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When in Rome: engineering the Firefox 3 user experience

arstechnica.com — Ars sat down with Mozilla user design expert Alex Faaborg and discussed the Firefox 3 visual refresh. Among other things, he told us how Mozilla is improving platform integration in theming while defining a universal visual identity for the Firefox browser.

Who dugg this? Made popular Apr 1, 2008

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  • motang, on 04/01/2008, -1/+10I really like the approach Mozilla took especially with Linux. It makes FF 3.0 look as if it's part of the OS and really blends well. Also like the themes that have been implemented into OS X, XP and Vista.
  • pltnz64, on 04/01/2008, -0/+6There is no unified Linux theme. It uses native gtk widgets which can change depending on what gtk theme you are using. It is what makes the Linux variant look so integrated versus the XP and OS X themes.
  • kalel90, on 04/01/2008, -2/+8The new XP and Vista themes suck but the OSX and Linux themes don't look half bad.
  • bitterg, on 04/01/2008, -1/+6I think it's great that Mozilla respects the different platforms. It shows the power of choice is important for them.
  • objc, on 04/01/2008, -1/+4It's a great approach and all, but I still don't like the way the back button looks.
  • Rice, on 04/01/2008, -0/+2Still does silly XUL stuff on the mac. How about making the menus function normally? How about the preferences?
  • xb00t, on 04/01/2008, -1/+3The Vista theme reminds me so much about IE7 and WMP11. Are you sure "blending in with the OS" is a good approach? And that big back button, small forward button combo seems so unnatural.

    I think this is the first time I am saying this but I think the Linux version looks best. It look as it should. Don't go reinventing the wheel guys.
  • tomis, on 04/01/2008, -0/+2They still don't get it on the Mac. Until they roll in Camino, or write an all-new Cocoa UI, it will still be a second rate app.
  • shemeta, on 04/01/2008, -0/+2in recent nightly builds they have changed the buttons a bit. looks much better.
  • enntee, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1I don't like the OS X theme. The rounded buttons look out of place since all other buttons in OS X are square. Wasn't the point of the new themes to blend into the OS as much as possible?

    Check out the GrApple theme for OS X, it's awesome: http://www.takebacktheweb.org/ . It integrates beautifully and even works with the betas!
  • objc, on 04/01/2008, -0/+1Cool, I'll take a look.
  • Baryn, on 04/01/2008, -0/+1The keyhole is a great idea, Mozilla just needs to get graphic designers with actual talent to make it sexy.
  • magicofpi, on 04/01/2008, -0/+0Yes, the original Proto theme was so much more Mac-like... I thought they wanted to blend with Mac OS X better than Safari. That huge back button really doesn't work.
  • newslang, on 04/01/2008, -4/+1I think they took a big step back with the Linux theme. I really don't see what the problem with it the way it is now.

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