On the subject of multiple Home Pages in Firefox 4
Tiago Sá
It all started in a bug at bugzilla [ https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=544819
], and it's related to a mockups I've bee doing for the preferences
panel. If you want to discuss the in-content preferences panel design,
you can use this thread: http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.usability/browse_thread/thread/2f9554de6b833ad6
The real issue here:
With the introduction of the new Home Tab, and the plans to show
information in it that is not shown anywhere else, and with the
introduction of App Tabs (which mostly just make it more complex to
fix the issue), we are presented with a very simple but very simple
question:
How will the home tab handle multiple home pages?
In short, it won't. It's as simple as that. It was never designed, for
all I can see, to handle multiple home pages. It wasn't even designed
to handle a single home page in the way that some (most?) people use
it, which is to open Firefox, and browse away from it right away,
never to come back until the next session.
In the end, the new Home Tab is a definitive improvement over the old
Home Button when there is one single Home Page. There is absolutely no
question about that. But it's not an improvement when the user doesn't
use the Home Button, and it's not an improvement when the user has
more than one Home Page.
This thread is about the second problem, but the solution I found for
it, is also a solution for the first problem. Here's what I think
should be done (my original argument about this is found here:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=544819#c19 ):
- make the Home Tab always there, as a compulsory navigational
element. After all, if we're putting UI there that can only be found
there (and I think we should, as it's awesome), we should make sure
the user sees it;
- make the page on the Home Tab be the internal about:home page, and
ONLY that page (impossible to change it). This way, we make sure the
user sees the cited supra UI, and prevent issues that may arise from
the home page being always loaded: since it's internal, it's light as
chips;
- make sure the Home Tab can be customized properly, so it's at least
mildly usefull for 99% of the users;
- forget about the Home Button as we know it today. It's all about the
Home Tab now;
- introduce the notion of Startup Pages, in replacement to the old
Home Pages. These pages work exactly the same as the current Home
Pages (and the user should be able to open them from the Home Tab, if
he closes them - to replace the old Home Button that opens the Home
Pages): they appear at startup (if the browser is configured to open
them at startup), they are accessible through the Home button (sort
of, now the Home Tab and can be open from inside the Home Tab) and
they appear in normal fully functional tabs (if the user chooses to
use them as normal tabs - more about this in the mockups).
I believe (all modesty aside) this is probably the best idea I've had
in my life in terms of browser design. I think it's perfect! And to
better illustrate how the user would be able to interact with this,
I've made a mockup of the preferences panel (including in-content
design, courtesy of Stephen Horlander):
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/3854/30761130.jpg
I haven't made a mockup for how the Startup Pages would be presented
at startup, because the concept is very easy to understand from
reading my above description (in the mockups, imagine the startup
pages were all set as normal tabs, and were the open tabs there -
simple huh?). I also haven't made a mockup about how the startup pages
would be accessible (if closed - or not!) from the Home Tab, because
there is no decided upon home tab design. There are plenty of designs
for the Home Tab (in the design challenge thing), and most of them (if
not all?) have room to put a big shiny neat "open startup pages"
interface (possibly even with a selector to open just SOME startup
pages and all that cool stuff).
So? What do you guys think?
Again, and as in the other thread, I think the ones that really have a
say in all this are Stephen Horlander and Alexander Limi. But since
they are important people inside Mozilla and are naturally busy as
hell, I don't know if they will read this. Here's hoping they will :)
sabret00the
tab that then takes them to their startup pages? That's a horrible
idea. If users want to load more than one page at startup and have the
home tab included in that, then they can simply have "http://site1|
http://site2|about:home|http://site3" why overcomplicate the simple.
Remember that the home tab is also about solving problems of blank new
tabs. Though I think that a bug got filed to automatically close blank
tabs that get navigated away from.
Tiago Sá
> So in short, you're saying that users should be forced to click on a
> tab that then takes them to their startup pages?
> If users want to load more than one page at startup and have the
> home tab included in that, then they can simply have "http://site1|http://site2|about:home|http://site3" why overcomplicate the simple.
It's not simple, mate. This is what Alex Faaborg said about what they
are thinking when the user has a home page (or pages) that is not the
default one:
"If the user has a home page (or pages) that are not the default
Firefox Start page, we were thinking about exposing these as app tabs
(although with full chrome)."
This approach is problematic, not only in terms of configuration
(because the concept of home page - as he said «something we've been
thinking about is slightly altering the concept of Home in Firefox 4.»
- is changed) in the preferences panel and all, but in terms of
functionality too (users may not like that their custom home page(s)
opens in a small tab that they can't close easily). My solution is
consistent with itself, easy to configure, and retro-compatible. But
one thing's for sure: it's not simple.
> Remember that the home tab is also about solving problems of blank new
> tabs. Though I think that a bug got filed to automatically close blank
> tabs that get navigated away from.
I'm not aware of that, but that's probably a completely different
issue. I know they were planning on creating an about:newtab page, but
it was not in the roadmap for Firefox 4, so I didn't even bother
thinking about it. I have my own stance about it (it's a waste of time
because opening a new tab is an unnecessary behavior in the current
browser), but it's not related to this.
Tiago Sá
not) startup pages during a session, your solution doesn't account for
how the user would reopen startup pages once their closed. That has to
be taken into consideration, and I think the perfect place to do it is
the Home Tab, inside it, in a specific panel. And this is in
conformity to what Alex Faaborg said:
«The user can still remove the Firefox Home tab, but we don't want the
home tab to be too easy to override.»
David McRitchie
> So? What do you guys think?
Wastes space on the tabs bar which is even more critical when you have
lots of tabs open (30 - 60 or even 150 or more).
Wastes twice as much space on the tabs bar, as home button is wasting
on the toolbsar.
I open home page and often as not quickly dismiss it. I do have the toolbar
button, but don't need it as there are several ways of opening the home page,
but that is the only way I have/use for mouse only.
There is no difference between having a bookmark folder marked "Home" than
having same on tabs bar. I used to have a folder named "Home" and
got rid of it -- just collected junk that ended up not being important references
because of keyword shortcuts, and the awesomebar.
Tiago Sá
> Wastes space on the tabs bar which is even more critical when you have
> lots of tabs open (30 - 60 or even 150 or more).
>
> Wastes twice as much space on the tabs bar, as home button is wasting
> on the toolbsar.
On Jun 4, 6:13 pm, "David McRitchie" <firefo...@verizon.net> wrote:
> I open home page and often as not quickly dismiss it.
Exactly. That's why it shouldn't be an App Tab (much less the Home
Tab) but a normal tab instead.
On Jun 4, 6:13 pm, "David McRitchie" <firefo...@verizon.net> wrote:
> There is no difference between having a bookmark folder marked "Home" than
> having same on tabs bar. I used to have a folder named "Home" and
> got rid of it -- just collected junk that ended up not being important references
> because of keyword shortcuts, and the awesomebar.
I get the feeling you more against the new concept of Home Tab than
anything else... You should take it up with the heads, not with poor
me :(
David McRitchie
"Tiago Sá" wrote
> On Jun 4, 6:13 pm, "David McRitchie" wrote:
>> Wastes space on the tabs bar which is even more critical when you have
>> lots of tabs open (30 - 60 or even 150 or more).
>>
>> Wastes twice as much space on the tabs bar, as home button is wasting
>> on the toolbsar.
> How on earth does it waste space compared to what we have now?!
Twice as much space. How a 16x16 small icon will styling will be occupying at least 24x30
space instead of 18x18. 640 pixels vs 324. Plus as I said don't want buttons on
the tabs bar by default uses too much premium tabs bar space. At least that's
what I would see, the huge back/forward default button makes anything smaller
than a triple height toolbar use less space.
Tiago Sá
> Twice as much space. How a 16x16 small icon will styling will be occupying at least 24x30
> space instead of 18x18. 640 pixels vs 324. Plus as I said don't want buttons on
> the tabs bar by default uses too much premium tabs bar space. At least that's
> what I would see, the huge back/forward default button makes anything smaller
> than a triple height toolbar use less space.
And how exactly does that go against my proposition?