ISHAC BERTRAN

Flaps

CONCEPT | 2012

Flaps is a full-screen browser with a minimum visual infrastructure, an interface for contextual navigation and dedicated interactions for optimising frequent actions.

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Web browsing is probably the main activity we use computers for today. Tabs have been a universal standard in web browsers, helping a wide range of users to navigate the web. Tabs provide a visual representation of the active webpages, waiting to be processed: either read them, discard them, keep them for later, or archive.

The way tabs are sorted is a combination of time (new tabs open at the right end of the tabs bar) and source (new tabs from links coming from a specific webpage will sit next to that webpage's tab). This two sorting strategies combined with the flat visual representation of the tabs doesn't help navigating them, specially when the tab bar is cluttered and web titles and/or icons are hidden.

Moreover, tabs are designed for 'point and click' in order to navigate them. Pointing at things slows down the navigation since it requires shifting the focus of attention.

Continue reading: Flaps, fast and contextual browsing