"Firefox View" is confusing, bad design

[Itsnoteasy]

I'm posting this here because this is where the "Share ideas and feedback" menu item led to.  Emphasis on the feedback part.

TLDR: "Firefox View"'s button on the tab bar confused the hell out of me and got me really annoyed with Mozilla until I stumbled ass-backwards into what was going on.  Its appearance needs to change.

So, Firefox Nightly recently updated, and this was the experience I just had (hopefully key parts bolded if you want to skim past my increasingly manic frustration with this change):

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Alright, I want to switch to my pinned YouTube tab and... what's this?  Why is there another pinned tab before it?  Why does it have a Firefox icon?  Urgh.  More update junk.  (Click on it)

No.  No I do not want to sign in.  I don't care about limited time colours or whatever this junk is.  Where's the close button?  Oh, there isn't one.  Nevermind, I'll just close the tab.  (Right click on pinned tab)

Wait.  Where's the Close Tab item?  (Close and re-open context menu)  Is there seriously no close tab item?  What the &%$! is this?!  (Try Ctrl+W shortcut)

Well, that "closed" it, but the tab is still there.  You have to be kidding me.  (Open and re-check for a dismiss button in the page)  Can I un-pin it and close it that way?  (Check menu again)  I don't believe this.  Mozilla put an uncloseable, unremovable bother-until-I-comply tab in the browser?  Does it go away if I sign up for an account?  Oh screw that.  (Out of desperation, try to re-order the tab).  Nope, can't do that, either.

(Sit stumped for a few minutes)

Does it go away if I restart?  (Restart)

No.

(Stumped for a bit longer.  Get a coffee.  Come back.  Still stumped)

(Try opening a new window for no particular reason)

Wait, it's here, too?  That's... even weirder.  That's never happened before.  It's in every window?

Is Mozilla seriously addicted to driving away users?  Am I going to have to install Brave or something?

(Stare at interloper)

... is the menu bugged?  (Check right-click menu on an existing pinned tab)

Well, this has a Close Tab item.  Wait.  (Double check interloper menu)

These two are completely different.  Why does this pinned tab have a completely different menu?

(Actually read the menu items)

... why the hell does it have "remove from toolbar"?  That doesn't make any sense.  This is the tab bar, that shouldn't be there.

Does this mean the browser is showing the wrong context menu for the first pinned tab?  That's a... really, really strange bug to have.  I mean, I suppose this is nightly.  (Start looking up how to report bugs.  Mull signing up for bugzilla)

(Click on "Firefox View" tab again to double-check there really is nothing about how to dismiss it)

Hang on.  Wait.  Why is there another tab open?  (Stare at tab bar)  It's opened a second... "phantom" un-pinned tab?  (Close it)  Wait, so I can close this one, but not the other one?  What?

Wait.  What happens if I click "remove from toolbar" on the pinned tab?  Does it crash, or just do nothing?

(Click on "Remove from toolbar" on "Firefox View" pinned tab)

(It disappears)

... it's not a tab?

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I'm not a UX designer, but even I know that one of the basic rules of UX design is that things should look what what they are/what they do/how to use them.

"Firefox View" looks exactly like a pinned tab, but absolutely does not behave like one.  No, a one pixel-wide line next to it does not sufficiently distinguish this particular small icon with no label from the small icons with no labels right next to it.

It also doesn't help that the context menu is nonsensical.  It talks about the "toolbar" despite being (at least visually) part of the tab bar.

If this stays, it needs to be redesigned to be visually distinct from tabs, and it should probably also have prominent text at the top of the page explaining how to remove it.

[XL496]

I activated the colorway, but I can't seem to disable it in order to change back to the old color. So I'm stuck at those recommended colors.

But if you don't like it being a pinned tab, simply right click, remove it and put it along with other icons using customize Toolbar, or to the right side of the tab bar.

I don't find it useful right away, but I'll give Mozilla the benefit of the doubt and wait to see what they have to offer in the future.

[DG]

yes, how do we get rid of the colours?  How an we see the border between one tab and another.  I really hate this new look and want to deactivate but I can't find out how.

[longtimeffuser]

Tools: addons and themes: According to the system or choose one of those. I also accidentaly clicked on it to make it go away and set some distracting color, but thankfully it could be changed back. At least this can be.

[longtimeffuser]

My main problem is the new color scheme and different font color in anonymous view. Why the changes? Every update/version now is different browser! Some thing thanfully can be changed back - but that is whackamole for power user with more profiles or computers. You do not want long time users useing firefox? Fine, one more frustrating useless update and I am quitting Firefox. And as I read I am not only one. Really, is it that hard to keep it like it is, safe, simple, tool browser? Appereantly it is..

[bbos]

I somewhat agree.

Mozilla I can see where you are going with this and happy to give it a try.  But make it dismissable -  Esc key and a close X icon are most obvious and intuitive.

[pepe]

Agreed. Terrible UX for unnecessary functionality. At least it's easy to remove if you right-click. Perhaps we should be focussing on making a better browser rather than junk like this and peddling VPNs?

[BoredasF]

I really hate it.  I have removed it, hopefully it does not come back with the next update.

[Iodeen]

Yes.

Whoever decided it was OK to mess with how I have my browser displaying is way down a bad path.

How about "Mess with your own browser and leave mine alone"?

If I want something changed on my desktop I'll ask for it.

And the popup didn't even have instructions on how to remove the button. Making more unwanted and unnecessary work for users who want it gone.

Disappointing and negative UX. But then again so much computing is anyway, so this UX just adds to the ongoing canal of sludge.