New Firefox UI Plans

This week Mozilla announced plans to make the Firefox User Interface more Windows Friendly and more like the Windows 7 task bar and teh Office 2007 Ribbon. This new UI would only be availiable to Windows Users, startign with Windows Vista then Windows 7. It would start to be implemented in Firefox 3.7 before being completed in Firefox 4.

I find it interesting that people complained bitterly about the Office 2007 Ribbon, especially how it was so vastly different to the UI of Office 2003. What is to stop this same reaction to the new Firefox UI? Mozilla is making the right move in the gradual UI change over 2 versions, one minor and the other major. This won't isolate their users and users will have plenty of time to get accustomed to the UI. However new users may beturned away by an unfamiliar interface which can only be overcome by a tutorial to teh new UI...WHICH IS NOT ON THE PLANS!!!! Mozilla will need a tutorial video on the new UI if anyone is going to be able to use it as people are very stupid and do not like change unless they know that they will be able to handle it.

Another idea put forward is App Tabs which would be tabs that you would have open all the time, like GMail or Facebook, and could access all the time without the clutter of the bac/forward buttons, freeign up space making it more user friendly for the site you wnat to view. This is a brilliant idea which Mozilla started planning with Prism, and now to carry it into Firefox itself...genius. In GMail I do not want to have the Back/Forward/Stop/Refresh buttons as they just take up space and are useless. People will catch on to this very quickly and I expect it to be one of the more popular changes.

Personally I think that Firefox is due  for a major UI update and the plans put forward are great but Mozilla should be catious with making radical changes and should definately listen to their users about what they want. The changes make it sort of CHrome like, which is good, and the tab bar will be moved to the top (in FF4) and a progress bar will be added above the tabs. This will free up clutter and make Firefox a very sexy browser.

Firefox 3.7 Planned UI

Firefox 4 Planned UI

Preview: Bayonetta

Platinum Games, creators of Madworld, are once again creating a good lookign game called Bayonetta. The main character, called Bayonetta, is a shape shifter who has no memory of where she is, so in typical video game character style she goes around killing things to find out what she wants to know.

The gameplay seems very good , with good graphics, epic battle sequences and excellent music. However the camera controls were a little off with transperancy having to be used to get over this. Also, a typical Japanese collectable item has made it's way into the game, Rings. Yes, Rings as in Sonic teh Hedgehog rings even though the game has nothing to do with Sonice (although the PS3 port is being made by SEGA).

Overall after the 10-15 minutes Tagged spent with this game at GenCon Oz, it seemed to be a great game but the story seems a bit cliched. Nonetheless, we are looking forward to this game which is coming to Playstation 3 and XBox 360 sometime in 2010.

Preview: Borderlands

Gearbox software, best known for their work with Valve on Half Life expansions and for their Brothers In Arms series, are launching a new game called Borderlands, to be released on October 20 (USA/JP) and October 23 (PAL). Tagged was lucky enough to get some hands on with the game at GenCon Oz.

Borderlands is an FPS\RPG that is set in a futuristic world called Pandora and centres on missions to try and advance the story of one of 4 playable characters. Graphically this game has Halo-style graphics, except better, and the controls are easy to master but seemto be a little sensitive. The maps are hard to navigate but when you get the hang of the waypoint system (where a compass is positioned at teh bottom of teh screen) the game does start to get quite fun. The enemy AI is quite good with creatures knowing when you get too close and attempting to attack you from distances.

Borderlands has a level system but after a short play Tagged is still unsure what importance the level system has on the game.

Over the next few days I will be giving you 1 more preview, Bayonetta, and a review of the free MMO Planet Calypso.