Tabs

While working on the Browser at Microsoft, we redesigned the Tab experience. I was the lead designer on Tab Preview, Tab Sweep, and Tab Center. The biggest challenge was addressing user's unmet needs without breaking their entrenched expectations of the Browser.

Users have a hard time telling the difference between multiple Tabs because they basically look identical. Tab Preview was designed to help users confidently switch between Tabs and find the right content.

Users wanted a way to keep important Tabs around and return to them later. If users closed their Browser they'd lose all their Tabs, but most Tabs weren't important enough to Favorite and save for forever. We created the Tab Sweep button so users could "sweep" their Tabs aside and get a fresh browser window, and we created the Tab Center so users could view and restore Tabs they had previously set aside.