Looks like Mozilla does not want to disappoint any of its lovers. Lagging behind in the browser war, they are working hard on designing their next major release of Firefox 4.0. For them, ensuring that the application feels like a natural part of the user’s desktop, web life, and task flow are the key goals. It will be designed to reflect its power, simplicity and customizability to tell the world how unique it is from the other browsers.
A Visual Designer of the Firefox Team, Stephen Horlander has posted some screenshots to reveal the new features they are currently working on:
As you can see in the above screenshot, the menus have been completely ripped off. Instead, for example, they have designed an edit “tray” that would appear when you are editing text.
The download panel has also been shifted to the address bar which looks really cool (in the above screenie)
And then, the tabs have also been re-styled.
The design team will be focusing on 4 main goals:
- Streamline UI elements and reduce visual footprint
- Modernize look and feel
- Retain visual integration
- Maintain cross-platform consistency (Where applicable)
However they have no plans to alter tab behaviou or to maintain compatibility with existing themes!
You can get more info about the project here