Mozilla Considers Limiting Customization Options
Doesn’t want to frustrate consumers.
After reaching the point where average Joe now heavily influences the overall direction of the product, you will hear tech enthusiasts complain that companies are “dumbing down” everything just to please the masses.
Now, Alex Limi, Mozilla’s head of project design strategy, has raised an interesting point: should you have that many customization options that can often break sites?
For example: if a consumer accidentally disables JavaScript, a lot of sites will stop working. If he or she hides the navigation bar, you will be left with a broken web browser that will degrade the overall experience.
Therefore, Alex Limi asks if Mozilla should really implement options that are used by very few people and that can have “disastrous effects” for the average consumer. As he says, “We’re trying to design software that can be used by everyone — that also means we have to keep them safe and not make it so easy to break a product they rely on every day.”
What’s your answer?
[Via: Geek]
[Thanks, Blake]
About (Author Profile)
Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism career back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.
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Wow, is it that hard to find a solution? Keep the options, just move them to about:config
I think most options have an entry in about:config. I’d say it’s the best place to keep them out of general users’ reach.
Firefox is the same old firefox, but with a new face (the new UI), i really like it and i use it from time to time, but its getting really old and only survives, because of its popularity, so no matter what they do, they are falling behind
Opera, on the other hand, is making a good decision by switching to webkit and im curious whats going to happen there
Add icones to urlbar for disabled JS…
another Chrome feature they try to mimic…
why dont you give no option at all, and make “as is” in larger definition?
or work for Google?
Probably showing a big sign “This can have disastrous effects, sure to continue?” may help, as many want to use it, but most don’t know what they are or what they mean…