favicon as microsummary/feed/other stuff indicator
Myk Melez
Macfarlane?) suggested making the favicon in the location bar be a
"bookmark this page" link and indicate the presence of a microsummary
with a dropdown arrow in the corner.
I'm intrigued by the potential of this idea for a couple of reasons:
1. the favicon already means "bookmark this page" when you drag and drop
it onto bookmarks containers (f.e. the toolbar, the sidebar);
2. as Alex Faaborg noted today, adding icons to the location bar for
every interesting new thing you can do with a page (as Firefox 2 does
for feeds and the Buddy does for microsummaries), is a recipe for
confusing icon clutter over time (cf the Windows taskbar).
Currently, clicking the favicon selects the text in the location bar.
Perhaps, when microsummaries or feeds are available for a page, we
should overlay the favicon with some indicator (dropdown arrow or
feed/microsummary mini-icon) and then make it activate the available
functionality (or drop down a menu for multiple options) when clicked.
Thoughts?
-myk
Eric Shepherd
Eric Shepherd
Developer Documentation Lead
she...@mozilla.com
Gervase Markham
> Perhaps, when microsummaries or feeds are available for a page, we
> should overlay the favicon with some indicator (dropdown arrow or
> feed/microsummary mini-icon) and then make it activate the available
> functionality (or drop down a menu for multiple options) when clicked.
I'd be concerned about overlaying the favicon. At 16x16px, sites often
have trouble making it distinct and relevant. If we overlaid enough UI
on it to make it clear it had changed, we'd be making their lives even
harder and obscuring the icon itself.
What is the advantage to having an overlay vs. having a separate widget
next door?
Gerv
Håkan Waara
"features" to a page, and a central place to keep them. As you point
out, there has been much controversy about adding Yet Another Icon to
the location bar for every new interesting action; it does not scale.
So I think some kind of arrow below the favicon, or some other small
icon would be good. When a page finished loading, the icon could subtly
flash, spin or whatever, to indicate the presence of features on the
current site.
One way to reduce clutter in the location bar, would be to give the
location text and the favicon, some more breathing room. It's very
cramped right now, and I assume it is done so that every extra pixel
can go to the content, but I think it can have a negative effect.
With some more breathing room and space in the layout of the toolbar
(and in particular the location bar), there might be some extra room
below the favicon where the arrow/icon for "extra features" could be.
Just some ideas,
/Håkan
Myk Melez
> What is the advantage to having an overlay vs. having a separate widget
> next door?
Space, mostly. But it wouldn't cost much space to make it a separate
icon, if it was just one icon representing the various things you can do
with the page, so that's an option if the overlay approach proves
unworkable.
-myk
Mark Finkle
image (creating a flashing effect) for a few seconds after the page loads.
Then just display the favicon. The flashing would also help draw attention
to the indicator, but not be constantly annoying.
There would seem to a certain length of time, after which, the user is no
longer concerned with the possibility of microsumaries or feeds and just
want to view the page. Therefore, making the indicators permanent would only
add to screen clutter.
Mark Finkle
"Gervase Markham" <ge...@mozilla.org> wrote in message
news:WK2dnYcW-s0v9snY...@mozilla.org...
Gervase Markham
> Instead of an overlay, you could alternate the favicon with the microsummary
> image (creating a flashing effect) for a few seconds after the page loads.
> Then just display the favicon. The flashing would also help draw attention
> to the indicator, but not be constantly annoying.
No, it would be briefly annoying, repeatedly :-)
> There would seem to a certain length of time, after which, the user is no
> longer concerned with the possibility of microsumaries or feeds and just
> want to view the page.
On what basis do you make that assertion? I can easily imagine a
scenario where I go to a new blog, I read a few posts, I think "this is
good stuff", and want to subscribe to the feed.
Gerv
Gervase Markham
> I think it's good a good idea to provide an extensible way of adding
> "features" to a page, and a central place to keep them. As you point
> out, there has been much controversy about adding Yet Another Icon to
> the location bar for every new interesting action; it does not scale.
This is what the status bar used to be for, of course :-)
> So I think some kind of arrow below the favicon, or some other small
> icon would be good. When a page finished loading, the icon could subtly
> flash, spin or whatever, to indicate the presence of features on the
> current site.
The trouble with not displaying all the feature icons, and replacing
them with a single generic icon, is that I then have to click it to find
out whether I'm actually interested in the features provided, or whether
the feature I want is actually present.
"Hmm. This news page is interesting. Is there a feed? I can't see a feed
icon like I could in the previous version. (Let's assume they work out
what to click.) Click this. Hmm, no, there's no feed, there's just a
microsummary. Well, that's not very useful."
Can we shift the URL bar to the top of the toolbar and make space below
it? There may not be room for 16x16 icons, but you could have longer,
less tall indicators of some sort. Just an idea...
Gerv