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howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

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Re: [Dev Build] Australis is landing in Firefox Nightly

This copying of Chrome's UI is a false one. It's a trend of browsers to create more viewport space, the space you see pages at, so everyone is trying to get things out of the way. That's why the bars are getting smaller, moved around, and so on. But a lot of the complaints are like looking at two cars and saying one is copying the other. But a car looks like a car no matter what.

darcilicious
Cyber Librarian
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join:2001-01-02
Forest Grove, OR

darcilicious

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Aaaaand... we'll just have to agree to disagree -- if only because my Honda Fit doesn't look like a Porsche 911 despite the components they have in common -- they are easily distinguishable from one another. Chrome and Australis, not so much.

howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

howardfine

Member

Nope. A car is a car if you look head on to the grill. Same with browsers. Yeah a curve here and there but they all look alike for the reason I gave.
BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
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join:2000-01-13

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Click for full size
Really? It's not so different. Here's my Firefox, it's not a stretch to move the couple things, and round a few corners.

I do use an extension to force the tabs into the titlebar, and that makes it even more like chrome.

therube
join:2004-11-11
Randallstown, MD

1 recommendation

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> Nope. A car is a car if you look head on to the grill.

When I was young (a long time ago, in the age of "Datsun" & before), I could identify, distinctly, EVERY car on the road.

Today, yes, a car is a car. It's like who cares any more. All the personality is gone.

And yes, that is what the browser & OS too are beginning to look like. Everything homogenized, somogenized. You can't tell what "app" you're in. Internet Explorer could just as well be Windows Explorer, they look the same. And if FF looks like Chrome, looks like ... then at that point, it becomes, "who cares". And why bother.

Yesterday I downloaded & took a quick look at "Austraiis" & was like, eh, a browser. Then, uh, where did my (extension) icons go? Then, uh, where is my component bar? Then I was like, eh, a browser.

Me, I'll stick with the one that stands out, that is different, that retains its personality & works they way I want it to work.

Now where did I park my Peugeot (504D, ah, what a car )!

anonome
@verizon.net

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None of which requires "Australis". And as far as bars getting smaller: have you seen the new findbar? HUGE! ...7 pixels bigger--that 25% BIGGER.

fx_woes
@comcast.net

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Anon

to howardfine
said by howardfine:

This copying of Chrome's UI is a false one. It's a trend of browsers to create more viewport space, the space you see pages at, so everyone is trying to get things out of the way. That's why the bars are getting smaller, moved around, and so on.

So you can see even more white space?

Is there somehow a lack of viewport space available in the browser for typical desktop and laptop users? Most desktop users now have 22+ inch monitors with fairly high resolutions. Many are using 24, 27, and even 30" screens. Is there a lack of viewport space for these users? How is removing some menus and buttons going to allow them any more useful page view? I'm running 1366 x 768 on this laptop and I don't typically feel that I'm lacking viewable space. If anything there's way too much empty white space on websites. On a 27" monitor it's absurd how much white space there is on most websites.

Wouldn't focusing on the white space issue, and poor/outdated web dev practices in general, be a better avenue to help bring more content in focus? Browser UI has been a solved problem for nearly 20 years now. This whole trend is just hotshot UX designers justifying their paychecks.
fx_woes

fx_woes to therube

Anon

to therube
said by therube:

Me, I'll stick with the one that stands out, that is different, that retains its personality & works they way I want it to work.

Which browser is that? It's sure not Firefox!

howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

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said by fx_woes :

So you can see even more white space?

Whitespace is a designers thing, not a browser thing. Browsers vendors have no control over what designers do with the viewport space.
said by fx_woes :

Most desktop users now have 22+ inch monitors with fairly high resolutions. Many are using 24, 27, and even 30" screens. Is there a lack of viewport space for these users?

28% to 50% of all web site visitors use their phone or mobile device and that percentage is climbing rapidly.
said by fx_woes :

Wouldn't focusing on the white space issue, and poor/outdated web dev practices in general, be a better avenue to help bring more content in focus?

Like I said, browser vendors have no control over how designers use the space in the viewport. It's not their job.

fx_woes
@comcast.net

fx_woes

Anon

said by howardfine:

Whitespace is a designers thing, not a browser thing. Browsers vendors have no control over what designers do with the viewport space.

Endless tweaking of the browser UI is stupid, bottom line, and is just UX designers justifying their paychecks. Like I said, browser UI been a solved problem for 20 years now. It's stupid to think removing some menus and bars/buttons is going create any significant view area, when half of the screen area on most websites is wasted white space anyway.
said by howardfine:

28% to 50% of all web site visitors use their phone or mobile device and that percentage is climbing rapidly.

So what? I'm talking about desktop and laptop usage, which I made fairly clear. If this stupid UX trend was only taking place on their mobile platforms, then you'd have a point, but it's not just there. Viewable space is a premium on mobile devices obviously, but I wasn't talking about mobile anything. This space premium is not the case for desktops, and despite the hype and nonsense, many people out there actually do still spend significant time on regular computers.

I just checked sitting here using a 27" monitor. The Firefox UI takes up about a thumb width at the top. That includes title/tab bar, URL bar, and bookmarks bar. The idea that this space needs to be further minimized is absolutely ludicrous! OK, let's minimize and streamline this already minimal space down further, so that I can see a thumb width more of web content? That's a ridiculous argument.
said by howardfine:

Like I said, browser vendors have no control over how designers use the space in the viewport. It's not their job.

Let's not call them designers OK? Most web devs are utter hacks and labeling them designers is uncalled for. That's not a label 95% of them deserve in the least. UX designers on the other hand, they are very deserving of the label because they are definitely lost in their own world of nonsense.

But yeah, I know, it's the web "designers" job! Too bad most web developers are complete amateurs who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. The so called professionals are just as bad - they're largely the ones who think Mozilla and Google walk on water and can do no wrong. They're the ones pushing for this kind of crap, and quickly jumping onto every trend that comes down the pipeline.

BTW, are you a web developer? That would explain things.

howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

howardfine

Member

said by fx_woes :

If this stupid UX trend was only taking place on their mobile platforms, then you'd have a point, but it's not just there.

Have you seen how the address bar scrolls up and disappears on your phone?
said by fx_woes :

despite the hype and nonsense, many people out there actually do still spend significant time on regular computers.

It's not hype and nonsense when it's true.
quote:
Traffic from phones outpaced that of tablet for browsing sites, with phones accounting for 26.6 percent of visits compared with 15.3 percent for tablets, according to IBM data harvested from 800 retailers' e-commerce sites.
So that means about 50% of all online e-commerce browsing and buying was done on a mobile device.
said by fx_woes :

I just checked sitting here using a 27" monitor.

The purpose of a bigger screen is not so you can make your applications run bigger. It's to let you put more on your desktop unless you just want to sit back farther in your chair. And when you sit back farther, your view of the screen shrinks and your thumb example does not apply.
said by fx_woes :

Let's not call them designers OK? Most web devs are utter hacks and labeling them designers is uncalled for.

That's why a lot of sites are designed by graphic designers and not web developers. You're assuming all sites are designed by the developers who wrote the code and that's not true.
said by fx_woes :

The so called professionals are just as bad - they're largely the ones who think Mozilla and Google walk on water and can do no wrong.

It was Mozilla, then Google, that advanced the web far beyond the mess Microsoft made of it. That's why they get the respect and Microsoft gets the IE hate.
said by fx_woes :

BTW, are you a web developer?

My little company has been doing this for 10 years.

fx_woes
@comcast.net

fx_woes

Anon

I'm not continuing in this debate any further. I've made my arguments and you've made yours. Good day.

therube
join:2004-11-11
Randallstown, MD

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> Which browser is that? It's sure not Firefox!

SeaMonkey.

anonome
@verizon.net

anonome to howardfine

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said by howardfine:

So that means about 50% of all online e-commerce browsing and buying was done on a mobile device.

Well, if I were dumb enough to spend hundreds of dollars on an outrageously expensive "smart" toy device (because I can't survive without being "connected" 24/7) and its accompanying outrageously expensive service plans, then I might want to use it for every little thing I do even if it isn't the best method available for the task at hand. ("Woohoo! look at me, look at me... I'm mo-bile!!")

(Being wireless in your home is not the same thing as being mobile.)

darcilicious
Cyber Librarian
Premium Member
join:2001-01-02
Forest Grove, OR

darcilicious

Premium Member

Your personal rant, er preferences, has nothing to do with the point being made: mobile usage is real and can't be ignored.

chachazz
Premium Member
join:2003-12-14

chachazz

Premium Member

Note: Nightly Australis (UI) is staying with Nightly Channel...not moving onto the Aurora channel on Dec 9. It is tentatively slated for release in Firefox 29 on April 29, 2014.