Efficient Browsing with Home Dash

[Edward Lee]

There's a new video to check out for Home Dash:
http://videos-cdn.mozilla.net/serv/labs/prospector/homeDashEfficient.webm

More details in the latest update:
https://mozillalabs.com/prospector/2011/03/18/efficient-browsing-with-home-dash

Please leave feedback on that post in this thread.

Ed

[Paul Morris]

Nice work!

Here's a suggestion for what it's worth:

Having to hit command-L twice to see the URL of the current page is
pretty obscure (by design, I know). But why not have it appear with
just a single command-L? The URL appears highlighted so typing
replaces it -- so it doesn't affect what the user does whether it's
shown or not. It's a purely added benefit, and is closer to the
standard behavior for command-L, providing familiarity for those
moving to home dash. You'd still have command-T which gives you a new
tab and blank text box. Right now the difference between command-T
and command-L is not that clear. So it would also offer better
differentiation between opening a new tab and replacing the current
page. If the URL appears you know you're replacing the current page,
just as in the regular firefox interface.

That's my suggestion. Great work!
-Paul

[Abdul Muneer]

I have one more suggestion. Often, I am not comfortable browsing pages when I cannot see the url of the pages. This is by habit and as well as by security practices like watching out for phishing pages. So when I use Home Dash, I have to enter Command+L the Esc to see the url of the page. Also, this brings a lot of visual clutter to the page during that time and affects the over all user experience. It would have been nice if there is any mouseover behaviour like when u move the mouse to anywhere in the top border, it would drop-down the url banner (or the whole conventional url and tabs bars - that might just give the 'best of both world' experience).

Thanks to Lee for the great work. But I'm still little uncomfortable using the Home Dash. I don't like being in the dark about my navigation and the active tabs I'm browsing :) . A quick access to them might just win the deal for me. Nevertheless, I have been checking Home Dash since day 1. Great progress over the iterations!

Regards,
Abdul Muneer

--
Whom I'm Lookin' for is The One who sees!!

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mozilla-labs" group.
To post to this group, send email to mozill...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to mozilla-labs...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla-labs?hl=en.

[Paul Morris]

On Mar 18, 2:47 pm, Abdul Muneer <abdulmun...@gmail.com> wrote:

> But I'm still little uncomfortable using
> the Home Dash. I don't like being in the dark about my navigation and the
> active tabs I'm browsing :) . A quick access to them might just win the deal
> for me.

I use Panorama for this. It works well alongside Home Dash to give
you quick access to all your open tabs. The "Change Panorama
Shortcut" add on is also helpful. I set it to command+E.

-Paul

[Edward Lee]

On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 11:19 AM, Paul Morris <paulw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The URL appears highlighted so typing replaces it -- so it doesn't affect what
> the user does whether it's shown or not.  It's a purely added benefit

That's probably mostly true. But I have a feeling (we haven't done
studies yet!) that at least for some users, with the traditional
location bar, they are afraid or don't feel like they should change
the location because that text is set by the browser. Touching it
might break the internet! ;) People end up typing "google.com" into
the search box, clicking the first result for google, then typing in
yet another domain into google then clicking the page. That might be
because the search box is always what you've entered or is empty for
you to enter something.

However, for people pressing cmd-l, they're probably more comfortable
with changing/editing the url by hand, so it's a reasonable
suggestion. I've filed an issue for you:

https://github.com/mozilla/prospector/issues/187

Additionally, for those not familiar with keyboard shortcuts, they'll
likely have to click on the Firefox icon, and that will do what cmd-t
does -- prepare to open a new tab with an empty input box.

Ed

[Paul Morris]

Good points.  It seems like you've got two quite different target audiences for Home Dash, both advanced users and those who are afraid of breaking the internet.  :)  

Glad you're amenable to my suggestion, and thanks for filing the issue on it!  It should help keep the more advanced users who like their URLs happy.

-Paul

[Kruykaze]

Great ! I already started using it . I know how to resize the
thumbnails but can't figure out how to zoom. i see the magnifying
glass but it doesn't do anything. (ubuntu 64bit)


On Mar 18, 10:20 am, Edward Lee <edi...@mozilla.com> wrote:
> There's a new video to check out for Home Dash:http://videos-cdn.mozilla.net/serv/labs/prospector/homeDashEfficient....
>
> More details in the latest update:https://mozillalabs.com/prospector/2011/03/18/efficient-browsing-with...

[Kruykaze]

Nevermind I got it. you resize first then you can drag to zoom.

[Jia-Jia Zhu]

How do I even launch Home Dash? And what's that layout in your screencast? Will Firefox 4 look like that when Home Dash is activated?

[Kruykaze]

ctrl+l once

[Nobody]

I like the concept of Home Dash but the following issues are making me use less... excuse me if they are specific to me or in pipeline already...
[ubuntu 10.10 64bit with firefox 4.0.13 beta 23/03]
1) How to change no of thumbnails on home dash screen... not able to change the initial thumbnails created when installed... even links not being replaced..
2) No security icon about the sites i visit... (no https certificate till i go back to default ui mode)
3) Screen shots on thumbnails are not freezing on some sites like gmail... they are reloading even after being frozen.. working on static sites..
4) No option to create thumbnails...
5) Not able to go back to the previous page in home dash mode... back button getting disabled...
6) Is there any way to make addons visible in home dash mode.. without addon bar... I really like using wot, flagfox, mozilla f1 and tab groups..

[Edward Lee]

On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 11:47 AM, Abdul Muneer <abdul...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am not comfortable browsing pages when I cannot see the url of the pages

You point out that you're looking out for phishing pages. How often
are you entering login information to pages? Do you use the password
manager? If so, Firefox should only fill in the information on pages
that you've been to, so if you end up on a phishing page, Firefox
won't accidentally fill out your username/password. But this is also
only if the page has avoided Firefox's built-in anti-phishing and
anti-malware protection.

> move the mouse to anywhere in the top border, it would drop-down the url

A slightly hidden feature for is that you can hold Shift while
pointing at a link to see the url instead of human readable text.
There isn't something equivalent yet for showing the current page's
url, but version 8 added showing of the page's title whenever it
changes or when you switch tabs.

> active tabs I'm browsing :) . A quick access to them might just win the deal

Could you explain more of what you expect compared to what there is
right now when you scroll the mouse on the Firefox icon? Would you
prefer no thumbnails in a more compact list? Titles of tabs? Or just
some small representation, e.g., favicon?

Ed

[Edward Lee]

On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 11:59 PM, Nobody <mlhpr....@gmail.com> wrote:
> How to change no of thumbnails on home dash screen

There'll be a way to add (and remove) thumbnails in the future.
Perhaps by dragging in a history result or an open tab into the
dashboard area.

> No security icon about the sites i visit

What do you get out of/how do you use the security icon? Is it to make
sure you're on the right page? Do you only look for certain sites?
What would you do if a site doesn't have the security icon and has no
option for https?
https://github.com/mozilla/prospector/issues/192

> Screen shots on thumbnails are not freezing on some sites like gmail

Do you click the checkbox after you finish configuring the thumbnail?
There's a bug where you can dismiss Home Dash but keep the thumbnail
editing.
https://github.com/mozilla/prospector/issues/191

> Not able to go back to the previous page in home dash mode

https://github.com/mozilla/prospector/issues/190

> Is there any way to make addons visible in home dash mode

These are add-ons that add themselves to the navigation toolbar? This
is somewhat related to people wanting the navigation toolbar in some
way to go back/forwards/reload, etc. Perhaps there can be a way to
address both concerns as they are somewhat related.

Ed

[Herdo]

Hi guys.
I have 3 issues.
The "URL-Box" (top left corner), i can't push "Google", "Amazon" and
"Leo" button.
Also can't check the checkbox below: "replace current page"
And I can't close tabs with right-click on the FF-logo.

[Edward Lee]

On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 10:12 AM, Herdo <stefa...@gmx.de> wrote:
> The "URL-Box" (top left corner), i can't push "Google", "Amazon" and
> "Leo" button.
> Also can't check the checkbox below: "replace current page"

These two are related and should be fixed with this issue:
https://github.com/mozilla/prospector/issues/207

> And I can't close tabs with right-click on the FF-logo.

That was removed with the addition of the close tab control, but if
the Home Dash menu doesn't require the right-mouse button to be held
to access items, the right-click-to-close functionality could be
restored.
https://github.com/mozilla/prospector/issues/208

Ed

[Sean]

I really like the idea of the Home Dash, though I think it would take me some time to really get used to it.  There's a few issues I had that are keeping me from using it though. 
1) I miss having quick access to to all the buttons on my bookmark toolbar.
2) I can't seem to do a google search from the location bar with just the keyboard.  I have to reach for the keyboard and click the little "Google" icon.
3) Pressing "ctrl+enter" no longer adds ".com" to the end of an address.  Though I suspect I could get used to not having this feature.

One other thing I noticed was that the order of the favicons that come up when you right click isn't static.  I think the active one was always on the far left.  Maybe it's just me, but I found this behaviour made it harder to find the tab I wanted.