macOS Monterey Beta 3: Apple Redesigns Safari Tab Interface Following Complaints

[beezischillin]

I might be alone with this but I really dislike Apple increasing the overall height / element margins on the top controls of Safari. They've been consistently doing it bit by bit with each new release and it constantly feels like I'm losing screen estate that could be filled with content to bits that are not and that I rarely interact with enough to justify it taking up so much space. I really liked the slim header part of Safari previously, especially switching from Windows and its set of browser design conventions.

I rarely if ever use the cursor to do anything with these controls because macOS has great gestures and it also has keyboard shortcuts to make the process feel a lot more result-oriented, rather than process-oriented with extra steps.

[michaeljbishop]

This is a symptom of flat design. When you remove texture, shadow, and borders, you have to rely more on margins to group and distinguish items.

[tablespoon]

> I might be alone with this but I really dislike Apple increasing the overall height / element margins on the top controls of Safari. They've been consistently doing it bit by bit with each new release and it constantly feels like I'm losing screen estate...

I agree, but it seems like there's and (unwelcome to me) industry-wide trend towards less density and wasted screen real estate. At least Apple still ships 16:10 displays, unlike the 16:9 garbage that's ubiquitous nowadays.

[npunt]

I believe they've only increased the height once with the transition to Big Sur. And they reduced the height from Mavericks->Yosemite, so it's back to where it was during 10.1-10.9 days, just with one UI row + tabs instead of two + tabs.

Are you thinking about something else?

[ksec]

Yes. Safari 13/14 had the larger Address Bar design change, but at least they kept the Tab Bar slim. The new "walked back" design is now a thicker / taller Tab Bar.

I really wish I could use Full Screen Safari with only the Tab Bar and not Address Bar. But this isn't an option, and Full Screen Safari has weird rendering bug and performance issues.

[shbooms]

Not alone at all. My main reason for not moving from Catalina to Big Sur is because they've done this height/margin increase across the board to controls in Big Sur (toolbars in Finder, menubar icons, etc). I spend 100% of my time on macOS using a 13 inch laptop monitor. I need all the space I can get for actual content.

[andyfleming]

It feels like they’ve been slowly moving towards a touch-friendly interface on MacOS. I’m not sure if they intend to have a desktop OS that truly supports a touch screen or if it’s more about slowly merging iOS and MacOS in general.

[vptr]

On top of that add websites that take up half of your screen with adds and other marketing or paywall crap.

[psychometry]

Why do you use Safari then, the least extensible and customizable option for MacOS?

[_jal]

I've really had enough of the minimalist, whitespace-everywhere trend.

I've been turning off most notifications, because since the controls were hidden, they're basically useless noise that just hides useful controls.

I know many designer-types want to get rid of the URL bar, but either butch up and fucking do it, or leave it as a useful tool. Quit shrinking it, overloading use, making it jump around another otherwise trying to make people not want to use it.

Iphone screens waste a ton of real estate, and (at least to my eye), it isn't even pretty, it frequently just looks unfinished, like the designer gave up on the job.

And so on.

[dilap]

Ah, too bad, I've grown to quite like the previous beta! I don't tend to have a gazillion tabs open though.

I want my webpage to be as much page as possible, w/ as little chrome.

I think there's some danger in listening to internet outrage as your design process -- every big change generates a lot of dislike, but that doesn't mean it's actually a bad change, or that most people dislike it, or even that the people who hate it at first won't come to like it.

[robertoandred]

The previous design is apparently still the default. This new design is an option.

[yunohn]

There was outrage all across the Internet, not just HN.

I tried it out myself, and it was majorly disorienting. It was the sole reason I reverted from the public beta.

[mark_l_watson]

You can reset compact mode from the View menu.

[basisword]

This thread is the perfect example of why you should mostly ignore internet “outrage”. Some people disappointed because they liked the new (previous) design. Others bemoaning aspects of the new (beta 3) design. Others who have never used either bitching based on a couple of screenshots. You can’t please…anyone.

[montagg]

When there are enough people, you'll see a plurality of every opinion.

[pindab0ter]

That's why I'm hoping they'll stick to retaining the option—though knowing Apple, they'll probably axe that, too.

I personally prefer the compact design, but I also understand people being confused over it or just not liking it. Giving people the option serves both groups.

[skavi]

Why is there so much padding around each tab? I guess it makes for clear click targets. Honestly was a fan of the old initial design, though I do lean towards compromising for more screen space.

[npunt]

Your eyes deceive you. Prior MacOS versions have more overall padding (50pt) but it's put entirely within the tab itself. The new tabs have some margin between each tab and a much smaller padding within tabs, for overall what looks to be ~40pt.

The new design sacrifices the 'X' hover-over on the left side of each tab, presumably in favor of an 'X' that overlaps the tab title.

[samtheprogram]

An assumption, but it seems to me and many others that they’ve been slowly moving to make macOS more touch interface friendly.

I’m typically anti-touch screen on laptops as it drives the price up for a feature I personally almost never use, but there’s so many use cases particularly for a large portion of Apple’s user base working with digital media.

Aside: A Lenovo Yoga -like MacBook would be cool, although I do like the Touch Bar for quickly moving around in media I’m listening to in the background (but I don’t think that’s enough to justify it).

[amirmasoudabdol]

This is basically the side-effect of the rollback, and it really sucks. Now, they have to keep this wasteful design, and less tabs will _nicely_ fit into the bar. I don't think the initial design was great, but I like it more over this!

[Austin_Conlon]

Maybe Apple designers tend to test on 32-inch Pro Display XDRs.

[grishka]

> Why is there so much padding around each tab?

Because it was designed by iOS people.

[cbmuser]

It would have been nice if the article contained screenshots of the current and the upcoming design so non-macOS users can get a impression of the changes.

[jackson1442]

Here's what tabs in Safari look like now:

https://media.welsh.cc/2jGRw1

And what the Monterey design was to start with:

https://media.welsh.cc/ghhD24

Worth noting that the tab bar in Monterey will adapt based on the site's `theme-color` meta tag.

[po]

I was really hoping for them to fix it but keep the toppy-tabs... Exactly this design but switch the url bar and the tab bar.

If you think about the logical hierarchy of controls on a browser it should be:

- global stuff (extensions, sidebar reveal button, etc...)

- tabs

- url, forward/back/reload buttons, etc..

If you're going to mix the global controls with url I still think the tabs should go on top (like real-world tabbed folders). Chrome gets this right and Safari should just copy them.

[rubyist5eva]

That's unfortunate. I liked the new design and it made sense for saving vertical space. Whatever happened to "think different"?

[grishka]

Some things just work well the way they are and don't need change.

[angulardragon03]

I think the biggest issue for me was that you couldn’t consistently find your current tab in one single place - you could scroll away your active tab amongst the rest of them, hiding the address bar.

[wingworks]

I believe you can still select the old (well new/old design) design.

[cunthorpe]

This was obvious from the start. The new design was beautiful but it was an accessibility nightmare.

This change looks pretty awful so I hope they just reach the Chrome v1 style and be done with it. Let's be honest, Chrome v1 was the peak of browser design and browsers are still trying and failing to improve it.

[robertoandred]

Note that the combined address/tab bar is the default, this separate bar redesign is now an option.

[neilsense]

Arghh, they should have conviction and pushed this one through. The latest design wastes so much space.

[mark_l_watson]

I like the compact display, and was pleased to see that I could change Safari back to this mode from the View menu.

Best of both worlds: if you only have a few tabs open, use the compact display, otherwise give up some vertical space for non-compact mode.

[leucineleprec0n]

Thank God they did this, as is it was going to have me switch to chrome lol

[juancampa]

Personal computing won't be truly "personal" until we, the users (not $BIGCO's lead UX designer) get to decide how things look and behave on an individual level

[sxg]

There's a lot of value in NOT having to make those decisions. Most users don't want to think about how their computer or phone should work—they just want it to work out of the box. That requires sensible defaults and slowly introducing changes to adapt to evolving user behavior.

[andybak]

I lived through the days of skinnable apps and I never want to go back there again.

[kevindong]

One of Apple's core values is delegating very few choices to the end user. But the choices that are present are generally good.

There is such a thing as too many choices.

[wilg]

You are welcome to build your own browser or computer or whatever! You can even modify an existing open source one.

[elzbardico]

Personal computing is dying and deciding how the UI looks is definitely one of the lesser issues on this

[_qbjt]

You can. It’s called Linux.

[buzzert]

Free Software.

[anthk]

Add slight 3D bezels and throw up that flat crap to the trash.

[alex_smart]

Oh so this is where Firefox got their new tab design from!? Finally it makes sense, I kind of knew that this must be copied.

[CPLNTN]

2030: Browsers tab bars take half of the vertical space of the screen

[dom96]

wow, that design looks surprisingly Firefox-like.

[wejick]

It is, the floating tab design

[asdff]

All of these issues would be gone if companies like Apple offered the reigns for users to modify their software as needed. I'm running firefox with a competent ad blocker, no tab bar on top, and a sidebar of tabs that appears when I hover the mouse. Sure, it took some finagling with config files, but this sort of stuff should be possible and accessible on a computer. I really wish Safari and Apple in general took a different approach. Firefox shouldn't be the only game in town.