Bring Back the Old UI and Give Users More Control Over Their UI

[SavageSurge45]

Please give the users you supposedly care about the option to switch back to the old UI.

A lot of us found the previous layout significantly more intuitive, user-friendly, and visually appealing. By comparison, the new design feels generic, cluttered, and devoid of the personality that made the old interface genuinely enjoyable to use. It comes across less like a thoughtful redesign.

You don’t have to force everyone into the same experience. Give people a choice.

Adding a Legacy UI option would be a simple way to show that you actually listen to your community instead of endlessly redesigning things and expecting users to just put up with it.

Better yet, in the future, add a dropdown menu under Appearance that lets users switch between different interface layouts or “skins.” This would make Firefox far more customizable and, more importantly, give users greater control over how they use it. User customization is an underused feature that few companies seem to take seriously anymore.

Let users choose. Bring back the old UI as an option and give people more control over their experience.

[FilipSzynka]

Hi, I would like to express my huge disappointment regarding the new look of the browser. Personally, I don't just dislike it – I hate it. I love Firefox for its lightweight nature and its simple, sharp, square design, not for blindly following the crowd to look like every other browser. The new UI is hard to read and performs noticeably worse in terms of performance. I would really appreciate it if someone at Mozilla responded to this, because that simple and raw design is the exact reason I use this browser.

[idontwantto]

People who aren't developers aren't going to know anything about going to about:config and are going to assume that all of their settings are to be found in their settings.  There's no reason to hide such an important setting and make it difficult to find.  Users appreciate accessibility and for things to be easy -- making things arbitrarily difficult for no reason is a bad idea because it makes things arbitrarily difficult for no reason.

Please consider your users experience when making these decisions.  Even babies know that hiding things makes them more difficult to find, and even babies know that people prefer things not to be difficult.  You have no excuse for thinking it was a good idea to hide this setting as opposed to making it easily accessible in your Settings.  No excuse.  It genuinely seems like you are actively TRYING to make things worse, because there's literally no other explanation for why you would think it was a good idea to hide such an important setting.

[TheFlow0360]

With the new Design since 157, tab content has become smaller due to the "pill" shape with large inner margins. It also works poorly Multi Account Containers and Tab Groups combined, which was not an issue before. It would be great if we could get an option to at least prioritze content size again e.g. by getting rid of the rounded corners and reducing padding.

[kelimuttu]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[wipe-coading]

The latest 157 update with the "Nova" design is a complete disaster for desktop users. Moving away from tight ergonomics to blown-up mobile padding and forced rounded corners makes the browser completely unusable on high-resolution screens.

We don't need a cheap mobile-first interface on our desktops. If I wanted a locked-down, bloated UI, I would have switched to Google Chrome a long time ago. The only reason power users still stay with Firefox is its legendary customization and performance-focused layout. Stop breaking our workflows with every single update and stop forcing useless visual trends on us.

Please isolate the "Nova" interface into a separate optional theme or a fork. Let mobile users have their round bubbles, but give desktop users back their native, clean, and tight rectangular interface by default. Stop alienating your core user base.

[mmavrov]

I'm turning off Firefox automatic updates, after the new update came with the abhorrent tab design changes and no option to turning it off. I don't want this abomination to reach my work computer. Perhaps allow users to opt-out of the style changes that some UI/UX "expert" fancied while high on LSD?

[Valiran]

This is something I dearly want. After the change from the old 3.5+ UI I installed the Classic Theme Restorer XUL extension until it was rendered incompatible, shifted to Waterfox because I wanted my browser to look like Firefox 3.5+, and despaired when they eventually switched to WebExtensions as well. I'm autistic, and would be profoundly comforted by the ability to see the old layout again. I hear there are CSS customizations that can do it, but I'm not sure how to use them properly, and I'd much prefer an official solution if at all possible.

[cian0o]

Please please PLEASE listen to your fanbase and bring back the chunkier dimensions, at least as an option. 

Toggling browser.nova.enabled keeps a bit of the old shape but not the dimensions. 

Why not embrace your differences with Chrome like your loving user base does?

[jehad]

A browser is a workspace for people, not a toy.

The recent UI changes in Firefox have made the browser feel more like a toy than a professional tool. The new design feels overly flashy and playful, with what looks like “circus lighting” rather than a clean, professional interface. Honestly, it sometimes feels like the design was handed over to a child and they were told to make it fun.

I genuinely love Firefox, and I want more people to use it and feel comfortable using it. But Mozilla is making changes that seem to be doing the opposite. Instead of attracting new users, some long-time Firefox users are becoming frustrated with these changes and looking for alternatives.

I have a few requests:

1. Please bring back the previous design.
The older interface felt cleaner, more mature, professional, and easier to use. Please consider bringing it back, or at least provide a way for users to choose the previous design.

2. Please don't enable data collection by default.
When a new user opens Firefox for the first time, let them choose during the initial setup whether they want to share telemetry and other data. Make the choice clear and straightforward, like Brave does.

3. Please don't enable AI features by default.
AI features should be optional. Users who want them can enable them, while users who don't want AI features should be able to use Firefox without having them enabled by default.

Firefox is one of the few major browsers that gives users a real alternative to Chromium-based browsers. That is why many of us genuinely care about its future.

Please don't turn Firefox into something flashy just for the sake of being different. Keep it clean, professional, user-focused, and respectful of user choice.

I want Firefox to succeed. I just want Mozilla to remember what made people love Firefox in the first place.

[z0ladkow]

I know it's appaling to even think about it. Right?

How else users would use some NEW_MORE_BETTER UI if we allow them to try it on their own, then let them decide ON THEIR OWN, if they want to keep using it. Sheesh... imagine how many UI/UX designers would suffer because of that?

And that one internal setting we have? Oh, it's just in case something goes wrong, that definitely will not be kept, also users should not under any circumstances use "about:config", let alone listen to randoms on the web what settings can be tweaked and with what benefi... i mean consequence! Thanks Paul THE Moderator for ensuring people are well threate... i mean AWARE! (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1608377)

Gosh darn! If only people kept accepting what they are fed! Thy they don't like our NEW_MORE_BETTER UI?!? 😭😭😭😭

[Redoneter593]

I really quite liked the purple new tab screen and header for private browsing windows. But now it's nearly black, making it not only much harder to see anything, but overall far worse to look at. Even worse, it doesn't change from such hardly at all regardless of theme, preventing me from correcting it.

So yeah, it's awful, and I want the previous UI version back ASAP.