Dao and Markus have already started to land bugs pertaining to the new theme/ui:

Windows:

• #544999 – New toolbarbutton style for the main window – You may have noticed this on trunk
• #547752 – Adjust toolbarbutton paddings and margins for small and big icon modes

Mac:

• #546874 – New style for the bookmarks bar

Some new theme bugs have been filed

Windows:

• #548027 – Tweak New Toolbar Button Style to Match Designs
• #546259 – enable aero glass for the main window
• #549061 – [Windows] New Style for Tabs

Mac:

• #547787 – New style for the tab bar

Mockup Iterations now on SVN

I posted the mockup Photoshop files to an SVN repository: http://svn.mozilla.org/design/projects/newtheme/

This can be accessed through the web or with an SVN client.

Note: I haven’t filed any Linux bugs yet and the Wiki page is out-of-date. Still working out some details there and should have that resolved this week.

This week I filed the first round of Bugs for implementing the new theme:

• #544815 – Allow for placing Tabs over the Navigation Bar with option for Tabs under the Navigation Bar
• #544816 – Attach combined Stop/Go/Refresh button to the Location Bar
• #544817 – Create Bookmarks Widget with placement dependent on Bookmarks Bar status
• #544818 – Progress “Line” indicator for background loading tabs
• #544819 – Create a basic Home Tab linking to the current Home Page
• #544823 – [Meta] Theme Visual Refresh
• #544820 – [Windows] Theme Visual Refresh
• #544821 – [OS X] Theme Visual Refresh

This is a pretty exciting step for me after having worked on the design for so many months.

Wiki Updates

I also spent some time getting all the mockups and thought processes on the Wiki current:

• Theme and UI Revamp
• Windows Theme Mockups
• Theme/UI Direction and Feedback
• Mac Theme Mockups
• Mac Specific Visual Design

This week I have been working on a few things:

1) App Button

One of the more challenging, not to mention contentious, aspects of the Firefox UI update has been how to handle the MenuBar. On our first pass we were informed by how Safari and Chrome had handled this problem by paring down all menu items into two separate Page and Tools buttons. This approach has a few advantages but also some disadvantages. The new proposed approach to this problem is an App Button which is similar to the single menu approach taken by Windows 7 native applications (Paint, WordPad) and by MS Office.

The UX team feels this approach has several advantages over the previous idea:

• It is less complex
• Takes up less space
• Instead of two potentially conflicting locations for menu items, there is now only one unified location
• Can be placed in the upper left analogous to the Menubar paradigm it is replacing
• Similar to the far more ubiquitous Office 2008/2010 + Windows 7 application menu
• Reduces clutter on the Navigation Toolbar
• It also creates a more flexible and rich canvas for perhaps doing some decidedly non-menu-esque things

Appearance and Placement

One of the benefits of the App Button is that it is similar to the way Microsoft is treating its native apps and Office. Another benefit is that the placement is closer to where the Menubar would be and therefore it is more familiar.

One idea that we have already explored with the Pages and Tools buttons is to use text on the button instead of an icon. This is also reminiscent of the Menubar’s textual display and removes any ambiguity involved with icons. This approach is also explored in the most recent Office 2010 beta with the tab simply being labeled “File”. We discussed naming our App Button simply “Firefox” because it contains all the actions that apply to Firefox.

Attaching the button to the top of the window further implies that this menu affects Firefox as a whole.

Status of the Titlebar

In all the mockups up to this point the Titlebar has been removed and the space reallocated for portions of the tabs. Enough room was left for traditional window dragging. The rational behind this change was to further shrink vertical space and to address the redundancy of having the page title in the Titlebar and the tab.

In the original approach you would lose approximately the width of one tab (or less!) due to the window widgets. This was before talk of placing an App Button or an Identity button in this area. As it stands now you would be losing much more. It seems the vertical space tradeoff doesn’t stack up quite as well when losing so much horizontal tab space.

It would be better to leave the Titlebar, giving full access to it and not losing any tab space. It also won’t be frustrating for someone wanting to drag the window.

State of the Menu

What will this single menu look like? Something like the sketch I posted previously but not exactly. Ideas on this are welcome. Thoughts about what should and should no go into this menu can be based on work already done for menu cleanup.

2) Refining Toolbar Button Appearance:

Some initial work has gone into making the toolbar buttons more visible on light backgrounds and more crisp and dimensional (pressable).

This is work I am constantly reevaluating since they appear on variable backgrounds.

3) Location Bar:

Created some very early visuals for reevaluating site identity. Also the location bar is now properly recessed instead of floating.

4) Retain Separate Search Bar:

With the LocationBar containing an increasing amount of functionality it may be best to retain a clear distinction between the two fields.

5) Bookmarks Widget:

On a default profile or existing profile that hasn’t modified the Bookmarks Toolbar it will be hidden by default and the Bookmarks Widget placed in the Navigation Toolbar.

If the Bookmarks Toolbar is shown the Bookmarks Widget will appear there instead.

Alternatives to Default Configurations

With Bookmarks Bar

Tabs Under the Navigation Bar

If tabs-on-top is not desirable you can change to the classic tabs under the navigation bar.

Tabs Under the Navigation Bar with Bookmarks Bar

App Button Variations

Several variations of the App Button have been explored. Various factors of consideration include what color to make it, whether or not to have an icon, just an icon, icon and text, part of the tab bar, a separate button or attached to the top of the window.

Presently it is orange and attached to the top of the menu simply labeled “Firefox”. The color plays off of the Firefox icon and is noticeable. The placement attaches the button to the top of the window and suggests that its items apply to the whole menu. It also corresponds to the area of the window where someone would look for the menu bar. Using text only is reminiscent of a menu item.

Firefox 4 and Firefox 3.5 Comparison

A visual comparison of the current iteration of Firefox 4 next to Firefox 3.5

Yesterday I posted a new article to the Wiki. This article lays out more fully how the UX team wants to evolve Firefox for 3.7 and 4.0. It is broken in to a 3.7 section and a 4.0 section. The 3.7 section is a fairly firm proposal that is in the approval stages and the 4.0 section is in the more early brainstorming phases.

Feedback is welcome either on the Wiki Discussion page or I have created a new thread in dev.apps.firefox. Also blog commenting is available as well.

Next Steps:

Going forward I will be working on collecting feedback and refining these ideas for implementation. There is also plenty of work to be done with transitioning these proposals from Windows to Mac and Linux.

• Narrowed direction and focus for Firefox 3.7 and 4.0 Theme/UI changes

Next Steps:

• Menu item trimming/sorting
• File bugs related to implementation
• Start implementation

Specifics:

Had a lot of great progress this week. The UX team had a chance to narrow focus for future Theme/UI work. This resulted in a very productive design lunch talk by Alex Limi and Alex Faaborg. We also had some great meetings about needed platform capabilities (posted to the Wiki by Alex Faaborg).

We currently have some working directions for 3.7 and 4.0. Not set in stone of course, but a firm direction to start with.

Firefox 3.7:

• Hide menubar by default(on Vista and 7, not XP).
• Sort existing menu items into something like Page/Tools buttons (actual implementation to be determined).
• Move the bookmarks menu item to a bookmarks widget. This can live on the bookmarks toolbar(default) or on the navigation bar.
• Create a home tab. Loads homepage in 3.7 to have expanded functionality in 4.0.
• Combine stop/reload into one button. Optional separate stop and reload buttons in the customization pane.
• Progress “line” under location bar on active tab. At the top of the tab for background tabs.

Firefox 4.0:

• Introduction of “App” tabs
• Combine location bar and search bar (separate location and search items can be customized).
• Tabs-on-top option (possibly left/right as well).
• In bar search “button” with drop down of other types of search.
• Ability to attach stop/reload/go to location bar (TBD).
• Expanded home tab functionality.
• Disable bookmarks bar by default if it has not been altered from default.
• Remove status bar. Create a place for extensions.
• Profile/identity UI.

Next Steps:
- Finish mockup iterations (next week)
- AddOns extensibility/discoverability ideas (next week)

Not much visible progress this week. I will be blogging about the wireframes for Menubar and Toolbar handling within the proposed changes soon.

Still on target to have my current list wrapped up by next week. After that probably more rounds of discussion and hopefully on to implementation talks during the work week.

Reference: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Projects/Windows_Theme_Revamp

• Posted Customization Ideas to Dev-Usability

• Still working on some other things:
  • Addons Extensibility/Discoverability
  • Toolbar Handling in various configurations
  • Menubar handling

• Keep going. Iterating on Feedback/New Ideas.

• Have everything nailed down and stable by the week of Aug. 23rd to proceed to initial implementation.