Windows-less Browser Concept

I got to the second phrase of the Mozilla Design Challenge with this mockups. Woo!

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Short Summary:

The interface is exapandable. Hidden, when not needed and quite minimalistic, but usable when it's there. Integrates Ubiquity and other extensions as part of the main UI.

*Description:*

Interface:
The interface is expandable - click on a button - you have it - click back - you see only the content. A keyboard shortcut should also be applied.
All, or most widgets should be able to be separated (or de-attached) from each other, which would bring the user a lot of freedom on customizing the interface. Double clicking on the bookmarks icon should bring something similar to the current interface, but with a link to the bookmarks organizer. One click on the History icon should bring a drop-down menu for recently closed tabs. Double clicking should bring the All history window. The buttons in the bottom of the navigation buttons widget integrate Ubiquity (there should be additional integration in the address bar, of course) and the preferences window. The user should be able to add more buttons, which can integrate other extensions. Another good possibility is to make one of these buttons call a dropdown menu for stuff like Help and Tools.

Extensions:
As a lot of extensions are designed in a way that they require additional interface widgets for themselves, it would be a good idea to have a separate tab, a "special tab", only for extensions (like a chat client or an RSS reader or whatever). Imagine it like Mac OS X's Dashboard, but inside the browser and in a separate tab. This way people will be a click away from their extensions, without sacrificing precious screen space for the content when they browse pages. A kbd shortcut to go to this tab might also be a good idea.

Tabs:
A lot of people are trying to think of a more sophisticated way to show tabs, but after a lot of thinking and experimentation I've decided to keep it in the traditional way (which is certainly not the best), simply because everything else i've thought of required at least an additional click, or something else that lowed down the overall usability of the UI. Something that a lot of interface designers have already figured out a long time ago.

Animation:
Some friends I've asked to comment on the mockup suggested that it'd be cool to animate the widgets in some way when they popup or slide or whatever. While I agree, I should say that for example sliding the interface when clickin on the Expand button would be a bad idea. This would waste half a second or something of precous time until the ui slides from left to the right. Other aniations that do not make bad the whole experience (and that is something that simply needs to be done and tested) are possible, but might be evil in terms of system recourses. Especially on Linux and BSD, where good OpenGL support depends on binary blobs and so on, you know the story.

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