Vlad
That is a very bold statement.
Unfortunately, the conversations here mostly are subjective opinions being presented as objective fact without any evidence to back it up.
I just find it ironic that you want to adhere to Apple HIG, but you're looking to 2011 Microsoft for Interact Design Principals, which we're all aware of how great the Microsoft user experience was back then.
It was designed in an area where 75% of users had 3.59 tabs or fewer open, while the high end of tabs were upwards of 11 tabs. According this same article (which uses date provided by Test Pilot), Microsoft used similar data in designing IE9. [1]
Another study conducted by Patrick Dubroy in 2009, albeit a much smaller sample size than the million Test Pilot users, showed similar results to the Test Pilot study [2]
Today's browsing habits are significantly different. If there was research to conclude that this tab design provided a better user experience, or users had a significant attachment to it, Microsoft likely would have kept it around just 4 years later in the release of Edge. Instead, it only lived on with Internet Explorer 11. which was simply a release to keep corporations happy with a consistent interface for compliance reasons.
It was difficult to find modern large scale studies on the number of open tabs, but based on a quick survey of individuals near me, our average is as high as the outliers in the surveys from 2009 and 2010.
User Experience is not designed. Subjective opinions are not fact. A design not adhering to HIGs is not a poor interaction. In fact, some of the best designed products have gone against standard HIG.
In no world is a swipe to scroll an intuitive user interaction.
In no world is two fingers to click as a secondary menu an intuitive user interaction.
In no world is an address bar docked on the left side of the screen while my active tab is on the right an intuitive user interaction.
These are learned interactions.
That is not to say that your design is bad. It is good.
Now, it's important to acknowledge that design is always subjective, and a subjectively bad design can provide a better experience for many users.
Based on the forum here, more users prefer the compact tab design of Safari 15, but are willing to settle for Internet Explorer 9.
At the end of the day, innovation dies by adhering to 10 year old HIGs.
I admire what you're doing with Orion, and I'll continue to support both Orion and Kagi, but I am disappointed with the way that the discussion and implementation of this feature has turned out.
- https://slate.com/human-interest/2010/12/a-new-data-set-from-firefox-reveals-our-browsing-habits.html
- https://dubroy.com/blog/how-many-tabs-do-people-use-now-with-real-data/
