eirk oh, hmm, somehow I did not thought of that. Thanks!
15
Random thoughts on Arc, Orion, and stuff
Hi Vlad,
I like your mockup of a kanban system for browser tabs! While I agree with you that thumbnails are complex, I rely on them to tell the difference between identical sites, like different pages on the same documentation site, or WordPress dashboards for multiple sites (I color my WP dashboards differently per site).
However, I don't think thumbnails need to be as large as they are in Safari's tab overview—I think a good compromise would be to have tiny thumbnails to the left of the tab cards:
I can't remember where I saw this thumbnail design, where the image is cropped around the logo area. Maybe it was the Speed Dial thumbnails in old Opera, before they switched from Presto to Chromium (RIP).
Arc's design looks like they're optimizing for tap targets, but Arc is a browser for macOS, so it doesn't make much sense to waste space like that. I think the overall idea is to browse with purpose rather than tab hoard, and maybe bigger UI elements encourages less open tabs. The tab auto-archive feature helps with tab clutter. I'm not a fan of the approach though.
I love it when apps have a command palette, and I think showing it instead of a new tab page is brilliant! My new tab page is blank in all my browsers, because it's too easy for me to get sidetracked by bookmarks, frequently visited, reading list, etc. Would love to see a command palette in Orion in the future, even if it doesn't replace the new tab page.
Also, I'm a fan of your work, I've been using your wallpapers since 2011.
lkhrs - much appreciated! People are different, and that's wonderful :-)
vladstudio Thanks for sharing your ideas in such detail manner. I assume that tab kanban view would replace current "Tab View" in Orion (it also has to be reachable for people who do not use vertical tabs).
If so then it is exactly what we were thinking about. If there is only one group/window it would still look pretty much like it does now and the user shouldbe able to zoom into any tab group to get a similar view.
I researched this topic a lot in the past, and Firefox had this idea of Tab Candy which later became Panorama view extension. The spatial organization where the user has infinte canvas to organize their tabs + notes also made sense. Check my notes below in assorted/random order if you want to think more about this.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/panorama-tab-groups/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/panorama-view/
https://museapp.com
https://www.nototo.app/
Vlad added the Under Review tag .
Vlad,
“it is exactly what we were thinking about” — that’s not at all what I expected, but that is beyond awesome :-)
Never heard of Firefox’s Tab Candy - thanks for the video! It’s from 2010, wow. Interesting why this kind of tab management did not become mainstream. I’d speculate that it could become visually overwhelming really fast. I’m already lost looking at this screen (and there’s less than 20 webpages visible!):
Paradoxically, a good management tool has constrains that limit your freedom, but instead offers some clever “concept” – to operate quickly and without much effort. Tabs themselves are a good example. There is not much you can do with tabs – but within these limits, they are a very efficient management tool.
For this reason, I’m afraid an infinite canvas is not an appropriate solution (however tempting it looks). You can drag anything anywhere, this means the tool does not really assist you, you’re on your own, and your canvas becomes a mess very soon (unless you are obsessed with keeping things in order).
I believe infinite boards do have their audience, it’s just a niche, not a concept that can be adopted widely.
Since the talk is getting serious :-) I thought I’d make more detailed Figma prototype:
(click anywhere and Figma will highlight what’s clickable on each frame).
Try the following:
- click [>] to open next group;
- click [<] to return to the previous group;
- click [||] to open the kanban-like interface;
- click a selected tab in groups 1 or 2 to go back to them;
- back in the kanban-like interface, click [···] on group 1 to open context menu.
Some screenshots:
vladstudio This looks incredible. The main constraint for tab management in Orion is that a solution needs to work equally well for horizontal tab users (which there are more of then vertical tab users). It is the main reason the current solution in Orion works like it does and your prototype does not address horizontal tab users.
Going back to the 'kanban' view, if you want to explore it a little more this extension was marked as inpiration for us (functionality wise, the design is outdated, so you may want to play with it a bit)
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tab-organizer/gbaokejhnafeofbniplkljehipcekkbh
Vlad Oh, yes, horizontal tabs! Totally forgot about them. Here is the new prototype (not as elegant as vertical view, but works well anyway):
- click "kanban" icon to open the kanban-like view.
- click "A list apart" tab to go back.
(also added "search tabs" input to both prototypes).
And some screenshots of the above prototype:
You'll notice that on both prototypes, the toolbar disappears when you scroll the webpage down (it's part of the viewport). This is the reminder of another idea - https://orionfeedback.org/d/2435-magic-toolbar-that-disappears-on-scrolldown-appears-on-scrollup-or-tab-click
Also - the look & feel of "kanban for horizontal tabs" can be worked on and made much better! Just another iteration:
I just cannot stop making them :-)
vladstudio Thanks for sharing your ideas. Hopefully others will chime in.
9 days later
Hi there,
What if the kanban view for horizontal tabs was identical to the one from vertical tabs? it's more space efficient and works well if a tab has many groups (think of scrolling a vertical tab group).
also I love that in the prototype it's possible to both quickly switch the tab group or view all tab groups kanban style
TheUser1 I agree with this, I think the whole idea of a kanban view is synonymous with having the groups be vertical (do a kagi image search for kanban view and compare the results vertical vs horizontal).
I am a horizontal tab view user, because I prefer the extra horizontal real estate whilst browsing the web. With that being said I much prefer the vertical layout of kanban prototypes in this thread, I personally think they look a lot better visually, whilst also providing better performance as they appear less cluttered.
I think implementing some form of button to take you to this kanban view (or by replacing the current tab overview), should take you into a vertically laid out kanban view, no matter your tab orientation.
5 months later
Most of things talked here are addressed in the next release (minus kanban tabs) so I am going to mark this as done. We are planning to have kanban tab management in the future. Here is a design preview.
oh wow! that's very exciting. Looking forward to the next release!
Excellent work, I'm impressed!
Can this be done with bookmarks?