Arc is an emerging browser that has received a lot of attention.
Starting from this article, I will track its monthly updates and share my user experience and brief comments.
TL;DR
- Site Control Center: a new button in the address bar;
- Folder Preview: quickly preview pages in a folder;
- Folder Peek: peek at the tab in use while the Folder is folded;
- Simplification: simplified operation buttons for Space and Tab;
- Upcoming new feature: Folder Inside;
- Uncertain new feature: Arc AI;
- Other: Boost Shuffle, Boost Gallery, faster speed, etc.;
- Thoughts: How Arc can avoid confusion?
Site Control Center
Updates
Since the Boost icon was placed in the address bar, the space in the address bar has become a bit tight.
So, in June, Arc released a new feature called Site Control Center, which bundles all the features into a secondary menu. Users can conveniently use plugins and Boost functions in it. In addition, other functions such as Picture-in-Picture and Developer Mode can also be controlled in it.
Comments
In terms of experience, the graphical design is indeed more intuitive and user-friendly than the previous text-only right-click menu.
However, if Boost is seen as a plug-in and placed in the right plug-in bar, the previous design was also sufficient. The new design may have two considerations: 1. Design a structure with stronger expansibility and can place more buttons to pave the way for new features such as team mode in the future; 2. Explore a new way of using plug-ins to replace the abrupt and not very user-friendly right plug-in bar.
Perhaps in the future, Space will also support such a menu and place more buttons that are conducive to Tab operations. For example, the “fold all folders” function, which is rarely known now…
Interestingly, in order to promote Boost’s features, Arc initially placed the “copy link” button in the secondary menu. Later, it was put back after receiving feedback from users. This actually shows that for commonly used functions, even if they are placed in a secondary menu, it will make users very uncomfortable.
Currently, Arc still has many common secondary menu operations, such as the right plug-in bar. In the future, many AI functions that are more frequently used may be added. If all these functions can be placed, the experience may be better.
Actually, the current Develop Mode can do it, as shown in the figure below. All plugins are in the upper right corner, just like traditional browsers, and can be used with just one click. I hope to give users a choice of global enablement, sacrificing the beauty of full screen for the convenience of primary menus.
Folder Preview
Updates
Folder Preview was first introduced at the end of last year and required clicking the search button to pop up the preview.
Now, it has been improved, and the preview window will automatically pop up when the mouse hovers over the folder, which is more convenient.
Comments
After the improvement, the user experience is naturally more convenient. What’s more interesting is that the improved interaction is consistent with existing features such as Notion/Gmail Preview, simplifying the complexity.
From this small example, it can also be seen how interesting it is to track the updates of Arc products. It can be seen how the features are iterating step by step and becoming better and better. It can be seen the original intention of the design, the twists and turns of the iteration process, and the final choice. It can be understood that good, natural, and simple design is not achieved overnight, but through continuous trial and error and exploration.
Folder Peek
Updates
When clicking on a tab in Folder View, the tab can now peek out without expanding the Folder.
When the Folder is folded, the tab in use will also peek out.
Comments
Previously, when clicking on a tab in Folder View, it would jump to a temporary tab opened below, which is relatively fragmented. The peeking design updated this time cleverly solved this problem.
However, when folding the Folder, the user’s expectation may be to fold all the folder tabs, and the peeking tab may be a bit disturbing. Users need to close it manually.
How to optimize this design?
Arc has always lacked a function to view all open pages, similar to Safari’s Tab view. Although Tab Switch can achieve similar effects, it can only view pages that have not been put to sleep and its design is independent of the sidebar, focusing on switching, which may not be the best answer.
If a button can be designed to fold all folders with one click and peek out all the tabs in use inside the folder, it would be great. Clicking again will completely fold all the folders without peeking out the tabs.
This way, when the user wants to fold a single folder, they can do it manually, and the tab will not peek out. If the user wants to view all open pages, they can click the button, and the tabs in use will peek out. If the user wants to fold all folders completely, they can double-click. The expectation and result correspond, and the experience will be better.
Some Simplifications
Updates
Simplify Space operations: all buttons are now simplified to one Edit button.
Simplify Tab operations: remove “…”, and right-click can be used instead.
Comments
For Space, there were indeed too many buttons before, and this simplification makes the software look more concise. However, too many hidden operations will naturally reduce convenience. The function of renaming Space and changing the logo by double-clicking may be added back later.
For Tab, is it appropriate to remove the “…”? Chrome doesn’t have it; Safari has it; Figma, Notion, and Note folders have it, but note doesn’t. There seems to be no unified consensus.
However, under Arc’s goal of very strong simplification, optional items have become mandatory, and such simplification can be understood.
Actually, I think it is better to remove the delete button of PinnedTabs altogether. PinnedTab is equivalent to favorites, and people won’t delete it easily. Keeping it will make users afraid of touching it by mistake. Imagine if Notion had a delete button for every page, it would also be uncomfortable.
Upcoming New Feature: Folder Inside
Function Introduction
Arc is testing a new feature called Folder Inside.
It can quickly enter the folder focus with one click, similar to Workflow’s Zoom in.
Comments
Folder Inside looks very good: by entering the focus page through Folder Inside, you can get rid of the clutter outside and focus on the affairs inside the folder. However, from the current prototype, it may not be easy to use. Because when using the browser, we don’t just use tabs in one folder, but mixed tabs in multiple folders.
In fact, the core problem that Folder Inside wants to solve is: how to quickly focus from chaos.
macOS’s full-screen function, Craft’s Focus Mode, Notion’s favorites, or Arc’s “Clear”, dragging Tab to generate a new window, and other functions are all solving similar problems. But for Arc, the hierarchical structure of the sidebar + browser, naturally, it is too easy to open multiple levels and get confused, so it is constantly exploring new ways to reduce confusion.
The final evolution may be to select multiple Tabs and folders with Shift and then enter immersive mode with one click.
Uncertain New Feature: Arc AI
Function Introduction
Arc released a video on June 27th that demonstrated a demo of Arc AI.
During the demo, the Boost code feature was opened in Twitter, a tweet was selected, and the big model was told to “write some code to blur the tweet and reveal it when the mouse hovers over it.” The big model generated the code automatically, clicked test, and achieved the desired effect. In addition, the demo also demonstrated how to make Amazon product titles more concise.
However, Arc CEO Josh expressed that there are currently many issues with Arc, such as Arc Windows, making Arc faster and simpler, and AI being very expensive, so it is uncertain whether to invest in AI at the moment. Therefore, the demo was released to solicit opinions.
Comments
In summary, AI is not about generating content, but about executing commands. Therefore, for applications such as Siri, Spotlight, and browsers, which can schedule other tools, combining AI is a perfect match.
I often use Notion Toggle list, but I can’t remember the shortcut keys, and I have to manually select the / menu every time, which is very cumbersome. If I tell AI, “generate a button that can insert a collapsible list into the Notion page every time you click it,” it can automatically generate a button, and the experience will be very good.
In fact, this is equivalent to giving everyone the ability to make plugins and making the Internet usage experience more personal. And AI can also schedule multiple pages, which will play a greater role in Arc’s key team functions. This is the complete version of Boost.
This is also the idea of Arc AI: to change web pages by commands. However, the interaction demonstrated in the demo is not very good. It requires selecting elements and generating code, which looks cumbersome and intimidating, and the final result is not a pain point. Therefore, the feedback in the comments section is not very good.
Imagine if there was only an AI button, the user inputs a surprising command, and the result is automatically executed. The marketing effect may be much better. (Commands can be referenced from popular plugins in the Google Plugin Store.)
The combination of browsers and AI really has great potential. I hope that Arc can continue to promote AI.
Other updates
- Now, when multiple windows are opened, each window’s temporary tab will be independent and no longer synchronized.
- When dragging a Pinned Tab to create a new window, the original Pinned tab will no longer be lost.
- Added Boost Shuffle. You can randomly generate Boost appearances. This is very good for beginners, but the hierarchy is a bit deep. In the future, it may be turned into a dice button that can be clicked to generate randomly.
- ⌘ T can quickly view the URL of the current page.
- Following Chrome, the address bar no longer displays a lock icon.
- Updated an article describing the Arc Boost concept: Better is Possible. It is written in an essay-like writing style and provides a special reading experience.
- The Library has added Boost Gallery, similar to the Google Plugin Store.
- And a series of improvements to make Arc faster.
Thoughts: How can Arc avoid confusion?
Usage level
As mentioned earlier, Arc’s sidebar hierarchical structure + browser functions naturally make it easy to open multiple levels and fall into confusion. Is there a way to reduce confusion?
Here’s a simple method: force Pinned Tab to have a structure of <5 and no more than 2 levels in a folder. This not only conforms to the human work memory capacity of 4–7, but also has at most two levels of hierarchy, which will not cause confusion due to the depth of the hierarchy.
Product level
Living in a 20-square-meter small house, it is difficult to be tidy no matter how you organize it; living in a large villa, you don’t need to organize it to look tidy. Therefore, the core of avoiding confusion is to share complexity.
To this end, Arc designed Space, which can distribute the complexity of Tabs to multiple areas and is very smart in terms of functions and interactions. However, as Space is built more and more, they are all squeezed into small dots, which gradually become inconvenient to use.
Therefore, you can refer to Space and stack armor inside the application to distribute complexity inward. Similar to Craft has Space, then uses the Team page to manage Space, and then uses Account to manage Team, layer by layer to dilute complexity. This is a universal approach, but it often increases the complexity of the application and increases the threshold for operation.
There is also a simpler way: rely on the system to distribute complexity outward. macOS designed Launchpad, application folders, Dock, Desktop, and other multiple structures to distribute the complexity of tens or hundreds of applications. If Arc supports splitting applications, each application can be integrated into the system independently, and then the structure of the system can be used to dilute its own complexity.
In fact, everyone now has several browsers on their computers, such as Chrome for work, Edge for learning, and Safari for life, etc. They are all using the structure of the system to distribute the needs of the browser. This demand has always existed. If Arc can split applications, it can replace all browsers. Since Safari’s web App / PWA applications can already split applications, I think it is technically possible.
PS: If you are interested in this part, please follow the AI/R project, and I will delve deeper into the dilution mindset in the future.
In addition, Arc can also compact the layout to display more content in the sidebar. This can naturally carry higher complexity.
The above is the Arc browser’s June update review.
I don’t know if you like the Arc June update or this article format. Feel free to discuss your thoughts in the comments. :)
Some of the pictures in this article come from Arc’s official update instructions.
This article was written in Chinese and translated into English with NotionAI. Therefore, there may be some stiffness and difficulty in reading. You can use a suitable translation tool to translate the original Chinese article and reread it.
Follow Twitter @TheoChangX to learn more about behind-the-scenes updates.
