I know it’s not the designers’ fault (at least not completely).
They’re part of the problem - mostly a symptom. The only real sin they’ve done is tried to keep their job - which I can’t really blame them for. But it is a shame it harms users as a consequence.
But I see no problem in bashing bad design, because if no one does, Corporate is gonna continue doing what they do. People need to speak about their wishes. Sure, most won’t be heeded, but what other way do you suggest for me (and most others in the thread) to do? Like this we at least have our little echo chamber to shit in.
It’s not about the sidebar, but what it represents. It’s a symptom of a larger problem - one you’ve correctly identified, yet do nothing about. I’m at least being a brat about it. Maybe if enough people complain, someone “in power” might get an idea as well.
Look, it’s not that I bash Mozilla because they did “something”. It’s because of what that something is. If it were a useful change, I’d welcome it.
For example, I used to use chrome some 5+ years ago. Before that, I was on Firefox. What exactly made me switch back and forth exactly I don’t remember, but I know that now I plan on continuing to use Firefox, because it is the sensible choice as far as user rights go. Before, I wasn’t concerned with that as much, but I should’ve been.
In any case, I don’t like the way Firefox does History. I’d be happy to see them copy Chrome in that regard. An entire webpage and not a sidebar, with groups, nicely laid out, etc.
Bookmarks could also be way better. Bookmarks are even jankier. If they were to copy any sensible file manager (including but not limited to Windows Explorer pre-Windows 11), I’d be happy.
Both of these would be big projects for designers and developers alike. Both of these would make a meaningful positive impact on Firefox. Making another redesign like Mozilla does - changing the exact same things every few years - lost its meaning after the 3rd time.
I love the new on-device translation option. Sure, I’ve had a lot of laughs when it failed (and it did so spectacularily). Yet by now, it’s a polished feature, and I don’t rememberthem getting too bashed for the little hiccups they did have while it was still being polished.
I support (the idea of) Mozilla. I just don’t the leadership, and the decisions. I feel both are terribly misguided.
The way Mozilla does stuff, I feel it’s more of a “wrong clock twice right” type of situation with them than them striking off every once in a while. For every good and meaningful change, I can bet there were at least 5 bad (if not terrible) ones. But I didn’t do a quantitative analysis so I guess that takes away my right to complain.
That being said, I feel this is something people often forget:
When you complain, it’s an act of love. Okay, not always, but bear with me for a bit. If you support a cause (say, a free, open and independent browser), you’re gonna be sad to see it fail. And when you do, you’re gonna wanr to do something about it. Unfortunately for some, that something is only to complain. They know no true way of making meaningful change, so they shout the issues hoping someone takes care of them in their stead: not because you want it to fail, but because you don’t. You’ll shout from the top of your lungs why what you feel is wrong is wrong, and suggest what you thing should be done to make it right.
And that’s what I am. Someone who doesn’t know what else to do.
Now, as I don’t know anyone at Mozilla and as my few feature requests and bug reports seemingly went unnoticed (emphasis on “seemingly”), I’ve come to the conclusion that my time is better spent in discussions with fellow users.
These discussions just might be read by someone who could trigger a change. But that’s only part of the equation.
Speaking up myself, I also hope to push others into taking similar action themselves. If enough people parrot it, someone important enough is bound to hear it.
It’s about building not community per se, but expectations. If we don’t have high expectations, stagnation soon follows. And from stagnation, rolling downhill. It’s a reality of human society itself.
If you don’t have a clear vision, your company will fail. That’s what’s taught at an MBA. But turn your viewpoint just a bit - if we, users, set expectation, we can guide the decisionmakers. And they should also be aware of us (what with a bunch of them having done an MBA) and proactively do surveys, UI experiments, etc. but that takes money and time.
Mozilla clearly has the resources, what with wasting resources on yet another (by now traditional) redesign. I just feel that these resources can (and threfore, should) be used (admittedly, a lot) more effectively than they currently are.
And this makes me genuinely sad. And I genuinely want Mozilla to stop making (what I, and a bunch of their other users feel are) bad decisions. Because I (or we) like Firefox.
I want Manifest v2 to stay. I like uBlock Origin. I support open-source. And I’d be extremely sad to see Firefox leave that equation (among other things). As do many others, for many other things. And the pessimist in me can clearly see a future where Firefox stopes being one of the grat stars of the Open source constellation. And I’d be very happy if such a future doesn’t ever come to fruition. Yet as things stand now, it could happen in a very imaginable single and swift U-turn.
And I feel this is what Mozilla should strive to do. Not just “yet another (bad) redesign.”
And after a while, you fall into the trap of cynicism (like me). It becomes personal, and you take harder and harder bashes at the percieved “evildoers”. Because, people can and do do evil with good intentions. And it’s sad to see it happen.
There’s also the dimension of strawmanning people in hopes of making them see the strawman and avoid it - so, the point isn’t to make them look bad to others, but to themselves. Paint them as the big bad villain, so they loudly exclaim they’re nothing like the villain.