Mozilla just wrapped up the Firefox 3.5 release a few weeks ago, but they are already going to town on what they can do for future improvements. When they redesigned Firefox 3.0 I thought the new designs were okay, but they weren’t anything that seemed to be revolutionary.
What’s neat about Mozilla, however, is that they’re not afraid to show the world what they’re thinking about doing months or even years ahead of time. They aren’t afraid of the competition coming along and outdoing them, and as a result they can get a lot of quality feedback so that they can fine tune the various aspects of the browser before it gets shipped out to the world.
Keeping in that spirit Mozilla has released some rather polished mockups of the route they’re thinking about going for Firefox 3.7. There’s no word on when Firefox 3.7 is planned to be available, but the last I heard Firefox 3.6 is due out in mid-2010. I’m guessing that puts Firefox 3.7 somewhere in 2011. So don’t get too excited quite yet, because by the time that version is released these design styles may already be outdated.
Below you’ll find some of the various mockups for Firefox 3.7 on Windows, and then I also stumbled upon one Firefox 4.0 mockup that is more of the “hand drawn” style. Before I jump into the screenshots I wanted to pull a quote that I found on the MozillaWiki:
This is sometimes a hard area to explore. Windows applications are not known for their visual design savvy.
They then go on to reference Paint (the Windows 7 version), Zune Player software, and Postbox as being three applications that have nice interfaces. They also mention wanting to remove the Menu Bar, and making the entire interface a bit more streamlined. The screenshots show that they are doing just that:
Firefox 3.7 Mockups (click thumbnail to enlarge)
Firefox 4.0 Mockup (click thumbnail to enlarge)
So what do you think? Is Mozilla on the right track? By the time they actually get these out the door will they already be labeled as outdated?
Pleasantly surprised! They seem to use some elements from other browsers as well, like the refresh button in Safari. Since I’m using OS X these days, I wonder if they plan any changes on that platform as well.
I’m sure changes would be made across all operating systems just to keep them somewhat uniform.
Wow, the Firefox 4.0 Mockup looks exactly like Google Chrome
I like it. The mockup of 3.7 with the aero glass implementation and the 4.0 interface both look very nice. I hope it happens.
Those look like some good steps in the right direction. Those are actually the kind of interfaces I was hoping for in Fx3.0. Now that Chrome came out I was able to skip the wait. Anyone notice that the Fx4.0 mockup is almost identical to Chrome (tabs up top w/ new tab button on right, page and tools buttons in same spot, and look closely: it depicts an omnibar where you start typing a search site and it transforms to a search box. I think it’s somewhat likely that these types of improvements make Fx3.7 and/or 4.0, but it’s also likely they don’t meet deadlines for fixing the interface and removing the obselete menu bar. Either way, it’s too little, too late.
By the time Mozilla actually gets on to implementing these designs though Google will have fine-tuned their design even more. It almost feels like Mozilla is trying to play catch-up a little.
I like the 4.0 much more than the 3.7. But either way it looks very cool, I wonder how the other platforms are going to look.
By the time mid 2010 is here, these prototypes will be history. What is important is that Mozilla is doing a marvelous job in keeping its software secure and stable. It’s not bad looking either.
Will wait in the wings for further Firefox developments. Chrome, Safari and Opera and not sleeping on the laurels either.
Omg, where is my navigation bar?
IE8 is so hard to use, pls don’t make the same mistakes with my beloved firefox.
Huh, you really like the Menu Bar? I hide it in all my browsers.
I like the direction its going in – though I’d prefer them to offer the option of removing all the padding and margins in the interface – I like to maximise my screen real estate so the big tabs and buttons would put me off. Glad they’re ditching the menu bar, and I’ve always thought having tabs above the nav and address bar makes a lot of sense seeing as they’re specific to only the current tab. Not a fan of the “Page” menu taking up tab space either.
They also need to remember that whilst they have a good design people like customising things, so don’t drop the myriad of toolbar options we currently have, and let people use a menu bar if they want, but also allow those of us who like smaller interfaces to turn it off.
They should follow IE’s footsteps (can’t believe I’m saying that) where you can quickly press Alt to display the Menu Bar temporarily.
Looks great!
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Firefox 3.6 is scheduled now as a “minor update” and they are saying fall of this year. While 3.7 is looking like spring of 2010. The actual release dates are going to more likely six months later given the past history.