However, there does not seem to be a single product that implements the core ideas - that browsing trees should be displayed separately and that each tree should be organized linearly. The design of Tab-Free draws inspiration from many products and designs. Finally, the plan for Tab-Free is to create a minimal viable product for a 1.0, and then to add missing features later, such as folders, zoomability, and commands. However, considering that its interface is designed to be simpler than other browsers, the range of people able to use it should be even greater. The demographics for this app are the same as those of any browser: everyone. The tutorial will teach the user of the various gestures required to use the app, which will also serve as a demonstration of the way one browses within it. To demonstrate the capabilities of the prototype, I have chosen to do so via a a tutorial/walkthrough. Pages and page stacks look as such, have appropriate shadows, and are organized spatially. I have, therefore, chosen to use Material Design extensively to match the “materialism” of the interface. Tab-Free has an object-centric interface, since almost everything is a page. Opening a new page manually (with the ➕ button) creates a wholly separate stack. Opening a link creates a new page in the stack directly behind the current page. In this app, every page is its own object, which can never be replaced by another page (unlike with tabs). I have extended the metaphor for the purposes of creating a simple interface for my solution, which I call Tab-Free. My replacement for the tab bar was heavily inspired by Palm webOS, which allowed the user to stack related cards/windows into a neat stack. The solution thus has two parts: flatten the tree into a linear sequence (by eliminating the Back button and replacing the tab bar), and keep trees separate. Moreover, I realized that browsing becomes especially messy when multiple trees get mixed up together, with unrelated pages next to each other. I realized that this tree can be flattened to show a logical sequence of all pages (just as if every single link were opened in a new tab). It demonstrated how all pages that start from the same page together form a tree structure - regardless if a node was opened in the same or a new tab. My solution was inspired by an xkcd comic ( #214: The Problem with Wikipedia). This last issue is caused by the partial redundancy between the Back button and the tab bar: with every link, we have a choice whether to add it to the current tab’s history or to open it in a new tab, thus deciding whether the current page will become hidden or not. Worse still, sometimes what you’re looking for isn’t a tab but a page hidden behind the Back button of a tab. The issue is exacerbated as the number of tabs increases. The problem I am trying to solve is that of Web-browsing management: it is difficult to keep track of your browser tabs and stay focused on your task when everything is mixed up together.
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