1199613 - New about:privatebrowsing pink bar is too eye catching

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Private Browsing, defect)

Description

[Kestrel]

Attachment: Comparison of new private tab pages across browsers

The new pink bar on about:privatebrowsing is very eye catching from a distance which doesn't seem necessary and is likely to attract unwanted attention. Other major browsers have a more subtle approach with minimal to no color (see attached comparison of Chrome, IE11, Edge, Opera and Firefox).

Furthermore the new tab page is meant to represent a blank clean slate with content normally confined to a floating box in the middle of a sea of white. Filling the top edge with a large thick bar of vibrant color contradicts this and seems out of place.

Comment 1

[Kestrel]

Attachment: Alternative concept: desaturated bar

Alternative concept: desaturated bar

Comment 2

[Kestrel]

Attachment: Alternative concept: lighter desaturated bar

Comment 3

[Kestrel]

Attachment: Alternative concept: lighter bar

Comment 4

[Kestrel]

Attachment: Alternative concept: no bar

Comment 5

[:Paolo Amadini]

Thanks for taking the time to file these proposals.

I believe making this window eye catching is an intentional design choice because we want to call attention to the improvements we made to Private Browsing for Firefox 42, but I'll ask a visual designer for confirmation that the observations in comment 0 and these alternate options have been taken into account, maybe we can make adjustments.

Comment 6

[Ash Grigas]

Thanks for the input. We purposefully decided to make this page standout more than others given the destructive nature of this feature change on the browsing experience. People may miss the tour and we want to at least make sure they're aware that something is different about the new PBM. We do plan to stage out this change when we feel comfortable with adoption to a more simple page.