, almost as in @batata idea, here's what I imagined (sorry for russian on the screenshots, but I think the idea is clear w/o needing to understand the language):

steel835_0-1650668985968.png
Second level of toolbar is not displayed, but tab-bar now contains the most important buttons (forward button can auto-hide to save space). Other buttons, like bookmark, reader mode, extension buttons are hidden under a menu button.

I was also thinking about possibility that the tab bar could be customizable just as the lower toolbar (like moving buttons, tab strip element, etc) - that would be beyond awesome - users could put some additional buttons that they need there. Near app menu button, for example.

Tabs can use the second level label to show a hint on how to open the addressbar: shown always on active new tabs and on hover for tabs that aren't new. If user double-clicks the active tab (or once-clicks, based on config setting, I just see that users can click it to focus on the window, and not expect to see something else happening) the address bar shows on top of the tab-strip. Tabs are visible underneath it, but semi-transparent - as a hint to user that they can close the address bar by clicking back on the tabs:

steel835_2-1650669804615.png

What I didn't solve here are the encryption lock and tracker shield buttons - they don't belong on tabs or near them (compact mode is compact), could also end up in the app menu of course, but the lock is the important icon that shows whether the connection is safe, therefore should bring the user's attention if it's not. Maybe a small red badge with a lock/exclamation mark near tab favicon and show a warning on hover (for example in the panel with tab previews from another idea)?

What do you think?