Mozilla has been construction a new user interface for Firefox, whose layout seems to be revealed in new mockups that show the integrated Home Tab app, as well as new Fx menu that is clearly targeted to be used with touch screen devices.
Firefox Mockup (Windows)
Firefox Mockup (Mac)
As revolutionary and disruptive the visual transition from Firefox 3.6 to Firefox 4 was, the impact of the transition to the new UI, which may come with Firefox 7 or 8 later this year, will be even more dramatic. If there have been complaints about too much change before, Mozilla will now definitely need a legacy mode to keep software migration managers happy.
By now we already know that the trend of reduced browser interfaces will continue and browser makers will come up with new ways to increase the number of pixels dedicated to apps and web pages and decrease the number of pixels in the browser interface. The new Firefox UI appears to be leveraging the One-Liner Mozilla Prospector experimental add-on at least in a full-screen view, which combines menu items, tabs and the location bar in just one line. Given the real estate that is available on modern widescreen displays, this appears to be a reasonable solution that gives web apps room, but is more appealing than the elimination of the location bar.
Firefox Mockup (Windows, Full Screen)
The mockups also show a fixed Home Tab, which is an application integrated in Firefox that replaces the start page and provides users access to configurable information, including apps, news, browsing history, tabs, etc.
The Firefox menu button will include fewer menu items than before and transition to touch-friendly icons instead of a list view. The menu appears to be only providing core functionality as well as add-ons at first sight, while the user can choose to extend the menu on an individual basis. Subjectively, we feel that the Mac interface looks much more advanced and user-friendly than the Windows version and Mozilla should think about bringing Firefox on Windows much closer to the look and feel of Firefox on Mac OS X.
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