Full FeedHow the Safari 4 interface can be improved
On Tuesday, I released a list of the 8 principal things wrong with the Safari 4 interface from a usability standpoint. Today, I’m going to outline six fixes that would make me love Safari 4, and that I feel solve all the issues.
What you see above is an “Unfail Diagram,” the opposite of Tuesday’s “Fail Diagram.” You know it’s different because the markings are green now. Please use the diagram to follow along.
1. “Let’s go scrolling!” - This little arrow will allow you to scroll through all the tabs, instead of just opening up a menu with tab names on it. In real use, this would only appear when the tab bar got too full, and there would be one pointing the other direction, too. Lifted out of Firefox, sure, but hey, we didn’t seem to have a problem taking Google Chrome’s “tabs on top,” did we?
2. “Let’s make the ‘Customize’ sheet worthwhile” - Now, this randomly attached button can be gotten rid of if you so choose. Imagine that. (See also number 5)
3. “Let’s have a progress indicator that indicates progress!” - Why was the progress bar ever gone? Now it’s back and progressive as ever (but with new colors.)
4. “Let’s have a standard, intuitive title bar” - A title bar that looks like all other applications’ title bars, acts like all other title bars, and requires no re-learning. Oh no, it adds on ten more pixels. Make it an option. The tabs all get their own row, and lose the stupid “grip” area. Their functionality returns to as it was in Safari 3, where dragging any part of the tab vertically breaks it off, and dragging horizontally moves it around.
5. “Let’s not make unnecessary switches” - By default, the refresh button and add bookmark button are switched so that the refresh button is now a larger target and the add bookmark button is inside the URL field it applies to. These are switchable and one can be had without the other.
6. “Let’s make things match” - Purely aesthetic, but the search box and address bar have matched curvatures, and their bevels are the same as well.
Does this solve all of your gripes with the Safari UI? Does it create any new problems? Sound off in the comments below!
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Why is there no stop button on Safari 4? Its madness!
on February 27, 2009 at 01:55 AM - LINKStop button…. If you click the progress wheel it acts like a stop button. I know crazy isn’t it.
1. Personally I hate the title bar at the top of the window it’s a complete waste of space. While they are at it there should be an option to hide the OS X menu bar.
on February 27, 2009 at 10:08 AM - LINK2. I don’t need to scroll through tabs with buttons when I can do it with the keyboard.
3. I do want the progress bar back
4. I agree you should be able to grab anywhere in the tab to move it and the close button should be on the right just as it is on the windows.
5. I don’t care but anyone else notice that in the drop down bookmarks menu there is the add bookmark here option anymore?
6. I think the difference in style differentiates them. If they were the same it would be bland and boring.
love it, could use a “hide menubar” button.
on March 3, 2009 at 04:34 AM - LINKSafari 4 is terrible. It’s like Google Chrome with an OS X face and Google Chrome sucks.
on March 4, 2009 at 02:05 PM - LINKIt looks much better apart from point 6. I don’t think the Search field needs to be changed to a rectangle with rounded corner. It clearly tells you “I am not the Location Bar”.
on March 5, 2009 at 01:02 PM - LINKAgree with everything except #6. Also, the “+” inside address bar should be changed to a star (right now, it is the same as another “+” that means “show more tabs”, which is confusing). Also, this star should be filled blue (or highlighted in some other way) to indicate that the current site is already in the bookmarks (similar to how RSS button in the same place indicated that the current site has RSS). Hitting this star would take you directly to bookmarks:// with this bookmark selected (so you can rename it or delete with one keystroke). Concerning #2, the “Reload” button should not only be allowed to be hidden, it should not be attached to the address bar at all. There should not be any attached buttons, this completely breaks the modularity of the Toolbar.
(I must add that Safari 4 interface is the most sloppy interface work I’ve ever seen from Apple, only comparable to the ugly and useless Leopard 3D Dock with reflections and the inconvenient and incompatible with line output new iPod Shuffle.)
on April 6, 2009 at 06:25 AM - LINKI have the most up to date Apple Computer possible - and yet the new Safari acts like a dial up program - with that F*#@ing wheel spinning constantly. I am now switching over to Firefox which is blazingly fast. What the hell did they do to Safari - I don’t get it? Does Safari suck for everyone else now?
on July 31, 2009 at 01:54 AM - LINK