Firefox Focus
Design Review
Firefox recently announced the launch of their new mobile browser called Focus.
Focus is a browser that’s stripped down to its basics for performance and secure browsing. This means no passwords saved, no bookmarks, no history, no ads 🙌, no trackers and super fast load times. Or so they say. I decided to take a look for myself to see if what they said was true.
The Good
They were right about the basics. You can only browse one site at a time and the only option you have is to Erase the URL. This copy seems a little odd when you’re not familiar with the mantra of Firefox Focus.
Their options for blocking and search engines are extensive and well thought out. You can even use Focus as an add blocker for Safari on iOS.
The Bad
Performance was about normal. As any good tech person would do, I tested cnn.com in the browser. The homepage took about a second to load with article pages taking close to three seconds. I think this is partially due to how much the browser has to block on this site.
I noticed it misses cookie alerts and terms and condition alerts like the one cnn.com pops up when you first visit. Focus also will not load large images, this is good and bad because it doesn’t have a setting to load large images.
The Ugly
When your whole goal is to get out of the way of browsing, I find it counter to that mission to use a gradient for the browser frame. The standard for private browsing experiences is a dark browser, which Mozilla got half right with their gradient hues, but managed to miss the ball on when tying it back to the mission.
see what a browser built light and lean on purpose can bring to your focus
I will say I really like the marketing design around this browser including the deep hued purple and maroon. But from a UX perspective, the gradient and the seemingly outdated navigation standards left me wanting more. If anything, I would have liked to have seen a darker UI like this. And maybe a dark iOS keyboard too.
Overall, I give this a 5/10. It makes private browsing worry free although I’d prefer tabs for multitasking. As for the ad blocking, it takes a stab a problem that’s plaguing the web, non-performant ad riddled websites. But remember friends, a performant web is also the responsibility of those who build and maintain it.
