Why Firefox Personas Are Bad
So, per a friend’s suggestion (way to go Mizo), I tried out Firefox’s add on, Personas.
When I first set it up I really wanted to like it, I mean who doesn’t like cartoon robots invading a city.
The reality, however, is that it creates a visual paradox for any user viewing a web page with any bit of creative design. Think of the common window metaphore on a computer; when you open a browser window, it allows the user to view into a space (through the window) of indefinite depth only limited by designer who has set it up.
Now take that field of depth and wrap it in a browser frame, which, with personas has its own field of depth contradictory to the field of depth within the window. It appears as though these two seperate elwments should be in the same realm of visual reality, but they’re not.
Plus it makes tabs hard as hell to read because it fades them out and blends them into the the background.