The new tab design in Safari 15 for macOS makes usability worse and shows a complete disregard for the familiarity users have with the previous tab design
even a little — is a design sin of the first order. Designs should evolve over time in the other direction.” https://daringfireball.net/... @tonx : ME 15m AGO: So glad I'm not the kind of person who gets worked up about petty stuff like this... ME AFTER READING: I am offended beyond reason at Safari's new tab design, it's practically a war crime, the parties responsible should feel eternal shame. https://twitter.com/... Dieter Bohn / @backlon : It is truly astonishing how bad the new Safari tabs are on Mac. @gruber calls it an own goal and he's exactly right. I'm baffled that this made it past any kind of design review. https://daringfireball.net/... Farhad Manjoo / @fmanjoo : yes to all this, safari's new tab design is maddening https://daringfireball.net/... Rene Ritchie / @reneritchie : Safari was born on zero regression. This new design is a devastating regression :( https://twitter.com/... Dwight Silverman / @dsilverman : Another reason not to use Safari on Mac. Safari 15 sounds maddening, but I don't use it. I use Microsoft Edge because its vertical tabs make so much sense when you have lots of tabs open at once. Safari/Mac has always felt sloppy and half-assed to me. https://twitter.com/... Chris Pirillo / @chrispirillo : If you wanna know why Safari's usability has taken a turn for the worse, here. This isn't fixed with a simple toggle. https://twitter.com/... Jesse Squires / @jesse_squires : Safari 15 tabs are so fucking terrible that I have to retweet this. The options to turn off the new “compact” tabs should fully revert to the v14 tab design. https://twitter.com/... Federico Viticci / @viticci : “Change for change's sake alone is masturbatory. That with Safari 15 it actually makes usability worse, solely for flamboyant cosmetic reasons, is downright perverse.” 💯 https://twitter.com/... Bobby Yaga / @mcnees : It feels like Apple has really decided that good design is out, and change for change's sake is in. Everything is just a little harder than it used to be on a Mac, all sorts of unnecessary friction introduced for no good reason. https://daringfireball.net/... Alex Russell / @slightlylate : Welp, Safari is now officially the boat-anchor browser. https://twitter.com/... @darth : ok so this is what i am talking about right here https://daringfireball.net/...
Daring FireballJohn Gruber
Context & Ripple Effects
This critique lands at the peak of a summer-long retreat. Apple had already softened the Safari redesign twice before shipping it — making the new layout optional in the iPadOS 15 beta and appearing to pull back in Monterey's developer beta — yet still shipped the compressed tab design to Mac users in Safari 15, drawing immediate fire from John Gruber, who calls it an "own goal," and Dieter Bohn, who calls the result astonishingly bad.
First-order effects
Mac users lose the familiar, clearly delineated tab design overnight, with the replacement criticized for worse usability and disregard for learned habits — and prominent critics like Gruber and Bohn amplifying the backlash publicly.
Major browser UI overhauls are converging on ship-then-revert as the standard cycle: redesigns increasingly launch behind settings toggles rather than as defaults, because sustained user backlash now reliably forces platform vendors to restore familiarity.
The trend: Platform makers are learning that sweeping interface redesigns can no longer be imposed unilaterally — public backlash from influential users now routinely converts bold defaults into optional modes.
Safari 15 tabs are so fucking terrible that I have to retweet this. The options to turn off the new “compact” tabs should fully revert to the v14 tab design. https://twitter.com/...
ME 15m AGO: So glad I'm not the kind of person who gets worked up about petty stuff like this... ME AFTER READING: I am offended beyond reason at Safari's new tab design, it's practically a war crime, the parties responsible should feel eternal shame. https://twitter.com/...
“Change for change's sake alone is masturbatory. That with Safari 15 it actually makes usability worse, solely for flamboyant cosmetic reasons, is downright perverse.” 💯 https://twitter.com/...
It feels like Apple has really decided that good design is out, and change for change's sake is in. Everything is just a little harder than it used to be on a Mac, all sorts of unnecessary friction introduced for no good reason. https://daringfireball.net/...
Here's story on technology that starts sounding annoyed but then slowly but surely moves into “I'm extremely angry” A damning review of the new Safari on iOS by @gruber. Extra credit for using “craptacular” and “masturbatory”: https://daringfireball.net/...
Another reason not to use Safari on Mac. Safari 15 sounds maddening, but I don't use it. I use Microsoft Edge because its vertical tabs make so much sense when you have lots of tabs open at once. Safari/Mac has always felt sloppy and half-assed to me. https://twitter.com/...
It is truly astonishing how bad the new Safari tabs are on Mac. @gruber calls it an own goal and he's exactly right. I'm baffled that this made it past any kind of design review. https://daringfireball.net/...
On the Safari 15 redesign: “Replacing an interface that doesn't require you to think at all with an interface that requires you to think — even a little — is a design sin of the first order. Designs should evolve over time in the other direction.” https://daringfireball.net/...
It's like Apple gave up, and is saying: “Now's the time to try Chrome, Brave, Firefox, or Edge. We no longer care about being the lead Mac browser.” BTW, Brave and Firefox are both pretty darn good. If you haven't given them a good spin yet, Apple just gave you an excuse. https:/…
If this doesn't get Apple's attention, we clearly need a prominent YouTuber/TikToker to make a video entitled “HOW TO FIX SAFARI 15” with an explanation of how to disable system integrity protection. https://twitter.com/...
If this doesn't get apples attention it will be really funny because it means they've totally disregarded gruber in the most spiteful way https://twitter.com/...
I agree with @gruber's assessment here. Great analysis: “From a usability perspective, every single thing about Safari 15's tabs is a regression. Everything. It's a tab design that can only please users who do not use tabs heavily” Read: https://daringfireball.net/...
Yeah, all of this. One thing Apple had been really great at was finding a particular UI element's design asymptote and leaving it well enough alone for years and years. Now, it seems, at least for Safari, they can no longer help themselves. https://twitter.com/...
I agree with all this, but it still doesn't hold a candle to the “hover over a window's title bar juuuuussst riiiigghht to bring up a proxy icon” travesty as a violation of usability & discoverability rules. https://twitter.com/...
@gruber @branmoji The only possible justification I have is that the button occludes the website content and websites generally left-align their logos, so by positioning it ‘out if the way’ on the right it makes the thumbnails a little easier to identify by eye.
@bzamayo @branmoji There's no way to justify it. On Apple platforms, close should be on the left, full stop. It like steering wheels. In England they're on the right. Here on the left.
As @gruber says, the design of tabs and the differentiation of the browser from the page it's rendering are both terrible on Safari 15 for Mac. I am reverting to a browser where things that look like buttons are in fact buttons. https://twitter.com/...
This essay on the tabs in Safari 15 for Mac illustrates the enduring tension between visual design and interaction design. Tabs and their relationship to content and other controls - a classic interview question because the aesthetic lure is so compelling https://daringfireball.n…
It's such a shame that Apple used to be the best in the world at user interface *design*. They were a North Star I could reference and use to show others that what I was striving for was important. Sigh. https://twitter.com/...
I believe this is the most important piece @gruber wrote in years. It needs to reach Apple's C-suite because tiny paper cuts decisions like hiding proxy icons suggested someone didn't get Mac design, but this year Safari plainly proved someone should be shown the door. That bad. …
Speaking of Safari... The close icons on mobile Safari tabs are on the right. Close icons are always on the left. Mac, iOS. ALWAYS. Does this bother anyone else? https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Thanks to @gruber for showing me a preference to remove Safari's new annoying window coloring. (And I agree with his other points, tabs should look like tabs!) https://daringfireball.net/...