Firefox's Proton design has been around since 2021, and it is starting to show its age. The interface is flat, uses a lot of gray, and feels very dated in 2026. You either live with it or you go out of your way to install a theme from the add-ons store.
Neither option feels particularly appealing when practically every other mainstream browser and several Firefox forks, have put real thought into what people expect from a modern web browser.
On top of that, its AIness and lack of genuinely user experience-centric additions have been making me wonder whether it is time to move on entirely.
But, it looks like there's some hope after all.
This is my attempt to provide you, the readers, with a better reading experience, and many authors have already switched, so why not?
Firefox "Nova" might be a game-changer
Sören Hentzschel, a full-stack developer, cat dad, and blogger, has shared something very interesting (in Deutsch) on his personal website.
Under the internal project name "Nova," Mozilla is working on a significant visual overhaul of Firefox. Sören was the first to put out the internal design mockups, which show a very different version of Firefox than what you and me currently use.
The most obvious change is how rounded everything is. Tabs, the address bar, and the toolbar no longer sit as separate flat strips—they form a single floating island at the top of the browser.
The sidebar toggle and the web content area follow the same rounded design language, and even elements on the new tab page get the same treatment.
Flat, solid colors are also going away. Nova brings in subtle gradients across the interface, and the mockups show a clear lean toward violet as a color accent. Sören notes that this is likely tied to the active theme or what the user has chosen in the Appearance settings.
On the left is the vertical tab layout; on the right is the 'Appearance' settings menu. (Source: Sören Hentzschel)
That menu, btw, also sees a redesign, where the various options are laid out neatly with rounded corners and possibly a different font for the text.
There is also a structural change in how web content is displayed. Rather than sitting flush against the window edges, pages are presented inside a rounded container, visually separated from the other elements of the interface.
The mockups also showcase vertical tabs that already exist on the current build of Firefox, but, again, with a more rounded appearance and a slightly more accessible layout.
From left to right: Firefox Nova's dark mode, light mode, and Private Window. (Source: Sören Hentzschel)
Above, the dark mode mockup shows the split view feature in action, with two sites open side by side inside their rounded containers. The browser's interface is a black/red gradient, with the tab bar and toolbar housed in a single strip at the top.
The light mode mockup shows the browser menu open, which has noticeably rounded corners and floats as a panel rather than being pinned to the toolbar. You can also spot tab groups displayed as colored pills in the tab bar.
The private window mockup is the most visually distinct of the three. The entire interface is a dark purple, with large flowing curves and slightly varying shades of purple as the background.
Stay updated
If you want to follow development, Mozilla's Bugzilla page has an active set of entries tracking the work surrounding Nova.
Going through them, I came across several Figma links that presumably pointed to the actual design files. But none of them were accessible; my best guess is that they were taken down after the leak.
Also, there's no official announcement on this from Mozilla, but seeing that the mockups are now out in the wild, we can probably expect one shortly.
In the meantime, customize it yourself
We have a detailed video on customizing Firefox to give it a lean, minimal but efficient makeover. Perhaps you would want to give it a try before the new, redesigned version is released.
