💡 User Interface Rationale#

TL;DR: HuBrowser’s UI is designed for familiarity, performance, and user comfort—like Chrome, but with thoughtful improvements! 🚀✨

Similar to Chrome to Reduce Learning Curve#

• Many users say, "Oh, it's just Chrome." But it's not! 😄
  • Uses the same browser engine as Desktop ChromeOS and its UI assets. 🛠️
  • Different architecture: 64-bit, ported desktop engine with desktop features like extensions, casting, multi-window support, and zero tracking. 🔒
• We respect Chrome's quality, its 90%+ market share, and the hard work by my former colleagues.

Location Bar at the Top#

Buttons#

• Extension Button: Works the same as in Desktop Chrome. 🧩
• Tab Switch Icon:
  • We changed it because:
    • A static icon allows HuBrowser to cache the entire top bar for better performance. ⚡
    • Rendering the icon dynamically with tab counts is overly complex and impacts performance. 🐢
    • Tab counts can add unnecessary mental pressure without providing useful information. 😵‍💫
    • Allows users to focus on content rather than the number of tabs. 🎯
    • HuBrowser's desktop-grade memory management allows as many tabs as desired, with automatic tab caching. 🧠
    • Users need not feel pressured by having many tabs open. 😌
    • The number of tabs can be gauged roughly by looking at the tab bar or exactly by tapping the tab switch. 👀
    • The dynamic tab count icon was original to Chrome, but many have copied it unnecessarily. 🌀
• Menu: Simplified for small screens. 📱
  • Top Section: For page actions. ⚙️
  • Bottom Section: For destinations. 🗺️

Why Not Put the Location Bar at the Bottom?#

• Placing the location bar at the bottom would cause the bottom bar to render twice every time the keyboard pops up, negating render cache benefits. ⏳
• A long location bar is mainly for display and would waste precious bottom screen space better used for user actions. 📏

Why Not More Buttons?#

• A long location bar is important for displaying URLs and search queries on small screen. 🔍
  • Helps prevent fraud by showing the full domain, avoiding misleading URLs where hubrowser.com.hugle.com might appear as hubrowser.com. 🚨
• Top buttons are harder to press on small screens. ☝️

Tab Bar at the Bottom#

• The bottom bar is ideal for actions. 👍
• Since the bottom bar needs to re-render when the keyboard pops up, it's better to place frequently changing elements here. 🔄
• Tab Icons: Perfect for easy tab switching. 🗂️
• New Tab Page and Quick Search Button: Highly useful. 🆕🔎
• Parrot Assistant Button: Symmetrical counterpart to the menu button in UI position and functionality. 🦜
  • The menu button offers layered, predefined options following industry conventions. 🧭
  • The Parrot Assistant provides a dynamic and personalized experience:
    • Control media playback, compare prices when shopping, invoke page-aware AI, etc. 🤖🛒🎵

Wrap Up#

• Both the top and bottom bars are designed as one bar with three buttons, providing symmetry and consistency. ⚖️
• Space is efficiently utilized without making buttons feel cramped. 🧩
• It's a perfect balance! 😊🎉