If you weren't running the betas, you haven't been on the new safari long enough to be sure it is bad. Give it a longer look.
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Safari 15 Users Say New Tab Design is Counterintuitive
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enough, even now it happens that I open two tabs, after a while that I have finished reading one tab I want to close it and I close the other, or sometimes I want to close the other one and instead I close the one I am in
Dear ponzicoinbro
Which tab has the "different highlight" in the specific case he describes where there are only 2 tabs open? Did you read the article at all?
Also
If you walk away from your computer and come back hours later, can you still remember the last bloody fricken tab you were using? And if you can, do you really think that's the way UIs should be designed? To require that you memorize their state? Perhaps we shouldn't use highlights at all, and just let you remember what you had selected?
If you use the Compact Mode, this problem doesn't manifest. The active tab is indicated not by color but rather by size and content in Compact Mode.
It's in the "traditional mode" where this problem manifests.
The problem isn't when you have a bunch of tabs open. Read the original article again more closely. It's specifically when you have 2 tabs open, because then you don't have any clear visual indicator of which one is active. If you go back through this thread you can find several screenshots illustrating the problem very clearly.
Say what? I'm using a Magic Trackpad, and Natural scrolling feels very natural. Yes, I used to use the opposite scrolling, long ago. I switched. Natural scrolling felt very odd at first. Once I got used to it, it feels a lot better. To me, it's the most intuitive way to interact with the Mac's "mouse" cursor (not just scrolling, but all the gestures), and the Magic Trackpad puts a keyboard on par with the experience on a MacBook Pro's keyboard and trackpad. Aside from Windows compatibility, your argument sounds very much like someone who hasn't really gotten through the process of switching over and is rejecting it as feeling foreign. Yes, I get considerable say in the hardware I use in my work - I specifically requested a Magic Trackpad. If you're stuck having to constantly switch between Mac and Windows, sorry, that sucks.
If only there was an x in one of the tabs that was big enough to see and instantly visually distinctive enough from the icons next to all the other tabs.
The compact mode had another issue, if u are in the last page the back arrow disappear, so if u go back all buttons moves 🤣 I hate it. Why in compact mode it disappear and in traditional no 🤪
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Seriously counter intuitive.
Like going to a US car dealer and the model you want comes in right hand drive version only. Usable but why?
I still fail to see what problem Apple was solving ...
One of the other posters here (I'm sorry, I can't remember who it was) hit on this, and I think they nailed it 100%. I did some messing around with it, and I am now pretty confident what went wrong here. The short version: Apple did all their UI and UX design for this version of Safari based on the existence of Compact Mode. When they added the ability to view tabs "traditionally", they did not update the UI and UX to account for this. They simply re-used the design they already had, which is a poor fit.
To dig into this a bit, first you need to understand the idea of "hover states". In CSS, this is expressed with ":hover" but nearly every UI system has some notion of it. It's the way a clickable element changes its appearance when you move the mouse over it to indicate that it can be clicked.
If you switch your browser into Compact Mode and hover over a tab, notice how it visually changes. Let's call this "hover state". Look what it does: It changes the contrast to be more accentuated against the background, with less contrast for the text (because your mouse is there). This works well because you are actively looking at the mouse, and at that component. The change in contrast catches your eye, and signals to you that you can click.
The "active tab" in Compact Mode does not use a color differentiation generally. It relies on showing the url, and being wider, and having additional icons (like the "lock" icon and the "more options" circle). Here is an example of what this looks like. In this view, my mouse is actively hovering over the tab that starts with "Record" (but the mouse is not shown in the screenshot).
This works really great because as I move my mouse rapidly around the tabs, they change into "hover state" which keeps telling me what would react if I clicked.
Now, let's look at the same tabs in Separate Mode.
In this view, I am again hovering over the tab that starts with "Record". The one on the far right is "Active". Notice that both of them are in "hover state". (Okay, not precisely. The hover one is #bcbbbb and the active one is #b6b5b5 but honestly that's so subtle it's barely worth mentioning.)
I believe this reveals the essence of what happened here. Apple simply kept that same exact styling that they developed for Compact Mode and applied it to Separate Mode. The problem is that the use of a "hover state" to indicate "active state" doesn't make much sense from a UX standpoint, because "hover state" assumes you're looking at the content. This is why the text contrast is reduced. That also explains why the "close icon [x]" appears; when you are hovering over content, your mouse is very nearby, so it makes sense to reveal actions you can take on that content.
You can see similar behavior when you mouse over the active tab in Compact Mode; Additional buttons reveal themselves only at that moment.
In summary, this is a simple (and clear) case of building a well-thought-out UX and UI spec, and then applying it to an interface that it was not designed for. That is why it appears to be shockingly substandard. I think Apple *can* fix this, but it is going to require that they create some amount of visual design language difference between Compact Mode and Separate Mode. The two cannot simply use the same spec.
EDIT: The user that originally clued me in on this was @mazz0 in this post: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ign-is-counterintuitive.2315360/post-30394675
To dig into this a bit, first you need to understand the idea of "hover states". In CSS, this is expressed with ":hover" but nearly every UI system has some notion of it. It's the way a clickable element changes its appearance when you move the mouse over it to indicate that it can be clicked.
If you switch your browser into Compact Mode and hover over a tab, notice how it visually changes. Let's call this "hover state". Look what it does: It changes the contrast to be more accentuated against the background, with less contrast for the text (because your mouse is there). This works well because you are actively looking at the mouse, and at that component. The change in contrast catches your eye, and signals to you that you can click.
The "active tab" in Compact Mode does not use a color differentiation generally. It relies on showing the url, and being wider, and having additional icons (like the "lock" icon and the "more options" circle). Here is an example of what this looks like. In this view, my mouse is actively hovering over the tab that starts with "Record" (but the mouse is not shown in the screenshot).
This works really great because as I move my mouse rapidly around the tabs, they change into "hover state" which keeps telling me what would react if I clicked.
Now, let's look at the same tabs in Separate Mode.
In this view, I am again hovering over the tab that starts with "Record". The one on the far right is "Active". Notice that both of them are in "hover state". (Okay, not precisely. The hover one is #bcbbbb and the active one is #b6b5b5 but honestly that's so subtle it's barely worth mentioning.)
I believe this reveals the essence of what happened here. Apple simply kept that same exact styling that they developed for Compact Mode and applied it to Separate Mode. The problem is that the use of a "hover state" to indicate "active state" doesn't make much sense from a UX standpoint, because "hover state" assumes you're looking at the content. This is why the text contrast is reduced. That also explains why the "close icon [x]" appears; when you are hovering over content, your mouse is very nearby, so it makes sense to reveal actions you can take on that content.
You can see similar behavior when you mouse over the active tab in Compact Mode; Additional buttons reveal themselves only at that moment.
In summary, this is a simple (and clear) case of building a well-thought-out UX and UI spec, and then applying it to an interface that it was not designed for. That is why it appears to be shockingly substandard. I think Apple *can* fix this, but it is going to require that they create some amount of visual design language difference between Compact Mode and Separate Mode. The two cannot simply use the same spec.
EDIT: The user that originally clued me in on this was @mazz0 in this post: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ign-is-counterintuitive.2315360/post-30394675
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Yeah, x replacing favicon is a crappy workaround that wasn't there 2 betas ago. I'm sure Safari developers are aware of the selected tab ambiguity and are trying to find the solution but this isn't it.
compact bar has contrast if color is also selected. there is no contrast with the compact bar when no color is selected. I feel like that is a bug.
You are correct. The examples I showed were with the "color pickup" disabled, for consistency.
yep. but the no contrast with the compact bar feels like a bug because the other 3 combinations of compact/separate & color/no color have contrast.
In other words I don't think they are going to rely purely on the tab being longer and having the website name and lock symbol and no favcon etc.
I agree with you 100%. This is one reason why I prefer "color mode" in Compact Mode. It actually improves usability somewhat.
Just a nice little bit of punch in there:
This is one more indicator that they probably created the entire UX/UI spec assuming all their new features would be activated, and as soon as they're not, things fall apart a bit.
I don't like color mode, main reason being that they're throwing out the light/dark mode design out the window. Look at this picture:
Dark mode enabled and we have light menu bar, red window, and dark dock. What is the purpose of light and dark modes if they keep getting carried away with colors.
That's a pretty good point, but maybe they're trying to plan ahead for when websites will most commonly all support dark mode themselves? I know a few already do, but maybe they're hoping it'll become the standard in time? Or maybe they're just thinking that if a website is already not dark, and is using bright colors, why not go all the way with it? I dunno. It's really hard to understand what their long-term vision is here.
Thanks! I found it finally, but it is very inconvenient, bcoz I use trackpad with my right hand generally, and a bit far for dragging a link to “+” sometimes.
I’m surprised you define him that way while saying you have no personal feelings involved in your definition on him.
I’m finding the opposite: he’s so often having exceptionally throughout arguments on Apple issues. You can disagree with his rationale, but it’s not true his rationale would be based on “defending Apple like it’s no tomorrow”.
I am glad, I always have a lot of tabs open, so the active one is the largest 
What really annoys me is Safari on my iPad. The "x" to close the tab is in the tob right corner, not top left as e.g. the buttons in windows in macOS or the "x" in tabs on Safari on macOS.
I am pretty sure, that this has changed with iPadOS 15, as my muscle memory always makes me press the upper left corner...
What really annoys me is Safari on my iPad. The "x" to close the tab is in the tob right corner, not top left as e.g. the buttons in windows in macOS or the "x" in tabs on Safari on macOS.
I am pretty sure, that this has changed with iPadOS 15, as my muscle memory always makes me press the upper left corner...