Opera is once again set to screw up its UI in the upcoming version 10 of the web browser.
Granted, that the new iteration of Opera is faster and bloasts loads of new features, but the UI is still such a mess to look at. See for yourself:
This is the default theme named Opera Standard. Couldn’t be uglier.
The last time I wrote about it, the interface was much better!
There is another themed named Windows Native which is bundled with the application. Even though it does offer a more native UI feel to Opera, it leaves a lot more to be desired too:
How can a major player like Opera ignore the usability point of its products? What makes them think that they can fool around with the UI in every new version? I cannot undersand.
It is time Opera starts analyzing the relation between user friendly user interface and market share. Opera is now a distant fifth behing IE, Firefox, Safari and Chrome in browser market share.
Great news for you: They’ve just hired John Hicks, an amazing and talend UI designer: http://hicksdesign.co.uk/
They anticipated your article
http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/and-now-opera
On the other hand, I actually like the current design.
Opera 10 Alpha is only preview to show new rendering enginge and few new features. It has same GUI as 9.6. It most likely will be changed in final version.
Opera UI may be not perfect for new user. But it is very easy to configure it for your needs. I removed menu and all buttons from my.
http://www.imagebam.com/image/5402d922741722
Opera hired a fairly well known designer a while back:
http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/and-now-opera
I’m like you, I’ve always wanted to like Opera, but the UI has left me with a bad taste in my mouth and enough reason not to use it.
Hopefully this will change it.
Niyaz, you’ll be pleased to hear that Opera since a little while back employs the brilliant logo and web designer Jon Hicks, who among many other things designed the Firefox logo. From what I understand, he’s currently working on the new skin for Opera, but unless I’m mistaken his work had not been incorporated to any greater extent in the V 10 previews so far.
Emil,
Let us hope for the best then.
I want to know what are the advantages of Opera over firefox?
Anand,
Read this article.
The blog offers a lot of tips, tricks and news about Opera. In the sidebar there is an About Opera section (scroll down a bit). Read that to get an idea about Opera.
Vitor, Jeroen, dArt, Matt,
Sorry for the delay in approving the comments.