UX Branch Discussion

Discussion about official Mozilla Firefox builds
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Frank Lion
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by Frank Lion »

revolutions wrote:Wait, you're comparing http://people.mozilla.org/~rcampbell/im ... 29-v04.png to http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s1/g ... ge/MAP.png because the colors are similar? I'm really confused.

Well, you do know this is a technical forum and not MySpace, right? What are the chances that I would be comparing them because, er, the colours are similar?

Waiting and not jumping straight in...is often a good idea. ;)
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patrickjdempsey
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by patrickjdempsey »

Frank Lion wrote:
...But we apparently have the resources that no old-style theme out there does because the overwhelming majority of old-style themes are simply incomplete or make a mess of critical UI element


On the "make a mess of critical UI element" thing... if Mozilla would stop changing the names of ID's or moving XUL structure around for no good reason every few months of these so-called "critical UI elements" maybe fewer themes would break them. Also, I'm not sure how any of us are supposed to know what is and what isn't a critical feature since things that seemed to be important only a few years or even months ago are scrapped or rearranged constantly. How many times did they change the method for styling the urlbar Feeds button in non-backwards compatible ways before ultimately throwing it out? Was there any point in that? Changing the way the urlbar and searchbar gray text is displayed? Any point at all in changing that 4 versions in a row? Any point at all in creating the fancy CSS button surrounds that never worked correctly and caused all sorts of stupid problems for extensions to support and breaking with OS UI button standards only to end up considering completely reversing it? It's amazed me how much *hacking* I've had to do with my theme to restore features that I and my users consider to be critical features. And with some of the changes in this UX build, I'm really sad to see more features removed that I won't just be able to restore with a binding. Yeah, Mozilla certainly has access to more resources than the rest of us... too bad they don't find ways to use those resources to *everyone's* advantage.
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revolutions
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by revolutions »

Frank Lion wrote:
revolutions wrote:Wait, you're comparing http://people.mozilla.org/~rcampbell/im ... 29-v04.png to http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s1/g ... ge/MAP.png because the colors are similar? I'm really confused.

Well, you do know this is a technical forum and not MySpace, right? What are the chances that I would be comparing them because, er, the colours are similar?


Right. That's why I said "I'm really confused" as opposed to "You make no sense."

Frank Lion wrote:Waiting and not jumping straight in...is often a good idea. ;)


I still didn't get an answer, and I'm still confused. How would waiting have helped if I hadn't asked a question?
Rodze
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by Rodze »

revolutions wrote:
smsmith wrote:Trying to detach a tab to an existing window using ALT+TAB doesn't work most of the time.


I've seen quite a few issues with alt+tab, yes. I think they're working on it.

---

Some interesting (read: sexy) mockups: http://people.mozilla.com/~shorlander/u ... ation.html

You posted mockups for Chrome.
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Frank Lion
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by Frank Lion »

patrickjdempsey wrote: How many times did they change the method for styling the urlbar Feeds button in non-backwards compatible ways before ultimately throwing it out? Was there any point in that? Changing the way the urlbar and searchbar gray text is displayed? Any point at all in changing that 4 versions in a row? Any point at all in creating the fancy CSS button surrounds that never worked correctly and caused all sorts of stupid problems for extensions to support and breaking with OS UI button standards only to end up considering completely reversing it?

Well, there certainly was an irony in that the more 'dedicated' themers who were versioning up from the early betas ended up with layers of conflicting beta code that guys who waited until later when the dust settled down never had.

I reckon that's why Annie packed it in - he always shadowed very early.
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SoapyHamHocks
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by SoapyHamHocks »

The new designs are great, but there are a few problems because of the size of the active tab compared to the inactive ones.

Image
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dkgo
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by dkgo »

nice =D>
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by shorlander »

Frank Lion wrote:Incidentally, the majority of third party themes on Addons are based on a cobbled together version of the 'default' theme. Trouble is, this is normally the Windows default theme for the previous version (often older) which ends up not working quite right and not working correctly with other OS versions.

Mozilla offers assistance to these guys, er, by criticising them -

...But we apparently have the resources that no old-style theme out there does because the overwhelming majority of old-style themes are simply incomplete or make a mess of critical UI element


You can guess who wrote that.

Here's a new idea you might like to consider, Mozilla - give these guys a level playing field with yourselves. Give them an installable version of the latest version default theme and which includes chrome manifest flags pointing to sub folders for Linux/Aero/Mac folders for universal compatibility with all major OSs. This would take Mozilla less than a day to make and directly improve the performance and 'user experience' of around 250+ themes by the less experienced theme authors.

@ Stephen ~ I'm not afraid of 'competition' and nor should you be. Give those guys a level playing field with yourselves. :)


There is certainly all kinds of stuff wrong with how hard it is to create and maintain a theme. However nothing about this difficulty is adversarial or motivated by fear of 'competition'. More themes = more choice = good. This would mean everyone wins.

Also it is late so I am maybe am not quite sure what you are suggesting to alleviate this pain point. You are suggesting a nightly updated theme template download?
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shorlander
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by shorlander »

SoapyHamHocks wrote:The new designs are great, but there are a few problems because of the size of the active tab compared to the inactive ones.

Image

Awesome!

Do you mean an implementation problem because of the overlap? Or that they are actually different sizes? They should be the same size however only the active tab has a tab shape.

Image
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SoapyHamHocks
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by SoapyHamHocks »

shorlander wrote:
SoapyHamHocks wrote:The new designs are great, but there are a few problems because of the size of the active tab compared to the inactive ones.

Awesome!

Do you mean an implementation problem because of the overlap? Or that they are actually different sizes? They should be the same size however only the active tab has a tab shape.



Ah you're right. I just had a few mistakes. Now it looks pretty damn good. Any chance you could share your PSDs? :D I'll post an updated screenshot shortly.
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SoapyHamHocks
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by SoapyHamHocks »

I think I got it much closer to your mockup. I have no idea what to do with hover, but it mainly works and looks great.

Image

I'll try to iron out the remaining bugs.
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mikedl
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by mikedl »

I thought that had already been done in stylish.
I remember running a style very similar.
Can't think of the name of the [STYLE] right now as I removed it because, with 9 tabs, it took up too much space in the tab bar and I kept having to scroll back and forth.
Same reason I just now dumped the [EXT] Mozilla Labs OneLiner1.

As much as I liked the browser content real estate the above [EXT] afforded, I prefer to see more tabs at my fingertips (or mouse, as the case may be).
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revolutions
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by revolutions »

SoapyHamHocks wrote:I think I got it much closer to your mockup. I have no idea what to do with hover, but it mainly works and looks great.

Image

I'll try to iron out the remaining bugs.


Did you do this with just userchrome.css/stylish? If so, any chance you could post the code somewhere?
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malliz
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by malliz »

Just wonder what it looks like when the menu bar is shown and the user does not have tabs on top?
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Hanki
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Re: UX Branch Discussion

Post by Hanki »

looks pretty good IMO. Go Chrome :lol:
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