4 ms·

I loved Photon. Proton added a lot of nice touches, but I never understood why would you want to turn the tabs into buttons. Tabs is a great metaphor from the r

by yoavm 5y ago

I loved Photon. Proton added a lot of nice touches, but I never understood why would you want to turn the tabs into buttons. Tabs is a great metaphor from the real world, and they take less space. I don't see a single advantage of styling them as buttons. The whole point is that they're visually connected to the currently visible page. Thankfully however I don't care too much because I can still completely hide the tab-bar with my userChrome.css, and use "Tab Center Reborn" to have my tabs on the side instead.

pier25 5y ago
Completely agree. Objectively buttons don't seem to have any advantage and personally I find them fugly.
throwaquestion5 5y ago
Seconding the tab idea. I need to know in which tab I am. Sometimes I have the five tabs of the same page (hello hn), look up, and I don't know which tab I am. I end up closing the tab with Ctrl+W when I'm done and learn where I was. Thanks for the extension suggestion I may give it a try.
- heftig 5y ago
  I think using a theme with a high contrast between the active tab and inactive tabs is probably the easiest way to fix the UX for you. E.g. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/proton-redone-hybrid/ https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/proton-redone-hybri...
- kingcharles 5y ago
  If I only had just 5 HN tabs open...
skavi 5y ago
One advantage I could see is a vertical tab bar mode that’s more visually consistent with the standard horizontal tab bar. Could even animate seamlessly between those modes.
- keypusher 5y ago
  Tree Style Tabs. Essential extension.
thangalin 5y ago
You're not alone. Here are some steps to restore the old tab style: https://superuser.com/a/1669549/9067 https://superuser.com/a/1669549/9067
- RealStickman_ 5y ago
  Here's what I've been using to get the older design, while also keeping some new niceties. https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix
  - ComodoHacker 5y ago
    That's what TFA is from.
    - RealStickman_ 5y ago
      Excuse my blindness. Haven't had a coffee at that time.
elktea 5y ago
In the early mockups I saw for Proton the floating tab buttons never existed. I wonder what happened that we ended up with such odd tabs.
FireInsight 5y ago
Unpopular opinion: I personally like the 'floating tab' look more. It's sleek and consistent and doesn't bother me at all. Though I think it should be a toggleable setting not a default.
Vinnl 5y ago
> why would you want to turn the tabs into buttons I think I read somewhere that the reason was that user studies showed that people did not understand that the tabs could be dragged around, moved to other windows, and generally were "detachable". Floating buttons should make that more obvious. I'd be interested in research on whether they achieved that goal.
- morsch 5y ago
  I can't off-hand remember any application where I was able to drag around buttons or, really, interact with them in any way other than pushing the button. That said, I don't think the widgets look particularly button-like (e.g. only the selected tab widget as any depth, the other widgets are flat).
  - Vinnl 5y ago
    Yeah good point, I don't know any either; guess it's more the "detachedness" than the "buttonness" that's supposed to hint at that. As I said, I'd be interested in seeing data on whether or not they were successful.
- shaky-carrousel 5y ago
  The problem with user studies is that privacy-conscious power users (which are the majority of Firefox user base) don't like to participate in those studies, which make them really skewed.

by yoavm 5y ago

pier25 5y ago

Completely agree. Objectively buttons don't seem to have any advantage and personally I find them fugly.

throwaquestion5 5y ago

Seconding the tab idea. I need to know in which tab I am. Sometimes I have the five tabs of the same page (hello hn), look up, and I don't know which tab I am. I end up closing the tab with Ctrl+W when I'm done and learn where I was. Thanks for the extension suggestion I may give it a try.

heftig 5y ago
I think using a theme with a high contrast between the active tab and inactive tabs is probably the easiest way to fix the UX for you. E.g. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/proton-redone-hybrid/ https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/proton-redone-hybri...
kingcharles 5y ago
If I only had just 5 HN tabs open...

skavi 5y ago

One advantage I could see is a vertical tab bar mode that’s more visually consistent with the standard horizontal tab bar. Could even animate seamlessly between those modes.

keypusher 5y ago
Tree Style Tabs. Essential extension.

thangalin 5y ago

You're not alone. Here are some steps to restore the old tab style: https://superuser.com/a/1669549/9067 https://superuser.com/a/1669549/9067

RealStickman_ 5y ago
Here's what I've been using to get the older design, while also keeping some new niceties. https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix
- ComodoHacker 5y ago
  That's what TFA is from.
  - RealStickman_ 5y ago
    Excuse my blindness. Haven't had a coffee at that time.

elktea 5y ago

In the early mockups I saw for Proton the floating tab buttons never existed. I wonder what happened that we ended up with such odd tabs.

FireInsight 5y ago

Unpopular opinion: I personally like the 'floating tab' look more. It's sleek and consistent and doesn't bother me at all. Though I think it should be a toggleable setting not a default.

Vinnl 5y ago

> why would you want to turn the tabs into buttons I think I read somewhere that the reason was that user studies showed that people did not understand that the tabs could be dragged around, moved to other windows, and generally were "detachable". Floating buttons should make that more obvious. I'd be interested in research on whether they achieved that goal.

morsch 5y ago
I can't off-hand remember any application where I was able to drag around buttons or, really, interact with them in any way other than pushing the button. That said, I don't think the widgets look particularly button-like (e.g. only the selected tab widget as any depth, the other widgets are flat).
- Vinnl 5y ago
  Yeah good point, I don't know any either; guess it's more the "detachedness" than the "buttonness" that's supposed to hint at that. As I said, I'd be interested in seeing data on whether or not they were successful.
shaky-carrousel 5y ago
The problem with user studies is that privacy-conscious power users (which are the majority of Firefox user base) don't like to participate in those studies, which make them really skewed.