Slashdot Mirror
Google Tests Curvy Chrome Tabs With Material Design Overhaul (cnet.com)
Google is trying out a new Chrome interface that for the first time in a decade presents a very different look for the tabs and address bar at the top of the widely used web browser, CNET reports. It adds: Since its public debut in 2008, Chrome has featured a trapezoidal tab for each website you have open. But tabs now look very different on Chrome Canary -- a very rough-around-the-edges version used to test changes before they reach a broader audience. The active tab has a slope-shouldered look with curved corners. The grayed-out inactive tabs merge with the the browser itself and are separated only by thin vertical lines. In addition, the address bar's text box is a gray oval against a white backdrop, instead of a round-cornered white rectangle with a hairline border.
the next build of Firefox is going to make this exact same change.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
this is probably off topic, forgive me for that if you can but why on god's green earth would we want to give up on the dimension of texture and gradient in UI? also sharp corners make UI feel very unfriendly and unnuanced.
full on skeuomorphism was too much, but this is just as too much albeit in the opposite direction.
go on, get off my lawn..
Looking at the image from the OP, I have the following notes:
1) There is still a tiny bit of warmth in the color scheme. They should work to remove this last bit of friendliness to make the browser maximally cold and uninviting.
2) There is still too much contrast between the white background and window elements. For example, using Chrome I can still see where the slider is in its rail on the right-hand side of a website. The white background should be made softer (lower luminance), and the window elements should be a bit brighter (higher luminance) to bring them closer together.
3) There are only 12 incomprehensible icons on the address bar line, to the right of the address bar. The screen needs more googaws, curios, gimcracks, and oddities to function properly. Addresses and/or search fields are of less importance so make the address field narrower so that the search terms are never fully shown, in favor of more gizmos and thingamajigs.
4) The red, orange, and green dots on the upper left are a nice touch. In reference to "Demolition Man", maybe change these to three seashells?
Just trying to be helpful...
My girl watches some awful youtube, I recently saw her watch this a week ago and I screamed YES at the television.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
That teenage girl says what half of us have been saying for about 5 or 6 years now, since they started making UIs WORSE instead of better.
Less lines dividing / defining where you can click and what a button is.
Less colours used (red stop / green go) - screw that, let's make it 'flat' colours
No labelling on icons, it's ok there MIGHT be a tooltip if you hover (but try hovering a finger?)
Bad animations slowing things down or not being smart (a great animation could be informative)
The list goes on. My computer is now covered with unlabelled icons. If you were to wipe my memory and put me in front of a modern PC I suspect it'd be much much harder to learn than it was 10 to 20 years ago.
Everything gotta be flat, one colour, LOTS AND LOTS of god damned white. Use shadows / shading / colour to define things. Who cares if it's gaudy? There's ways of doing it nicely.
Modern UI is a shambles. Utter shambles.
Re 5, Google hasn't done this because Microsoft Office does it; hence NIH. (And yes, that is one of my biggest beefs about MsOffice. Next to the ribbon, of course.)
6) Get rid of the hamburger menu, who needs menus? Menus imply that the engineers did something wrong. The user should not be able to change anything about the browser's behavior, it's already perfect, and Google Knows Best.