If it were to be a chromeless new tab – you need to replace the Blank page default with some kind of “invitational” thing, so that the user don’t panic when he sees a blank page.

Chromeless browser will be a downside for the extensions, because they tend to be placed in status bar, menu.

http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/02/03/bang-on-firefox-youre-kind-of-ugly

it’s important to you, i believe.

The only real drawback to that method is that you’d have to bring up the menu each time you want to access a command or function. Instead of simply hitting alt+left/right arrow to go back and forth, you’d be calling up a menu to access the function. Depending on how often people go back/forward/to their homepage/to the URL bar, your appearing menus could potentially become as annoying to users as the UAC pop-ups in Windows Vista. In the podcast you stated a great way to help avoid this – a video (or even text) walkthrough explaining the keyboard commands the first time chrome-less Firefox is run. That would inform people that they don’t have to call up menus for every function, rather, there are loads of commands already at your fingertips – no mouse clicks required.

I think that’s the danger of trying to reach an extreme on any given scale (”way too much visible UI” on one end, and “no visible UI” on the other). Maybe a better solution would be to minimize the chrome and place it in pre-existing UI space (for instance, that title bar up at the top of a window that’s got the minimize/maximize/close buttons – sort of like what iTunes does on Windows).

I think that’s fairly economical, considering you’re stuck with that window space already, so you might as well utilize it. Of course, it would disappear when you enter full-screen mode, which is a problem. Plus, if you don’t cut back on what you’re placing up there, it might appear crammed and cluttered.

Well, I hope that helped you guys out. You’re all doing a wonderful job with Firefox (I switched over to FF about 3 years ago, and I’ve been a Firefox evangelist ever since), and I like the direction that Firefox is headed in (especially when it comes to the chrome/UI). Keep up the great work! It’s always a pleasure to see an Alex Faaborg blog post pop up in my Thunderbird newsfeeds. Can’t wait for the next one!

The less controls outside the page, the better the navigation inside it needs to be.
And right now the web is moving in the opposite direction fast, with more and more flashlike mystery meat rot spreading.
Who can tell what are clickable links on a page these days without mousing over every single pixel?

Interesting that you mention the
“chromeless” flash player you use here.

I actually gave up trying to watch the whole video because of the useless way it works.

A perfect example of how designers more and more tend to create shiny pretty looking POS software with just bare bones controls, if any.

No info about how long the video will last, no decent controls, no real full screen, nothing, and you’re stuck with it.

Am i the only one who miss the pre-2.0 days when you could watch videos on web-pages by just clicking a link, and then watch it in a decent player of your choice?

but I don’t think there ever wil be een browers with no ui at all

Please build in accessibility up front as well. Remember there are established APIs for informing AT (assistive technology) of what’s going on on-screen.

Similarly, don’t tie me to just one method for input. If my hands are on the keyboard, I want to use the keyboard and if I’m moving between fx & other apps then I’m prone to use the mouse.

One more complaint: clicking on nothing is easy on some pages, difficult on others. It’s unnatural to move the mouse to a place where I’m avoiding all controls and interactive components.

Sorry if this sounds like a gripe, I really do appreciate that you’re putting in the effort to make artifacts that explore new ui ideas. Thanks again for the effort.

But what am I saying? Just look at Links and rebuild it using gecko and add Ubiquity on top. Preto: ui-less browsers done. Of course a system similar to “exposé” for tabs would sweaten the deal tough.