Mozilla is making a design update for the Firefox browser called Photon. The last major design update of Firefox was in November 2017. The version at that time was Firefox 57 and was called Proton. Recently, the stable version of Firefox 75 released a controversial address bar adjustment.
As for the information about design updates, it is limited. Mozilla created a tracking bug on Bugzilla as a reference to track adjustments. Although there are no models or screenshots posted on the site, the name of the tracker provides information about the elements. This information will be refreshed. They are:
- Firefox address bar and tab bar
- Firefox main menu
- Info bars
- Doorhangers
- Pop-up menu
- Modal box
Most user interface elements are listed in the tracker. Mozilla plans to release a new design in Firefox 89, which is scheduled to be released in mid-2021-May 18, 2021. Since development work is still in progress, the release may be delayed. The development is still in its early stages. Mozilla used different designs to create multiple models. It is unclear whether they will be selected and eventually used in Firefox.
Hentzschel pointed out that when the design of Firefox is finished it will look more modern, and Mozilla also plans to introduce other useful improvements, especially in terms of user experience.
In addition, Hentzschel also mentioned two examples of potential user experience improvements, a model that displays vertical tabs in a compact model and a model that displays tab groups on the tab bar.
The development version of Firefox will receive design updates sooner. Firefox users running Nightly, Beta, and Development versions may need to do the following to enable Proton:
- Enter and load about: Config in the Firefox address bar
- Make sure you will be careful
- Find browser.proton.enabled
- Set the preference to TRUE to enable the design
- Restart the Firefox browser
It should be noted that if you want to make design updates available in Firefox Nightly, you will have to wait weeks or even months.
(Via)
