620614 - tab-modal dialogs don't look very good on Windows

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 613704

(Toolkit :: Themes, enhancement)

Description

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

Attachment: current and proposed tab-modal dialogs for windows

The tab modal dialogs on Windows look like something from Mac. Limi says the goal is to have them fit with the page rather than the app or the system. I think they don't quite do that right now and propose a simpler dialog, at least on Windows. 

Screenshot attached showing current dialog and proposed dialog.

Comment 1

[Alex Limi (:limi) — Firefox UX Team]

I'd love to make it more "flat" like you suggest, to be more neutral and match more web sites, but I'll let our visually talented designers comment on this. ;)

Comment 2

[Biju]

Attachment: word.png

(In reply to comment #0)
> The tab modal dialogs on Windows look like something from Mac.

The proposed changes in attachment 498960 [details] are
1. square corners instead of rounded corners
2. button alined left instead of center
3. icon changed

See my attachment (word.png) Microsoft products for Windows have 
1. rounded corners
2. button alined at center


So why Mozilla is taking trouble to code for multiple OS.
Why cant we make Themes to take care of it.

Comment 3

[Josh Tumath]

(In reply to comment #2)
Keep in mind that Word does things differently, UI wise, than most other Windows apps. One of which, which can be seen in your screenshot, is that the alert icon is not native.

But that screenshot was taken in XP. Asa's mockup takes conventions from the aero UI, including the double border that resembles the frame around most glass windows that separates the content from the chrome. The mockup also uses a right-aligned set of buttons, which also the case in most windows apps.

Comment 4

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

>I'd love to make it more "flat" like you suggest

In  the first design we found that users assumed that these were layered on top of the window, and were still application modal.  The inset is to help them discover that these are in fact tab modal.

Comment 5

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

One additional comment: we would rather users believe that these dialogs are coming from the Web site, and not the OS or browser, so this is a strange case where we actually want to try to avoid appearing system native.