Mozilla is working on a Firefox design refresh

[silversurfer]

Mozilla is working on a design refresh for the organization's Firefox web browser that it refers to as Photon internally. The last major design refresh of Firefox was unveiled in Firefox 57 in November 2017; it was known as Proton back then.

Information about the design refresh is limited at this point in time. Mozilla created a meta bug on Bugzilla as a reference to keep track of the changes. While there are not any mockups or screenshots posted on the site, the names of the bugs provide information on the elements that will get a refresh. These are:

• The Firefox address bar and tabs bar.
• The main Firefox menu.
• Infobars.
• Doorhangers.
• Context Menus.
• Modals.

Most user interface elements are listed in the meta bug. Mozilla plans to release the new design in Firefox 89; the browser is scheduled for a mid-2021 release. Its release date is set to May 18, 2021.
Since development work is ongoing, it is possible that the release will be delayed.

Read more below:

Mozilla is working on a Firefox design refresh - gHacks Tech News

Mozilla is working on a design refresh for the organization's Firefox web browser that it refers to as Photon internally that it plans to release in mid-2021.

www.ghacks.net

 

[Lenny_Fox]

First thought that came up to me was, why don't they use these resources for increasing security (sandboxing) of current Firefox, but then I realized when they re-program the UI modules with Rust (in stead of C++) this also enhances security and multi-thread performance.

 

[marcopaone]

Finally

 

[Cortex]

Not before time, some time away though?

 

[Handsome Recluse]

Oh noez

 

[SeriousHoax]

Maybe MS Edge's unexpected rise and much cleaner UI made them think about a change. In the last 3 years they haven't even managed to make a proper dark theme. At first, I had to use ShadowFox and now Quantum-Nox to properly make it dark.
Anyway, better late than never

 

[silversurfer]

First non-final Tabs redesign courtesy of Proton lands in Firefox Nightly - gHacks Tech News

First look at the first Tabs redesign of the Firefox web browser that landed in Firefox Nightly in January 2021.

www.ghacks.net

Nightly users who run the latest version can change a hidden preference -- one that is not displayed by Firefox when you search for it -- to enable the first version of the browser's tabs redesign.
It needs to be noted that the design is not final, and that it has been implemented mainly for testing purposes at this stage. Still, it may provide a glimpse of things to come.

1. Load about:config in the Firefox address bar.
2. Search for browser.proton.tabs.enabled. You won't get any results, but an option to create the preference.
3. It should be set to TRUE automatically; TRUE means that it is enabled, FALSE that it is disabled.
4. Restart the Firefox browser.

 

[Ink]

Sheep will be raging over the changes.

Can't wait to see the final iteration of their new design language.

 

[Lenny_Fox]

Why do browser GUI guys think we want to see the browser while the main function of a browser is to show CONTENT!

Let's support sheep in his fight against large ugly and pixel consuming tabs and controls

Minimalism isn't about the complete lack of illustrative elements, but rather the careful choice of when and where to use them.

 

[silversurfer]

Mozilla is working on another design refresh for its desktop version of the Firefox web browser. Some may fear the worst, others may be looking forward to design changes.
The refresh is a work in progress, and that means that things may change along the way, may not change at all, or may look totally different from what the current state shows.
The screenshot below was captured on a Windows 10 device running the latest version of Firefox Nightly with all the Proton preferences enabled.

Another glimpse at Firefox's upcoming Proton design refresh: the new menu - gHacks Tech News

Mozilla is working on another design refresh for its desktop version of the Firefox web browser. Some may fear the worst, others may be looking forward to design changes.Â

www.ghacks.net

 

[silversurfer]

Mozilla is working on a refresh of the user interface of its Firefox web browser under the codename Proton. As it stands, Proton will land in desktop versions of the web browser in May 2021 when Firefox 89 gets released.

Firefox 89's user interface will be leaner and less convoluted - gHacks Tech News

Mozilla plans to launch a redesigned interface in Firefox 89 that will make the user interface leaner and cleaner, and less convoluted.

www.ghacks.net

 

[Lenny_Fox]

I wish Firefox would spilt home page like Chrome does, In Chrome (edge in mycase), I use a blank new tab for new tab and new windows and startup, but I have google search under home button (I normally don't use Google search). This is not possible with Firefox,

 

[ForgottenSeer 89360]

And it still looks like something from 10 years ago. I'm not impressed. The circular-shape buttons resemble Netscape Navigator.

 

[Paul Lee]

And it still looks like something from 10 years ago. I'm not impressed. The circular-shape buttons resemble Netscape Navigator.

It's still in development & may not reflect the final version. Let's give them some time to finish it.

 

[Trooper]

I kind of like the re-design. Time will tell.

 

[silversurfer]

Mozilla plans to remove the Compact Density option from Firefox's Customize menu - gHacks Tech News

Mozilla plans to remove the Compact Density option from the Firefox browser's customize menu, which allows users to reduce the size of the browser chrome.

www.ghacks.net

A new Bugzilla listing suggests that Mozilla will remove the Compact option from Firefox's Customize menu.

Mozilla notes that the compact design is "fairly hard to discover" and that it assumes that it "gets low engagement". Based on these, Mozilla decided to retire compact mode from the menu.

Touch, the second customize option next to Compact, will be retained because of its accessibility use.

The organization plans to remove the Compact option from the customize menu and migrate users who use Compact to the Normal mode once the change happens. The preference browser.uidensity will remain for the time being, but it is possible that it will get removed at one point in time as well or that the compact mode value won't change it anymore at the very least.

Mozilla wants to design Firefox with a minimum height of 768 pixels going forward, noting that Firefox would take up 12% of screen height in the worst case scenario on 768 height pixel displays.

Mozilla bases its decision to remove compact mode on an assumption; while it may be correct that compact is not used by the majority of Firefox users, it is still used by a percentage of users, and these users are understandably unhappy about the decision.

 

[silversurfer]

Mozilla is trying to figure out if the Firefox Compact mode removal is a good idea - gHacks Tech News

Mozilla is trying to figure out if Firefox compact mode removal is a good idea

www.ghacks.net

Mozilla revealed plans to remove the latter in an entry on its bug tracking website. Problem was: the wording of the bug made it look like as if the organization based the decision on assumptions and not on hard data.

Sites started to report about it and the discussion heated up quickly. Mozilla may have been unprepared for the backlash and negative press it received from Firefox users and media outlets.

Engineers added new information to the bug, and it appears that at least some of the engineers are interested in getting hard data about usage of the Compact mode feature before making any rash decisions.

Mozilla plans to collect Telemetry data about the usage of compact mode in Firefox. Since the company is working on a new design for Firefox, codename Proton, another bug has been added to collect data about user preferences between normal and compact mode with Proton enabled as well.

Proton will increase the size of the browser chrome significantly when it lands. One positive outcome of all of this is that Mozilla did reduce the height of the navigational toolbar in the Proton version by 8 pixels already, and that it did improve the compact density mode as well under Proton.

 

[silversurfer]

"Firefox Proton design refresh is almost ready: here is what is new"

Mozilla Firefox is getting another design refresh; Mozilla has been working on a refresh of the web browser's design under the Proton codename for some time.

The organization plans to launch the new design in Firefox 89 Stable, out on May 18, 2021. Firefox Stable is at version 87 currently, which means that there will be only one major stable version release before the new design release in May. While things may be delayed, it seems unlikely that this is going to be the case for the design refresh.

Firefox Proton design refresh is almost ready: here is what is new - gHacks Tech News

An updated look at the upcoming design refresh of the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

www.ghacks.net

 

[rain2reign]

the only thing i dont like from the images so far is this:

The gap that makes it float from the rest of the ui. Though, that is just my personal taste.

 

[brambedkar59]

the only thing i dont like from the images so far is this:
View attachment 256429
The gap that makes it float from the rest of the ui. Though, that is just my personal taste.

Use compact mode. It works now but they are going to remove this option in future.