The Firefox Australis re-design will land on April 29th in the stable channel of the web browser if last-minute bugs do not prevent this from happening.

No matter how you feel about it, it is clear that Mozilla will go forward with it. What may happen along the way is that Mozilla will make adjustments to it, depending on user feedback.

Australis is a major redesign of the browser. It is only natural that some users will feel lost after their version has been updated to the browser. Some will have troubles finding specific menu entries or features that they have used for years, while others may want a general explanation as to what just happened.

Basic things, like the moving of the reload button or the removal of the Firefox menu, may leave users of the browser puzzled.

While tech-savvy users may already know all about Australis, and may even have installed the tools in their browser to undo the Firefox redesign, or created an exit-strategy to move to a Firefox-based browser such as Pale Moon, others may not be that well prepared.

That's the main reason why Mozilla is creating a guided tour for the Australis launch to inform Firefox users who are updated to the version about the changes introduced in it.

Note: Everything discussed here is subject to change.

When users start the updated version of Firefox for the first time, they receive an overlay notification that is welcoming them to the new Firefox. This notification highlights the new menu button of the browser, and that the Firefox Menu has been moved there.

Options are displayed to continue the tour from here, or skip it for the time being. The tour itself divides the screen into two areas. The lower half on a white background explaining a new feature, and the upper half which is highlighting it in the interface.

How Mozilla envisions this is explained in a video that has been uploaded to YouTube. It offers several peaks of the guided tour, and also insight into the minds of the designers who created it for the community.

The goal is to help users adapt to the Firefox redesign, and to highlight new and existing cool features of the web browser. Users may pause the tour at any time and get back to it whenever they feel like it.

Here is a second video that talks about the guided tour as well and why Mozilla decided to implement it the way it did.

What the tour tells you:

There is a new menu panel for efficient browsing. There is an easier way to customize the browser. Better Bookmarking. Beautiful browsing starts now, highlighting several things in succession.

Closing Words

A tour is definitely something that will help users understand what just happened when they start Firefox for the first time after the Australis update. (via Sören)

Now Read: Firefox's Holly version, a temporary Australis escape

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