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Add-ons Manager UI Update

I’ve posted quite a few mockups on this blog of Firefox’s redesigned add-ons manager’s features and interactions. What I haven’t shown are screenshots of how the manager will actually look in Firefox 4.0. The following are designs, based on Stephen Horlander’s work on the new Firefox theme, of the add-ons manager in OSX and Windows 7.  The icons are still placeholders, but the rest of the design is pretty near finalized.

In the image below, you’ll see three windows for each operating system.  The first row shows list view, where a short summary of each add-on and its description are shown.  Buttons allow the user to disable an add-on or launch its preferences.  Clicking “More” takes the user to detail view.

The second row shows detail view, where the user sees more information about a single add-on.  The full description is displayed as well as a contribution box if the add-on’s author chooses.

Finally, appearance view shows installed themes and backgrounds (previously personas).  Since these add-ons are primarily visual, the interface gives a large preview of each item and does not display a description.

Dave Townsend and Blair McBride have been working hard on implementing these visual changes as well as the slew of under-the-hood improvements that are making the add-ons manager faster and more stable.  To see how it’s coming along, try running a nightly build in your operating system of choice.  Hope you like it!