14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla is making headway with the major redesign of the graphical user interface it has planned for Firefox 4.0. According to Mozilla designer Stephen Horlander, the next iteration of the open source browser will lose the now-traditional (read obsolete) dialog boxes. The move was designed as a part of the strategy to deliver in-content UI visual unification, Horlander noted. Users can have a look at the images included at the bottom of this screen in order to get an idea of the new GUI details Mozilla is cooking for Firefox 4.0.
However, the designed mockups included below were not intended to be comprehensive or final, Horlander emphasized. In this regard, Mozilla’s plans could definitely change before the browser maker delivers the successor of Firefox 3.6.
“One of the UX team’s priorities for Firefox 4 (and beyond) has been working towards getting more of the secondary UI into the browser as in-content UI. This can be seen already with the work being done on the new Add-ons manager,” Horlander explained.
As users can see via the screenshots offered by Mozilla, the Firefox 4.0 overhaul and in-content UI will reverberate across areas such as session restore, about:config, add-ons manager, network errors and phishing/malware warnings. Instead of popping up a dialog box, Firefox 4.0 will open a new Tab with the content. It appears that the browser maker is also considering integrating preferences, the library, home tab, tabcandy and about:firefox in its in-content UI visual unification strategy.
“This creates a lot of various interfaces going into the same conceptual space. I have been exploring ways to visually unify them and establish an ‘in-content UI’ style. There is a lot of flexibility for different things within the style. It could do a variety of nice things and still be easily identifiable as ‘hey that’s Firefox incontent-ui!’,” Horlander added. “The goal is to create something that looks appealing, connects the variety of different types of UI, is recognizably in-content UI and can be styled per platform.”
