User Centric Web Browsing - Mozilla Labs Concept
Mozilla Labs Concept - Active Pages - 1 column thumbnail view
Describing the problem
"Reinventing Tabs in the Browser - How can we create, navigate and manage multiple web sites within the same browser instance?"
Browsers have traditionally been perceived as a “Window into the internet” meant to provide a transparent view of whatever the web developer of a particular page chose to display (in concert with the browser user’s preferences). This view of the browser's place in the world has influence the UI design choices including the selection of Tabs as an organizational metaphor.
No one can argue that Tabs were not needed when they were first introduced. An even less optimal work-alike to tabs was already in place on Windows PCs in the form of the Taskbar, so the next logical step to be taken was to simply integrate the same functionality of the Taskbar to keep a running tally of open web pages but directly in the browser itself.
It is debatable however whether Tabs or a Taskbar type of UI is the most effective organizational tool for managing multiple windows/views in a desktop computing environment. Several other UI models have been used to arguably greater success in other applications. Keyboard Tabbing is a very useful means of navigating open windows, menu lists also are popular with traditional desktop applications. Even thumbnail previews are becoming more popular.
All of these are viable solutions for organizing data, pages, views etc. but they all fail to address the real situation. The web browser (and the OS, File Browsers, Mail applications) are extensions of the user. They are simply tools people use to view and manipulate information. What is missing is that the activities people are engaged in with their web browser are no longer simply viewing web pages or even keeping track of web pages. As such the web browser as transparent window to the internet is actually getting in the way of people's actual activity.
People are using the web to find content, shop for goods and services, create content, organize their lives, meet people and join clubs. Every website they go to has features like: "Share this site with friends", "Write a comment or blog post", "Leave a review and earn points", etc. Each website does it a little differently, developers invent and reinvent tools such as these frequently. Again the browser, though positioned ideally to provide many of these services currently has nothing to contribute (excepting Firefox Exensions)
This 100% agnostic approach is no longer a valid position to take. Browsers DO influence how the web is viewed. It is time for browser makers to take responsibility for this and begin providing a more user centric set of tools for their customers.
User Centric Web Browsing Concept
Conceptual UI Closed
Web info panel closed
The proposed information panel and toolbar starts closed (located on far right of the mockup image), using minimal pixel space to announce it’s presence and provide an easy to click on long vertical target similar to a scrollbar region.
When a user clicks on the panel in it’s closed state it will slide out to the most recent position with the last used settings in place – settings to be described in the following slides.
Active Pages - 1 column thumbnail view
Active Pages – thumbnail view.
The new tabs – horizontal tabs have been replaced by a vertical thumbnail list of websites. This concept provides for a thumbnail view of websites both because it is currently popular to do so and because it is an appropriate navigation scheme for some types of web browsing activities. Thumbnails are very useful when you are "browsing" as in taking a look around, right-click opening links and generally exploring the web. They are less useful when you are already familiar with the sites you are navigating or for information rich websites where a small view of the page provides no more than a vague suggestion of the layout grid the designer of the website decided on using. Thumbnails are also very useful for browsing collections of images, products with large photos on the page and other visually oriented topics.
The first thing you may not have noticed is that the web site to the left of the Concept UI has been zoomed to automatically fit the available width. This is a newly supported feature of Firefox which can be used to great effect in this interface. This zoom feature would of course be a preference where the user decides on a maximum zoom threshold and a preferred scale width, meaning "I'd like for websites to display at a 1024px scale with a maximum zoom of 1/3rd original size". Once thresholds are reached, standard horizontal scrollbars would be displayed. This feature is especially useful to those users who do not have the benefit of a wide formatted screen with it's additional horizontal space.
A new menu of display options is presented on the right, including: Current Page, Active Pages, History, Favorites, Tags, Search and allowing for 3rd party plugin developers to place a menu entry as well as an area for the user to save custom presets (bookmark groups, saved searches, etc).