Compact tabs

Hybrid At the end of the day, innovation dies by adhering to 10 year old HIGs.

Respectfully, who exactly is asking for UI to be constantly innovating to a point where it’s HIG-breaking? As a user, I’d rather use native apps that follow the HIG of its host operating system than trying to shove its brand identity down my throat or do something “innovative” that is completely unexpected from how other apps function.

Not sure if we are still voting;

Primary: 3 - It's clean, tidy and much easier to see the active tab
Secondary: 2 - Second natural choice for me, given its similar to Safari

Lack of compact tabs is why I haven't fully switched to Orion yet. The old Safari ones just feel too clunky.

Mbrgv Yes, this is precisely my situation.

Mbrgv try "Use Compact Size" by right-clicking on the toolbar?

I too support the decision of having the address bar in a fixed position and having the choice to keep the tabs in that line saving some vertical space.
I'm new here, I saw this feature marked as planned, is there any schedule to this, I'm sorry if this is dumb question.

thuvasooriya I'm new here, I saw this feature marked as planned, is there any schedule to this, I'm sorry if this is dumb question.

Planned is more like it’s on the roadmap, but not necessarily a solid date as to when it comes out or gets implemented. For this particular feature request, I think we still have to pass the UX stages before it can be handed over to the developers to implement the feature in Orion and be released in the RC builds.

alicerunsonfedora Got it Thanks for the reply.

Vlad Orion's vertical tab implementation has won me over (it's my primary reason for wanting to switch to Orion). I empathize with how difficult managing the sheer volume of feature requests (+ bug reports) Orion gets must be, and I think the team does an admirable job of responding to them. I think the characterization that Orion does not listen to user feedback is wrong. Orion takes an methodical, and some times opinionated, approach to design that's aligned to Apple's HIG. I appreciate this, and I think it is the reason why Orion feels closer to an Apple browser than Safari in many respects.

I just read through the entire 200+ post discussion procrastinating my work. I used to be a big fan of compact tabs in Safari, but I ultimately dropped them, because Safari's implementation is just bad in the corner cases. One consistent theme in the discussion is many users requesting that the URL bar + tab is integrated, and the team insisting that it shouldn't be. The reasoning laid out is the following (my summary):

1. the URL bar is a core UI element so it should not move around
2. the primary reason for using compact tabs is to save vertical space, and the horizontal placement of the URL bar does not affect this

I believe these reasons are not sound, and here's why:

1. I agree that core elements should not move around. The example of the back/forward buttons is a good one. I do not agree that the URL bar is equivalent to the back/forward buttons. The URL is associated with the website currently being viewed. For most users, it is a "more precise" description of the title displayed on the tab. These are interpreted as the "identity" of a website. Would you say that the title of a website/favicon moving around is bad UX? No, because those elements are associated with an object that should move around on the screen just like a file in Finder. An over-zealous application of this logic would be to have a dropdown menu for all tabs instead of the tab carousel we see in most browsers.
2. Before I tried Orion, I felt that this was the reason I liked Safari's compact tabs. Orion made me realize that this is not the case, since Orion's compact mode offers more space for content than Safari's compact tabs. Actually, compact Orion + vertical tabs w/ favicons only maximizes this metric. Instead, I realized that Safari's compact tabs were pleasing because they removed visual clutter. Part of that is the integration of the URL + tab. I totally agree that being able to quickly access the URL for the currently viewed website is crucial for any browser. I disagree that being able to see it at a glance is required or even useful. I (and probably most users) must spend <5% caring about the URL of a website beyond the domain name. Even then, the title of the website offers all the infomation that a domain name would.

I took the time to write out this explanation, because I felt it was never explicitly articulated in the full discussion. I hope what I said makes sense. While I completely agree with your approach/thought process to this issue, I think you are missing a few details that end up resulting in a different conclusion that I would.

I would say it is fair to give the team the benefit of the doubt until the design is released. The only ask is that the team considers integrating the URL bar + tab as a possible option. In other words, maybe it is a settings toggle in the final design if enough users continue to request it. This is in contrast to a hypothetical request moving back/forward buttons, which I think the team can objectively reject as a possible option.

@Vlad I think at the end of the day, any dissenters here are simply asking that you give the same open mindedness to the Apple design as we're trying to give to the Orion implementation.

I personally trust and believe that your implementation will fulfill your goals, and will you will execute it exceptionally well.

But your implementation does very different things, interacts in different ways, and there are two different use cases and desires here.

Can't wait to see and play with your design, even if it's not the feature I'm looking for.

Vlad

I can’t speak for all, but in my case my reference to open mindedness is in regards to understanding the validity to the Apple approach, not requiring you to implement it.

Hybrid I can see arguments for it, and I still hold a position this core element of the browser UI should have a fixed position to enchance productivity and familiarity with using a browser. If the goal is to remove visual clutter, other ways should be explored.

puClvr Compact tabs, much like the vertical tabs, will likely be an option. If you don‘t like that option, you are more than welcome to not choose that option and go with vertical tabs instead.

I really like the compact tab bar in safari. I would really like if Orion had the same feature.