Designing Firefox for the future

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Designing Firefox for the future

May 21, 2026

Firefox UX Team

Crafted with care. Built for speed. Ready for what’s next.

A great browser is so intuitive that you often forget you’re using it. Yet today the internet is changing faster than ever, and your browser needs to keep up. Firefox is still the only browser built for people, not platforms: independent, customizable, private and firmly in users’ control.

Keeping Firefox the best browser for being online today is what motivated our recent work to update Firefox’s design and design system. We’re aiming to deliver a more cohesive foundation for Firefox: making the browser feel cleaner, warmer, faster and more adaptable.

Internally, we’ve been calling this work Project Nova. The name fits: A nova can look like a new star, yet it comes from existing matter — a renewal, not a replacement. When it rolls out later this year, you can just call it Firefox. Here’s what it’s all about:

Privacy at the center

A good default matters. When you choose Firefox, privacy and clear data practices are there from the start. Our new design pulls privacy features forward, making it easier to find and use tools like our free, built-in VPN and private browsing.

We’re also redesigning Settings so choices about your data are easier to understand and act on. That includes controls for turning off AI features entirely, plainer language throughout, as well as tuning Enhanced Tracking Protection to match your preferred balance of protection and usability.

Speed you can feel

Privacy and speed aren’t trade-offs. When Firefox blocks trackers, pages load faster, too. We also prioritize the most important parts of a page before the optional stuff around the edges. In the last year, we’ve improved load times for key page content by 9%.

The new design can speed up your workflows, too. It’s easier to access tab groups, split view, and vertical tabs – putting these productivity features at your fingertips, but not in your face.

And we’re bringing back compact mode. People told us that they missed it, and we listened. If you want your browser controls as condensed as possible, this one’s for you.

Balancing the new and familiar

When it came to design, we wanted Firefox to feel current, but not generic. Warm, but still precise. More expressive, but never louder than the web itself. You’ll see the change first in the fundamentals:

Tabs have a softer shape, with a subtle gradient that gives the active tab more presence and creates a sense of light around the browser chrome.

Components are more rounded and consistent, so panels, menus, settings and browser controls feel like part of the same system.

Icons have been updated to feel cleaner and more balanced across light and dark themes, supporting quick recognition without adding visual noise.

Spacing is rebalanced across the interface with the knowledge that every pixel matters when the browser is where you spend your day.

The refreshed color palette is inspired by the feeling of fire: the glow around your active tab, deep smoky purples and lighter tones that add warmth.

The voice is warming up, too. Firefox copy is becoming more direct, more human, and sometimes more playful or fiery. Always genuine… because that’s what sets Firefox apart.

The effect is distinctly Firefox: approachable and energetic, while still easy to scan. Under the hood, reusable tokens, components, patterns, and a shared design language make Firefox easier to evolve over time, so new features feel integrated instead of bolted on.

The redesign is most visible on desktop, but the work extends to mobile, too. Shared colors, icons, copy and design foundations help Firefox feel more consistent across devices.

Yours to shape

Firefox has long been the most customizable browser. It’s in our open source DNA. Now we’re adding more ways to make Firefox feel like yours, including new themes and wallpapers. And we’re exploring more customization over time, like controls for the shape of the interface — tabs, components, and related visual treatments.

Accessibility is a key part of customization. Firefox is being designed with attention to contrast, readability, focus states, keyboard behavior, target sizes, system settings, visual comfort, and how the interface works across themes and windows.

Dark mode, for example, is not just a preference for many people. It is their default environment. For some, it helps reduce eye strain. For others, it is part of a broader system setup.

Building in public

Firefox has always been built in the open, and with the help of a global community of contributors and supporters. You help us build the browser, test, extend and improve it. You tell us when something doesn’t feel right. That relationship is part of what makes Firefox different.

While the new design system for Firefox is still being...