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Safari 15 Users Say New Tab Design is Counterintuitive
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I like it on the sites without super dark colors much better. Sites like Amazon, the verge and finance.yahoo.com are a little obnoxious with their dark blacks and dark purple.
Thanks for that. I wasn't. Now that I've seen dark mode, I think the active tab is brighter and has more contrast against the background than the other tabs. In light mode, it's darker and has more contrast.
However, the screenshot in the main article doesn't seem like dark mode. In that screenshot, the left tab is the active one and it shows as darker and having more contrast than the other tab. Gruber complains, "...the active tab is rendered with less contrast between the tab title and the background...The active tab should be the one that pops." In the screenshot, the active tab has more contrast and pops (for me).
The active tab is always the one with the "x" on the left. Apple would have no excuse if that's what they expect people to count on to pick out the active tab. But, it certainly helps me pick out the active tab. Combine that with the fact that I see much more contrast between the active tab against the background than I do for the other tabs, I have no issue with the current design.
This would be an interesting topic for a vision researcher. What makes this hard for some people? I have to assume they are in the minority. I know there are a bunch of people who think Apple doesn't even try to make things work; they just focus on pretty. I don't believe that's the case.
You're conflating two changes: 1) the Compact tab layout and 2) the new "button style" tabs which are present even in the Separate style toolbar.
The first change, I don't really care about because it's optional. I find it cluttered as hell and I'll gladly lose the ~45px space it shaves off for the sake of legibility. But if you find it "way better" then enjoy. I'll be leaving that off.
No, what Gruber is hammering away at is -- in the Separate style toolbar -- the loss of the visual layout in which the active tab is contiguous with the rest of the toolbar. This has been the universally accepted way to display tabs for decades, and in fact is still being used in the Finder today. Which makes the choice to suddenly switch to making tabs into these weird buttons rather baffling. They don't take up any less space at all and do not provide any benefit except for "looking new." They also don't match what tabs look like in the rest of the Mac UI. So, really a dumb decision.
I don't quite think it's the debacle Gruber does. I think it's a silly and dumb change but... we're talking about browser tabs here. I'm not losing any sleep over it. If they'd left the Compact layout as the only option, that's a change I'd find untenable and which would maybe get me to switch browsers.
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What makes it hard for some people is they are trained for the opposite. So their immediate reaction is a typical reaction to change.
Reminds me of my first hdtvs. One had a light that goes on when you turn it on. And off when you turn it off. The other was the opposite. The light came on when you turned it off. And went off when you turned it on.
Also it's difficult for a person like the DF fireball guy who has a bit of a narrow definition when it comes to what is good design at least with regards to tabs & active tab contrast. That can make change harder for those people. That preconceived notion may get in their way of adapting.
To add difficulty to their difficulty, the active tab contrast does differ depending on the options you select under preferences for tab layout.
IF you select 'color,' then the active tab contrast is opposite of the website color. Dark website color means light active tab contrast and vice versa. Go to Amazon (assuming you have color tab layout selected) and you will see the active tab is lighter because the Amazon tab color is dark black. Go to MacRumors and the active tab is darker because the website tab color is of a lighter shade of blue/grey. It's like you own both of my hdtvs.
Also if you select 'compact tab layout' and 'no color' then, to my eyes, the active tab contrast doesn't appear to be working at all.
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Probably nobody does, that was one of the most dramatic things I have read
Have to agree. Why mess with the tab design? I don't mind the 'compact' style tab options you can switch to actually, but the traditional tabs should be left alone. More wasted screen space with the ugly rounding of the tabs too.
C'mon Apple ...
C'mon Apple ...
I think you are exactly right. They should have basically had it switch more completely back to the old view format when you are not using Compact Mode.
Apple Music is great if you're into hip hop. If you are a blues/jazz guy like me, it sucks. Spotify (and Pandora, for that matter) have SO very many more blues artists.
He's talking about the contrast between the text on the active tab, and the background of the active tab. Not the contrast between the active tab's background and the overall window background.
and how does one use a spell check, well in this case I ned a hue check!
I can't even see my screen the resolution is so bland.
still get these ads running 2 ad blockers.
well this might be a problem: safari thinks it's a "what?"
ya think one might master a companies tactics since 1900, nope!
Do we know who that is? I imagine it's a piece of wood 🪵 who's only one of their many UX / UI designers.
Now you have to drop the link on the "+" icon. you can't drop it between other tabs.
that's usually because the site is using a Chrome-specific experimental feature but are not coding to handle it when that feature is not present and are not bothering to test in other browsers. it is totally due to careless devs.
Part of the issue IMO is that the difference should be blatant, not subtle.
Depending what I have open, I have to take time to stop, check, and then proceed as the active tab is not always easily recognizable.
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Yes, they seem to have gotten it right in dark mode, but in normal mode, the colors and contrast are backwards.
- active tab is black text on 70% luminance (medium gray)
- intactive is black text on 90% luminance (light gray)
In addition, normal UI affordance is based on real world experience where closer objects are light and more contrast than objects further away. In the tab metaphor, the active tab is the closest one and should be the lightest and the most contrast. The intactive tabs should be darker and less contrast. The background is furthest back and should be darker than any tabs. this new design just inverts that and mades a mess of the tab metaphor.
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the opposite is the convention of the tab metaphor.
Even among other controls, that is not really the case. selected usually is clearly distinguished and has more contrast.
Though the tone was OTT, I otherwise agreed with everything Gruber said about the redesign. I still can't find a set up I'm happy with and thus have been exploring Edge and Chrome more despite using Safari exclusively for years.
Seeing as I'm in the mood for a moan about Safari, I've compiled a small list of gripes I have with Safari's interface.
Firstly, it has to be the bold line around the address bar when you have coloured and separate tabs enabled (see below).
I get that it's there to create contrast and show where the address bar begins and ends, but the outline is quite harsh and it's very distracting to my eye.
Conversely when you turn the colour off, it practically disappears. Apparently contrast doesn't matter when you've a plain-grey window? There's no consistency here whatsoever.
My ideal solution would be to have the whole address bar filled with a darker shade like Safari 14 (or a lighter shade if either you're in Dark Mode or the window takes on a darker tone when you've got colour enabled)
Secondly, in compact mode there's no colour differentiation between what's the active tab and what isn't (when you have coloured tabs disabled). The only way to tell is to look out for the one that's the biggest, which is tough when you've got plenty of tabs open and they all take on a smaller size.
Be honest. Can you, at a glance, tell what's the active tab here, or do you have to think about it before you realise:
To further add to the inconsistency, if you're in Dark Mode, there then there is slight colour differentiation, where the active tab is slightly darker than the rest:
And if you turn on colour in the tab bar, you get a bolder colour differentiation, that flips whether active tabs are brighter/darker than inactive ones depending on whether you're in Light or Dark Mode.
That's three different 'styles' ranging from no colour differentiation at all, to bold colour differentiation depending on what you choose.
Finally and perhaps my biggest gripe: If you've got the compact tab bar enabled, then the area in which you can double-click to minimise the window is reduced dramatically. You'd think you could double-click anywhere there isn't a tab or control, but no - you have to double click the few pixels right at the top or bottom of the window chrome.
See my issue here? It's the complete lack of consistency between the different options.
I thought Apple paid attention to details and obsessed over them like we do, but evidently that's been lost somewhere.
And I'm not going to put on rose tinted glasses and tell you Apple has never made a faux-pas like this before. I haven't forgotten the vertical window controls in iTunes 10, nor the poor implementation of tabs-on-top in the Safari 4 Beta (fortunately that stayed in beta). But between this and iOS 15's myriad of issues? I don't know what to think anymore.
Let's just hope that if these 'tabs' stay they don't make their way across to other parts of the system.
EDIT: Honourable mention goes to these butt-ugly tabs. Why does the active tab have to be so dark in comparison to the rest of the window? It's distracting, and it's all I can see in my peripheral vision. So much for the interface allowing you to focus on the content.
Let's not also forget that the new separate tab style takes up more vertical space than the old one due to the fact these 'tabs' have padding all around them.
Seeing as I'm in the mood for a moan about Safari, I've compiled a small list of gripes I have with Safari's interface.
Firstly, it has to be the bold line around the address bar when you have coloured and separate tabs enabled (see below).
I get that it's there to create contrast and show where the address bar begins and ends, but the outline is quite harsh and it's very distracting to my eye.
Conversely when you turn the colour off, it practically disappears. Apparently contrast doesn't matter when you've a plain-grey window? There's no consistency here whatsoever.
My ideal solution would be to have the whole address bar filled with a darker shade like Safari 14 (or a lighter shade if either you're in Dark Mode or the window takes on a darker tone when you've got colour enabled)
Secondly, in compact mode there's no colour differentiation between what's the active tab and what isn't (when you have coloured tabs disabled). The only way to tell is to look out for the one that's the biggest, which is tough when you've got plenty of tabs open and they all take on a smaller size.
Be honest. Can you, at a glance, tell what's the active tab here, or do you have to think about it before you realise:
To further add to the inconsistency, if you're in Dark Mode, there then there is slight colour differentiation, where the active tab is slightly darker than the rest:
And if you turn on colour in the tab bar, you get a bolder colour differentiation, that flips whether active tabs are brighter/darker than inactive ones depending on whether you're in Light or Dark Mode.
That's three different 'styles' ranging from no colour differentiation at all, to bold colour differentiation depending on what you choose.
Finally and perhaps my biggest gripe: If you've got the compact tab bar enabled, then the area in which you can double-click to minimise the window is reduced dramatically. You'd think you could double-click anywhere there isn't a tab or control, but no - you have to double click the few pixels right at the top or bottom of the window chrome.
See my issue here? It's the complete lack of consistency between the different options.
I thought Apple paid attention to details and obsessed over them like we do, but evidently that's been lost somewhere.
And I'm not going to put on rose tinted glasses and tell you Apple has never made a faux-pas like this before. I haven't forgotten the vertical window controls in iTunes 10, nor the poor implementation of tabs-on-top in the Safari 4 Beta (fortunately that stayed in beta). But between this and iOS 15's myriad of issues? I don't know what to think anymore.
Let's just hope that if these 'tabs' stay they don't make their way across to other parts of the system.
EDIT: Honourable mention goes to these butt-ugly tabs. Why does the active tab have to be so dark in comparison to the rest of the window? It's distracting, and it's all I can see in my peripheral vision. So much for the interface allowing you to focus on the content.
Let's not also forget that the new separate tab style takes up more vertical space than the old one due to the fact these 'tabs' have padding all around them.
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