I'm a little concerned about the new Safari interface [0], which very smoothly integrates the tab/address bar with page content. For example, the background color of the page flows behind the open tabs such that it looks like one unified interface, rather than browserchrome || pagecontent.
This is all great to experience as web apps increasingly take over the functions of native apps. It does help them feel more like first-class citizens, rather than plain documents pulled up through a program.
But it easily brings up new potential abuses by phishing sites, spammy notifications, and other bad actors. The new design seems to start breaking down the browser UI's Line of Death [1], at least in perception.
> I'm a little concerned about the new Safari interface
Having used it for a few hours, I'm hoping someone sees sense and gives this a good UX going over before release because it's currently unpleasant to use. The motion at the top with the tabs swiffing[1] about is distracting; some sites colour the whole top which is another huge motion flash; and finding the address bar requires scanning because it's not in a fixed position.
There's also an optical effect where switching between a site that's coloured the top and one that hasn't makes it look like the whole browser is jumping up at down due to the contrast boundary at the top of the page. All of this is going to make motion sensitive people even more unhappy.
It is a risky move to mess with people's browser experience. It does look good though, I use Chrome and won't be changing for that but it does show thoughtful changes, perhaps even practical!
I am currently hating the mobile Safari changes, alas. I love the idea of moving the address bar to the bottom because it's just easier to get to but ... you tap on it and it jumps to the top where it used to be. Then when you've got to a page, the address is right on top of the Home Bar which, I thought, you were supposed to avoid placing clickable items because the damn Home Bar gets in the way.
Also when you click the bottom address bar, it removes the page content in favour of your favourites. Really stupid if you're trying to go to/search something that you've seen in the page content.
Also, also, if you swipe the bottom address bar to change tabs - a really nice feature! - it disappears after a second or two (sometimes before the content has fully loaded) which means you then have to tap in a different place for it to come back.
The address bar is on top on iPadOS. I am traveling right now, so I did not put the iOS beta on my phone.
A pain point for me is having things different on my iPhone and iPad: side for hardware volume controls, different address bar location on iOS vs. iPadOS, etc. I find a slight amount of cognitive dissonance when switching devices.
This is all great to experience as web apps increasingly take over the functions of native apps. It does help them feel more like first-class citizens, rather than plain documents pulled up through a program.
But it easily brings up new potential abuses by phishing sites, spammy notifications, and other bad actors. The new design seems to start breaking down the browser UI's Line of Death [1], at least in perception.
[0] https://www.apple.com/v/macos/monterey-preview/a/images/over... [1] https://textslashplain.com/2017/01/14/the-line-of-death/