No doubt, Mozilla Firefox is holding 2nd highest market share after Internet Explorer. Firefox has possessed for years as for new features, stability and security, but this time v4 UI is more focused on UI evolution which is similar Windows 7 native applications UI (Paint and WordPad).

FF4 Ribbon UI

Since July, Mozilla Corporation is overhauling of UI for next major release of Firefox i.e. v4.0, The evolutionary work that was supposed to span 3.7 and 4.0 has now shifted full focus to the latter. Mozilla has been refining the conceptual UI for v4.0, that may be inspired by Windows 7 Ribbon UI.

Stephen Horlander says-
One of the benefits of the App Button is that it is similar to the way Microsoft is treating its native apps and Office. Another benefit is that the placement is closer to where the Menu bar would be and therefore it is more familiar.

One idea that we have already explored with the Pages and Tools buttons is to use text on the button instead of an icon. This is also reminiscent of the Menu bar’s textual display and removes any ambiguity involved with icons. This approach is also explored in the most recent Office 2010 beta with the tab simply being labeled “File”. We discussed naming our App Button simply “Firefox” because it contains all the actions that apply to Firefox. Attaching the button to the top of the window further implies that this menu affects Firefox as a whole.”

Concept of FF4 UI The advantages of evolution to Firefox UI:

  • It is less complex
  • Takes up less space
  • Instead of two potentially conflicting locations for menu items, there is now only one unified location
  • Can be placed in the upper left analogous to the Menu bar paradigm it is replacing
  • Similar to the far more ubiquitous Office 2008/2010 + Windows 7 application menu
  • Reduces clutter on the Navigation Toolbar
  • It also creates a more flexible and rich canvas for perhaps doing some decidedly non-menu-esque things

Courtesy: Stephen Horlander Blog

6 responses to “Mozilla Firefox v4.0 is getting Inspired by Ribbon UI”

  1. Kevin J Avatar
    Kevin J

    Ribbon UI is being adopted by everyone now. Any schedule for beta release?

  2. Suneil Avatar
    Suneil

    but the new features provided by the Firefox is really cool \m/ but the problem is the browser itself consumes more system resources which may make the system slower (if u r in lower configuration system).

  3. Suneil Avatar
    Suneil

    T’s ok, but not cool as Opera web browser. Opera is more user friendly than Firefox web browser. But, security wise, Firefox is good, but if u know how to configure your browser for your personal needs and security wise, then, Opera is better.

  4. Leon Meijer Avatar
    Leon Meijer

    Typo, must be ubiquitous Office 2007/2010 + Windows 7 application menu

  5. PChammer Avatar
    PChammer

    So far I think it’s great. I have used only Fire fox for years and this could be the greatest version yet. The only issue is, now I’m too darn anxious for it! ;-)

  6. bousaid Avatar
    bousaid

    nice … thanks

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