Compact tabs

I know some people might find this obnoxious, but this genuinely one of my favourite design elements of new Safari, and it would be incredible to see this in Orion.

scarfacedeb Judging from Vlad's mockup's above, it will be better than Safari's implementation. I assume that this would be an alternatvie option to classic tabs so people won't be forced to use it...

Using version 0.99.123.1-beta now; I would say the compact design on Orion is my favorite design, it is great in terms of usability, it is low-profile and no-bs! Please keep it! Much more superior than safari compact design!!!

So i read this a while back, and have been thinking about it. It seems like theres 2 problems people have.

1. some wants an address bar that doesnt move around
2. some people dont like the tabs arent "real" tabs

Personally i dont have a such a big problem with the address bar not staying in the same location. but if I have a problem with Orion teams suggested solution:
It is that, if the tabs also arent address bars you can type in. its not intuative that they look identical.
In Safari they look identical because they are identical. they are both a tab and an adress bar.

So i tried to think about how to solve to keep address bar in 1 place while having tabs that are "real" and doesnt look like adress bars you can type in.

Anyway this is what i came up with. maybe it can work as inspiration

Ultra compact with many tabs:

Less compact, more similar to Safari compact and Orion standard size with the open tab being the furthest to the right:

I think I would prefer a solution similar to this, if the tabs arent also adress bars that i can type in.
Obviously you can scale the adress bar as wide as you please, remove buttons etc.. this is just a quick sketch trying to keep the exact same functionality and spacing as none compact

you can also do it this way:

Instead of this:

so would look like this in context:

not sure its better tho

Longely I really like these ideas, thank you for taking time to share this!

What would this look like if somewhere in the middle?

And can you add sketch what would it look like if they are many tabs open (so reduced to minimum size/ just icons)

And a variation all these where the toolbar UI is merged with the page UI a'la your last proposal.

Vlad

If what exactly was in the middle?

Sure heres a sketch of mininum size:

The whole idea is that the whatever space there is to utilise on the right side of the adress bar is used for tabs.
meaning you can still add whatever buttons or extentions icons you want.

But in this case of standard layout, within the space that is avalible:

The tab behavior is the exact same as in none compact mode. meaning tabs scale expand and get compressed the same as the user is used to in none compact. making it IMO super intuative. So if you want to imagine how somethng specific would look. you can just look at none compact.

Another reason why i prefer this aproach over the previous suggested or Safaris method is. that since you are on the same horionzontal line, every inch counts. and this way there are no "dead" space between the tabs:

Regarding Safaris coloring and UI merge. i think its a seperate issue and dont think it actually belongs in the same issue as this.

Since it could also be implemented in none compact mode and doesnt change any functionality, its a purely aesthetic thing. meaning you could like Safaris coloring thing without liking there compact tabs, and other way around

But sure i can try to make one. they are a bit harder to make a sketch of tho

Here is another example of it with the Safari UI merge/color adoption:

But again. i think this is a completly seperat issue from "compact tabs" as compact tabs are about increasing website space, and this adds nothing. it looks nice sure.. but its a different issue, wich i think clouds the conversation a bit to bring in. obviously its important that whatever compact tab solution you choose can work with it, would you take that step next to add color, but i think most can

Also the reason why mock ups are hard to make is because Apple is doing alot of magic trickery with text color, to increase contrast depending on whatever color the icon/text are displayed on