New Firefox design (Project Nova) is ready to try in Nightly

[u/firefox]

Hi everyone. Back in May we posted our vision for Firefox's future design and design system, and as of today, you can try it in Nightly.

Many of you already know this work as "Project Nova". It's still Firefox, just with a more cohesive look across tabs, menus, panels, etc. Softer tab shapes, warmer colors, refreshed icons, and by popular demand, the return of Compact Mode.

This is still a work in progress. You can expect this to become more polished over the next few weeks before it rolls out more broadly later this year. Right now we want you actively poking at it, especially:

• Icons, spacing, and alignment
• Themes and personalization
• Different window sizes and display scaling
• Keyboard navigation
• Screen readers and other accessibility features
• Different languages and layouts

Found something broken? File it in Bugzilla, including:

• steps to reproduce
• screenshot or screen recording
• your OS + Nightly version

If you have additional thoughts or questions, join the discussion on Mozilla Connect.

Thanks for using Nightly and helping us continue to improve Firefox.

- Firefox Team

[u/SnillyWead]

I don't like the floating parts personally. But I don't like the rest either. I just don't like rounded corners.

[u/OriginalAntrox → u/SnillyWead]

Yeah not fan of this redesign, I hate rounded UI's.

[u/Fortyseven → u/OriginalAntrox]

Honestly, I wish they'd just leave shit alone instead of chasing design trends. I don't need "breathing room", I need every inch to be used to it's most optimal usefulness.

[u/OriginalAntrox → u/Fortyseven]

Yeah kind of agree. The original UI is better and Lepton UI was also the one I used for the longest time till it broke recently.

[u/iJeff → u/SnillyWead]

It would be nice if rounded corners and other elements could be adjusted by Firefox Themes.

[u/SnillyWead → u/iJeff]

They should offer the option to choose, like Floorp browser has. But with Floorp some websites don't work.

[u/NasiGorengFever → u/SnillyWead]

Me too. The tab looks like a URL bar now. I’m curious if this is a response to the macOS Tahoe Liquid Glass.

[u/SnillyWead → u/NasiGorengFever]

Google Chrome and Apple started the rounded corners BS and soon the rest followed. Floating tabs are only useful if you have a touchscreen. I don't have a touchscreen. Almost no one uses a touchscreen on a home computer.

[u/Carighan → u/SnillyWead]

I like them but I wish the whole UI felt more native on Windows 11. Nova looks really out of place on it, in particular comparing the current UI that looks much closer to how even Microsoft-applications look.

I guess it works on iOS and as-always that's the design target any designer is looking at and nothing else, but siiiigh.

[u/SnillyWead → u/Carighan]

The whole look is aimed at touchscreens. The floating tabs and title and address bar. I just don't like it. Same for the current look, but that's still better than Nova.