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Newsgroups: mozilla.dev.usability
From: Asa Dotzler <a...@mozilla.com>
Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2011 13:23:17 -0700
Local: Sun, Aug 14 2011 4:23 pm
Subject: Re: Removing Firefox Version Number
Tyler Downer wrote: Actually, the Firefox usability lead, Alex Limi suggested it. As the > In Bug 678775 (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=678775), > Asa has suggested that we remove the version number from the Firefox > About window, stating that the about:support page is all the > information anybody will need. Firefox Product lead, I agreed and so I created a feature page for tracking this effort and I filed a bug for the implementation when we're ready to start that. > First off, the versions number has always been shown in the Help>About It's always been that way is not a new argument against change. This was > window for almost every Windows program for the past 16+ years considered when we decided to make this change. > By removing the version number from the About window (which was already We also thought of that. And the after thinking about it, we concluded > simplified to showing just the version number, and not build ID in > Firefox 4, eg. Firefox 4.0.1), then we open up a window of confusion > with those people who want to check just what version they are > running. that most people don't need to know what version number they're using and what they actually want to know is whether or not they're running the latest version. For the few people who care whether it's version 7 or version 2011-08-16 or version 1.8.0.0.1.77, they can get this information from about:troubleshooting which is available in the Firefox Help menu. > Asa says "When a user opens the About window for Firefox, the window Actually, that's not quite accurate. For the tiny minority of users who > should say something like 'Firefox checked for updates 20 minutes ago, > you are running the latest release.'" But what if the computer is not > always connected to the Internet and the user wants to see if they > have the latest Firefox or if they need to connect to the internet open the Firefox About dialog who are not connected to the internet, the dialog will say something like "As of N hours ago, you are running the latest version of Firefox" where N is the number of hours since Firefox was online and made the update check. If they're not connected to the internet, and they happen to know what the latest version of Firefox is (how did they learn that again?) then they can open about:troubleshooting and compare versions themselves. This is a rare case that should not impact the decision on this feature change. > download it? Or if they have had issues with their internet Users with Apache servers set up on their machines are quite capable of > connection? I had an Apache server set up on a computer once that i > did not have connected to the internet so I didn't have to worry about > security, but I did keep an up to date version of Firefox on the > computer because I used it for web development. using about:troubleshooting to figure out which version of Firefox they're using. > And using the about:pages isn't a good solution. 75% of people don't about:troubleshooting is available via the Help menu. Users need not > even know the about:pages exist (based on my triage experience) and > users likely are not going to find them on their own. know about the existence of about: pages. > Now, while I understand that the UX team wants to make version numbers It is not *the* answer. It is part of an answer which includes removing > less important (that is something I myself want to see happen) > removing them from the About window is not the answer. it from other touchpoints in Firefox and the Firefox websites. > Even Chrome, which has a rapid release cycle and a VERY good updating Chrome does foo is a reasonable data point to offer. We can certainly > process, shows the Version in the about window. look at how certain Chrome features behave or are received by users and use that data to help inform our decisions on Firefox features. But this isn't new data. The UX and Product leads were fully aware of > What needs to be done is, remove the version from the download page. Thank you for the prescription. We are removing the version from the > Just say "Download Firefox" and leave it at that. download page. There's a bug on file and it is scheduled as part of the next Website refresh. But no, we are not going to just "leave it at that." > Make Firefox automagically update in the background (with an easy to Firefox already automagically does some of its update in the background. > find preference to turn that off), and get rid of the first run pages > (which now that we are using rapid release and each new version has > like 1 small feature, don't serve any purpose anyway). We have feature pages and bugs describing the means by which we are going to make this even more magical and less distracting. We also have a feature page describing the intent to remove the What's > The About window needs to continue showing the version number, and it So far, I think I can summarize your argument for why Firefox "needs to > already checks for updates as soon as it is opened. continue showing the version number" as 1) Versions have always been shown in the About dialog, and 2) Some offline users will get a outdated message about when they were last updated, and 3) users cannot find the menu for Help -> Troubleshooting, and 4) Chrome does it. I think I've responded to each of those. Have I missed one of your > I see little to no benefit by removing it (other that "let's remove That is not the benefit that the UX and Product lead are after here and > something else from the UI". characterizing our intents like that is somewhat insulting. I expect that kind of nonsense from random slashdotters and trolls, but not from regular members of our community. I don't assume your work on the Mozilla project is mindless or un-serious. Please don't make those assumptions of those around you. We have a goal to make version numbers irrelevant to our consumer - A You must Sign in before you can post messages.
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