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Stephen Horlander is one of those involved in developing the visual look of Firefox, past and present. On his blog, chromaticpixel, he’s sharing some of his ideas for the way Firefox 4 will look.
His recent efforts have been on redefining the app button, the toolbar, the location bar, the search bar, and the bookmarks widget. For some Horlander’s discussion on possibilities may come off as rambling, but many others will appreciate the thought process that goes into deciding even the most mundane details of an application’s appearance.
For example, Horlander walks us through simple permutations on the location of tabs: Above the address field or below the address field? And if below the address field, above or below the bookmarks bar? Such simple things can make a world of difference in how you react to and use the new version of Firefox. (Ask those who despise the Office ribbon just how much an impact a simple visual interface decision can have.)
None of Horlander’s examples are a sure thing for Firefox 4. But the overall discussion does offer some ideas of the Firefox will be taking.
Image Credit: Stephen Horlander
Comments are closed on this article
SuperiorBeing
December 26, 2009 at 2:41pm
The addon Strata40 adds most of that functionality, but is it possible to get the drop-down menu on the top left?
van_helblaze
December 24, 2009 at 3:46pm
As long as the glasser addon works, I'll be happy, I love the full aero effect for Firefox.
Mighty BOB!
December 28, 2009 at 2:22am
Heh, I was just thinking, "Hmm, Mozilla have Chrome envy much?"
They better not get rid of my file menu! *shakes fist*
1337Goose
December 24, 2009 at 9:45am
I like it. I hope they don't do that thing, where closing your last tab closes the entire browser, a la chrome. That's really annoying.
~Goose
praetor_alpha
December 23, 2009 at 3:30pm
Having the tabs below the address bar and buttons (back, forward, home,....) was a poor design choice to begin with. Those contol each individual tab, so shouldn't they also be on the tab? Menus should stay above (off) the tabs. Not sure about the search bar though.
sicyo
December 23, 2009 at 2:57pm
So... yeah. Where's the drop down next to back/forth? This was ommitted in a lot of newer Firefox skins and it isn't there for the screenshots featuring Firefox4.
Am I the only one who loves this feature?
SEALBoy
December 23, 2009 at 2:23pm
I like the new Firefox 3.7/4.0 theme mock-ups - I'm using a theme based off them for Firefox 3.5 right now.
Let's face it - the Firefox 3.5 theme, while solid, is archaic.
