Unfortunately there is a general trend towards removing colorful icons and I hate that trend with a passion.
Take for example the setting menu from stock Android: Yes, there are still icon but they all have the same color and it is really difficult to tell them apart. Every time I go to settings I have to search around until I find the settings I was looking for. If it had colorful icons then navigation would be easier because my brain would learn "blue icon = keyboard settings"
Or take Chrome on Android: Open Chrome, press the three dots on the bottom right for the menu and try to find the 'search in page' entry. Every time i wanna search something I have to read half of the menu items to find the search function... If it would have a distinct icon it would be much easier to find.
A frustrating trend indeed. I really miss colours in the macOS Finder: The monochrome sidebar is frustrating, the default folders (Pictures, Music etc) are harder to distinguish than in 10.4, and Finder colour labels have been replaced by tiny "tag" bubbles.
It's the other way around on mobile. Icons are still colourful (although too many are blue-on-white), but they all have the same shape, and Apple hates icon labels with a passion. In iOS 11, they are almost impossible to read on the stock wallpaper, and the new Dock gets rid of them altogether: http://media.idownloadblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/iO...
When I am a little low on energy, I regularly catch myself tapping the wrong iOS app just because it has the right colours at a glance. Icons should just always have both a colour and a shape, no matter how much it frustrates designers.
My bookmarks bar is a row of unlabeled favicons arranged by color. Beautiful and extremely efficient. I only need to store the color of an icon in my head, not the icon itself or the url. If this ever gets taken away from me I will become extremely cross.
Outlook is another terrible offender. Maybe for mailboxes in the sidebar it didn't add much, but the icons were really helpful if you're using the CRM integration.
Older versions of Android had colourful icons, but often those colours changed between versions. This is the worst possible sin, and possibly part of why they don't any more.
That's what I dislike with the recent Jetbrains products.
Designer replied they were fixing the problem of the colorful icons being too "distracting". Still don't understand how a grey UI with grey icons is better...
Even more frustrating is that the names of the options is different across versions of chrome. On my phone it's called 'find in page' instead of 'search in page'
I agree with you broadly, but not about the android settings.
I mean, they just look so much better this way (Nougat). Perhaps your requirements would be better addressed in the accessibility settings. Have you tried turning high contrast on?
For most of us, the better looking icons are a non-issue. I personally don't even look at them to navigate, I can read the options.
All Microsoft products after 2010 are worst offenders. The nice Office 2010 and Windows 7 and beautiful high res icons and very nice color schemes - gone. I cannot stand the Win8/10 and Office 2016 bland look and mix of legacy icons botched with a Photoshop filter to make them grayscale and new boring grayscale icons. Everything looks white and grayish, some parts of the window can be dragged around, some are click-able ...but one only knows by try-and-error. Well I reverted back to Win7 & Office 2010 - so much more pleasing to my eyes.
I made a Safari extension that simulates favicons by prefixing tab titles with emoji. It's not a perfect substitute, but it's made it a lot easier for me to distinguish between tabs.
I never understood why people wanted their tabs on the top instead of on the side. I'm using [Tree Style Tab][1] on Firefox and whenever I need to use any browser I feel limited by screen real estate. With modern widescreen displays I can have my tabs on the side and the titles are still readable while the website content is readable, too. What's not to like?
Personally I prefer having tabs at the top of the browser because they are always accessible without being too distracting. I find having a wide sidebar of tabs pulls my attention away more often than I would like.
I much prefer to have no favicons. They're a really poor indicator of the content of the tab, especially when 20 of them are Stack Overflow and Read the Docs.
Safari has a really good way of visually distinguishing between tabs, a two fingered pinch on the trackpad and I can see the actual content of every tab that I have open. Can't remember the last time I even looked at the text in the tabs.
I think it's even more useful with 20 stackoverflow tabs. I'd prefer knowing that a particular range of tabs is all stackoverflow, or all some other site. And I don't know why, but I never got into the habit of the pinch to view all tabs feature.
Totally valid. If they were going to change one thing about Safari, though, for me it would be to drop the required $99/year payment for a developer program membership just to distribute a signed Safari plugin. You can't really distribute plugins without a developer certificate, as Safari uninstalls them automatically when the browser restarts. Probably the worst Safari-related decision Apple has made recently, much worse than favicons, though I completely agree that they should return.
I agree a centered URL is a bit of aesthetic ridiculousness when exposing the entire URL.
Aesthetic opinions aside, the linked complaint relies on a workflow that could be considered a UI anti-pattern.
1. Move hand to mouse.
2. Position cursor.
3. Click URL bar. (activate caret)
4. Move hand(s) to keyboard.
5. Type replacement.
The following workflow lends itself more easily to UI automation (and muscle memory)
1. Type Command-L. ("Open Location…" which selects all in location bar.)
2. Type left/right-arrow. (Move caret to left/right side of location bar.)
3. Option left/right-arrow. (move caret left/right one "word".)
4. Type replacement.
The distinct advantage of the second workflow is that it is susceptible to the automated editing of URLs of many tabs using Keyboard Maestro [0] and a simple AppleScript.
Combined with keyboard tab-switching (Command-shift-[ and Command-shift-] for next left and right tab, respectively, you can fast web-page switch to spot small differences similar to the way in which a Hinman Collator works to highlight differences between bound books. [1]
Admittedly (and a bit off-topic), the link I provide for the Hinman Collator doesn't exactly illuminate what such a device does. A better demonstration of how collation can be used to highlight subtle visual differences between two artifacts can be derived in the service of solving a puzzle from one of my favorite web sites, Kindertrauma. [2]
The puzzle, which asks you to spot the differences between a series of two photos, is mildly challenging. That mild challenge is reduced to laughably simple when the images are collated. [3]
EDIT: Move parenthetical into footnote. Add adverbial phrase to footnote parenthetical. Rewrite Kindertrauma example. General readability.
[0] https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/ (I'd be embarrassed to name drop Keyboard Maestro yet again here on HN if it just weren't so darned useful. A truly amazing piece of software Keyboard Maestro is. No relationship except as a satisfied user.)
With Firefox, you get the best of both worlds. You get favicons, but you also get a minimum tab width so you can always read the first word or two of the page title. Rather than squishing down infinitely like Chrome, they just quickly scroll side-to-side more like Safari.
Side-scrolling tabs are one of the worst UI innovations I've suffered in recent years. They wreak havoc on spatial tab organization, make it impossible to see how many tabs are open, and slide out from under the mouse cursor unpredictably when clicking.
The original Safari behavior of a vertical overflow list of tabs, favicons included, keyboard searchable and navigable, was much more usable. https://i.stack.imgur.com/eyXum.png
Another killer feature for me is that you can basically middle click anything and open it in a new tab, whether a bookmark, back button, etc. Makes some tasks very intuitive and trying to maintain the same workflow on Chrome is extremely frustrating. I cannot understand for the life of me why this isn't a native feature in Chrome.
With Firefox you can go one better and install the TabMixPlus extension and get multi-row tabs. I don't know how anyone functions with Chrome or Safari -- any reasonable number of tabs is unusable to me.
I concur. I don't use safari because it feels worse. I felt the reason was I couldn't easily identify where my tab was supposed to be easily without reading. Many websites these days do not provide super great titles.
Although I do kind of wish some of these browsers supported the ability to switch tabs similar to emacs and give me a full view to select and search between tabs. It would also show the favicon.
Favicons rainbowing up my top tab just acts as even more distractions. It only helps marginally because if you open 10 stackoverflow tabs, you would still need to open each one to see what’s what. That’s why Safari has the tabs overview view that shows you what’s inside. You can’t tell exactly, but you can most of the time.
It's worth noting that Safari _can_ display favicons. If you pin a tab, it uses the favicon. It's even displayed in monochrome until you hover over the tab so they've definitely worked out a way to display them.
I'm quite surprised to find myself disagreeing with Gruber on this one. I like the way safari works currently, I don't want a bunch of loud little icons crowding up my screen. I don't have any problem identifying the tabs I have, and as others I have mentioned I can just use tab expose to find them quickly.
I've seen a few mockups on Twitter that he's re-tweeted recently and they just look more cluttered to me.
That may come from using Safari as my main browser for 13+ years, but I'm certainly quite happy with things the way they are.
What's the argument for showing it all the time? There's not enough space to show the entirety of even relatively short URLs without scrolling (and scrolling means tapping on it anyway).
I wonder if it's because Apple didn't like the mush that 16x16 favicons become on Retina screens with their preferred linear upscaling.
Of course, other sizes of favicons are possible for use by site owners (.ICO supports multiple resolutions in a single file!), and there's no particularly good reason to use linear upscaling for what's often pixel art.
I completely agree, one of the things that keeps me coming back to Chrome is favicons in tabs which is particularly useful when you have a bunch of tabs open. I also have a favorites bar with purely favicons so I can fit as many of my regular sites/resources in there as possible while still looking visually appealing.
I tried out Safari for a week but I just couldn't stay there because extension support was terrible. Technically, the two critical extensions I use (LastPass and uBlock Origin) support Safari in some form, however they were strictly worse than the Chrome version. I can tolerate to some degree worse extensions. However, the UX was just _too_ bad to stand.
To be perfectly honest, I didn't even realize Safari lacked favicons until I read this article. I generally close tabs are soon as I finish using them. Consequently, I never have more than ~5 tabs open at any given moment.
Favicons in Safari for Mac? That's the least problem. They need to fix Safari on iOS so that it doesn't open the same site over and over again in a different tab each time.
They also need to catch up to the rest of the world and give the user a choice of which browser to open up by default on iOS. Oh, this is Apple though - they give you the absolute least amount of functionality that they can get away with while charging the highest prices. I can't wait for the time of Apple to come to an end.
> They need to fix Safari on iOS so that it doesn't open the same site over and over again in a different tab each time.
Seems to work perfectly fine for me.
> They also need to catch up to the rest of the world and give the user a choice of which browser to open up by default on iOS.
It's not as simple as that. If you want an OS that everyone can use, options are your enemy. Would I like to be able to decide the standard browser on my OS? To be honest, I don't care in this instance since I like Safari better than the alternatives, but sure, the choice would be great to have should that change.
I agree for sure. At the very least have it as a preference. My bookmark bar consists of icons w/ no label. I treat Favicons more or less like I do iOS app icons.
[+] [-] yoodenvranx|8 years ago|reply
Take for example the setting menu from stock Android: Yes, there are still icon but they all have the same color and it is really difficult to tell them apart. Every time I go to settings I have to search around until I find the settings I was looking for. If it had colorful icons then navigation would be easier because my brain would learn "blue icon = keyboard settings"
Or take Chrome on Android: Open Chrome, press the three dots on the bottom right for the menu and try to find the 'search in page' entry. Every time i wanna search something I have to read half of the menu items to find the search function... If it would have a distinct icon it would be much easier to find.
[+] [-] gurkendoktor|8 years ago|reply
This was so much easier to scan at a glance: http://tb43.com/wp-content/files/finder_011.png
It's the other way around on mobile. Icons are still colourful (although too many are blue-on-white), but they all have the same shape, and Apple hates icon labels with a passion. In iOS 11, they are almost impossible to read on the stock wallpaper, and the new Dock gets rid of them altogether: http://media.idownloadblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/iO...
When I am a little low on energy, I regularly catch myself tapping the wrong iOS app just because it has the right colours at a glance. Icons should just always have both a colour and a shape, no matter how much it frustrates designers.
[+] [-] kakarot|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wlesieutre|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fredley|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] conradfr|8 years ago|reply
Designer replied they were fixing the problem of the colorful icons being too "distracting". Still don't understand how a grey UI with grey icons is better...
[+] [-] cbcoutinho|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] libeclipse|8 years ago|reply
I mean, they just look so much better this way (Nougat). Perhaps your requirements would be better addressed in the accessibility settings. Have you tried turning high contrast on?
For most of us, the better looking icons are a non-issue. I personally don't even look at them to navigate, I can read the options.
[+] [-] frik|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] logand|8 years ago|reply
https://github.com/logandaniels/emoji-tab-icons
[+] [-] throwaway2016a|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] omn1|8 years ago|reply
[1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/
[+] [-] stordoff|8 years ago|reply
Personally I prefer having tabs at the top of the browser because they are always accessible without being too distracting. I find having a wide sidebar of tabs pulls my attention away more often than I would like.
[+] [-] hbosch|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] glhaynes|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lowboy|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bhnmmhmd|8 years ago|reply
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sidewise-tree-styl...
[+] [-] drcongo|8 years ago|reply
Safari has a really good way of visually distinguishing between tabs, a two fingered pinch on the trackpad and I can see the actual content of every tab that I have open. Can't remember the last time I even looked at the text in the tabs.
[+] [-] eugeniub|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ProfessorLayton|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] abrookins|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rch|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] greymeister|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] abrookins|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rubatuga|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oDot|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] detaro|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] matrixagent|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mistersquid|8 years ago|reply
Aesthetic opinions aside, the linked complaint relies on a workflow that could be considered a UI anti-pattern.
The following workflow lends itself more easily to UI automation (and muscle memory) The distinct advantage of the second workflow is that it is susceptible to the automated editing of URLs of many tabs using Keyboard Maestro [0] and a simple AppleScript.Combined with keyboard tab-switching (Command-shift-[ and Command-shift-] for next left and right tab, respectively, you can fast web-page switch to spot small differences similar to the way in which a Hinman Collator works to highlight differences between bound books. [1]
Admittedly (and a bit off-topic), the link I provide for the Hinman Collator doesn't exactly illuminate what such a device does. A better demonstration of how collation can be used to highlight subtle visual differences between two artifacts can be derived in the service of solving a puzzle from one of my favorite web sites, Kindertrauma. [2]
The puzzle, which asks you to spot the differences between a series of two photos, is mildly challenging. That mild challenge is reduced to laughably simple when the images are collated. [3]
EDIT: Move parenthetical into footnote. Add adverbial phrase to footnote parenthetical. Rewrite Kindertrauma example. General readability.
[0] https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/ (I'd be embarrassed to name drop Keyboard Maestro yet again here on HN if it just weren't so darned useful. A truly amazing piece of software Keyboard Maestro is. No relationship except as a satisfied user.)
[1] http://library.unc.edu/2016/11/video-hinman-collator-compare...
[2] https://www.kindertrauma.com/the-thing-2011-funhouse/
[3] https://secure.fluffycloud.net/shimmering/kindertrauma/20111...
[+] [-] mi100hael|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bangonkeyboard|8 years ago|reply
The original Safari behavior of a vertical overflow list of tabs, favicons included, keyboard searchable and navigable, was much more usable. https://i.stack.imgur.com/eyXum.png
[+] [-] kakarot|8 years ago|reply
Another killer feature for me is that you can basically middle click anything and open it in a new tab, whether a bookmark, back button, etc. Makes some tasks very intuitive and trying to maintain the same workflow on Chrome is extremely frustrating. I cannot understand for the life of me why this isn't a native feature in Chrome.
[+] [-] wvenable|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] malnourish|8 years ago|reply
They seem to resolve most tab issues while also being a better use of space in many use cases.
[+] [-] 0xCMP|8 years ago|reply
Although I do kind of wish some of these browsers supported the ability to switch tabs similar to emacs and give me a full view to select and search between tabs. It would also show the favicon.
[+] [-] amir|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mthoms|8 years ago|reply
It's a total hack though.... every time a new version of Safari is released it tends to break. But kudos to him for trying.
https://github.com/anakinsk/SafariStand
Here's a (long) thread with some of the backstory about why this is so difficult:
https://github.com/anakinsk/SafariStand/issues/38
[+] [-] m3kw9|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] staplung|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bouke|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MBCook|8 years ago|reply
I've seen a few mockups on Twitter that he's re-tweeted recently and they just look more cluttered to me.
That may come from using Safari as my main browser for 13+ years, but I'm certainly quite happy with things the way they are.
[+] [-] coverband|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eridius|8 years ago|reply
What's the argument for showing it all the time? There's not enough space to show the entirety of even relatively short URLs without scrolling (and scrolling means tapping on it anyway).
[+] [-] TazeTSchnitzel|8 years ago|reply
Of course, other sizes of favicons are possible for use by site owners (.ICO supports multiple resolutions in a single file!), and there's no particularly good reason to use linear upscaling for what's often pixel art.
[+] [-] packeted|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kevindong|8 years ago|reply
To be perfectly honest, I didn't even realize Safari lacked favicons until I read this article. I generally close tabs are soon as I finish using them. Consequently, I never have more than ~5 tabs open at any given moment.
[+] [-] MBCook|8 years ago|reply
How so?
[+] [-] hungerstrike|8 years ago|reply
They also need to catch up to the rest of the world and give the user a choice of which browser to open up by default on iOS. Oh, this is Apple though - they give you the absolute least amount of functionality that they can get away with while charging the highest prices. I can't wait for the time of Apple to come to an end.
[+] [-] fredsir|8 years ago|reply
Seems to work perfectly fine for me.
> They also need to catch up to the rest of the world and give the user a choice of which browser to open up by default on iOS.
It's not as simple as that. If you want an OS that everyone can use, options are your enemy. Would I like to be able to decide the standard browser on my OS? To be honest, I don't care in this instance since I like Safari better than the alternatives, but sure, the choice would be great to have should that change.
[+] [-] kin|8 years ago|reply