Bugzilla

Team, I this bug was linked from a nightly build discussion thread elsewhere on the web, and I read this with surprise:

> With the Proton redesign (refresh of the Firefox UI), we have to make difficult scope decisions to ensure Firefox remains simple to use and simple to maintain. The "Compact" density is a feature of the "Customize toolbar" view which is currently fairly hard to discover, and we assume gets low engagement. We want to make sure that we design defaults that suit most users and we'll be retiring the compact mode for this reason.

I think it is great that the team wants to ensure that Firefox continues to feels fresh and up-to-date, even though in many ways competitors are still catching up to Firefox (Chrome is now working on a scrollable tabstrip, for example). 


However, I think that this is a mistake, and is unlikely to please users - I think it is interesting that the context of this story seems to serve implementers rather than users who use the product ("we have to make difficult scope decisions to ensure Firefox remains simple to use and simple to maintain"). 

The story says that

> The "Compact" density is a feature of the "Customize toolbar" view which is currently fairly hard to discover

perhaps it *is* hard to discover, although it appears in the panel that appears after users select "Customize" in the toolbar context menu - likely exactly where people are most likely to look for the density options. Amusingly, a quick look at Firefox 1.0 shows that the Customize context menu item is in exactly the same place, and has similar options to "Use Small Icons" or "Icons and Text". 

Personally, I think that the customize UI could be (and the density options) would be easier to use and discover if the options were closer to the thing being customized, rather than in content, with dropdown menus far from the toolbar itself. I had previously filed bug 1660110 to that effect - and once again, this would hearken back to the choice made in Firefox 1.0 (I just started it up to see), where this was a window-modal dialog box. 

If this wasn't discoverable enough, we could also add a "Toolbar Density" context menu option like the new "Bookmarks Toolbar" option - not that I would take this seriously, but it is an option.

More seriously, a toolbar density option could be added to step #3 of `about:welcome`, where we also have options for three themes, and where a density option would be *very* discoverable for new users. 

The story also says that:

> and we assume gets low engagement

which sounds to me like we don't actually have hard data around this, and are instead guessing based on what *feels* like low discoverability (although I would argue that the option is exactly where it ought to be).

> We decided to focus on 768 pixels as the minimum height we want to optimize for and the new Proton tabs and address bars account for 92 pixels height, therefore leaving 88% of screen height available for the users in our worst case scenario of 768 pixels height.

Unfortunately, I think that this assumes that there is no taskbar or dock or menubars like exist in all supported OSes that Firefox runs on. On Windows (81% of users, based on the Firefox Public Data Report), the taskbar has a height of 40px. That means that we're ending up with 83% of the screen available for web content, not 88%.

Lastly, the story says:

> We want to make sure that we design defaults that suit most users and we'll be retiring the compact mode for this reason.

which feels contradictory to me, as this isn't simply a default - it is the only option. 

This bug proposes removal of a feature that I use exclusively on every desktop Firefox install I have. The compact view is elegant and clean, and while not as minimalist as those that the the Firefox modding community produce, it is well designed and professional looking. As someone who uses the feature daily, my feeling at the moment is - if Proton's scope cannot include a compact mode, I don't quite understand the point of Proton. If Firefox ought to be simple to use, it is hard for me to complain about an option that hardly advertises itself (leading to a paradox of choice), and if it is to be easy to maintain - I don't think that the compact mode UI has been *hard* to maintain.

Team, this bug was linked from a nightly build discussion thread elsewhere on the web, and I read this with surprise:

> With the Proton redesign (refresh of the Firefox UI), we have to make difficult scope decisions to ensure Firefox remains simple to use and simple to maintain. The "Compact" density is a feature of the "Customize toolbar" view which is currently fairly hard to discover, and we assume gets low engagement. We want to make sure that we design defaults that suit most users and we'll be retiring the compact mode for this reason.

I think it is great that the team wants to ensure that Firefox continues to feels fresh and up-to-date, even though in many ways competitors are still catching up to Firefox (Chrome is now working on a scrollable tabstrip, for example). 


However, I think that this is a mistake, and is unlikely to please users - I think it is interesting that the context of this story seems to serve implementers rather than users who use the product ("we have to make difficult scope decisions to ensure Firefox remains simple to use and simple to maintain"). 

The story says that

> The "Compact" density is a feature of the "Customize toolbar" view which is currently fairly hard to discover

perhaps it *is* hard to discover, although it appears in the panel that appears after users select "Customize" in the toolbar context menu - likely exactly where people are most likely to look for the density options. Amusingly, a quick look at Firefox 1.0 shows that the Customize context menu item is in exactly the same place, and has similar options to "Use Small Icons" or "Icons and Text". 

Personally, I think that the customize UI could be (and the density options) would be easier to use and discover if the options were closer to the thing being customized, rather than in content, with dropdown menus far from the toolbar itself. I had previously filed bug 1660110 to that effect - and once again, this would hearken back to the choice made in Firefox 1.0 (I just started it up to see), where this was a window-modal dialog box. 

If this wasn't discoverable enough, we could also add a "Toolbar Density" context menu option like the new "Bookmarks Toolbar" option - not that I would take this seriously, but it is an option.

More seriously, a toolbar density option could be added to step #3 of `about:welcome`, where we also have options for three themes, and where a density option would be *very* discoverable for new users. 

The story also says that:

> and we assume gets low engagement

which sounds to me like we don't actually have hard data around this, and are instead guessing based on what *feels* like low discoverability (although I would argue that the option is exactly where it ought to be).

> We decided to focus on 768 pixels as the minimum height we want to optimize for and the new Proton tabs and address bars account for 92 pixels height, therefore leaving 88% of screen height available for the users in our worst case scenario of 768 pixels height.

Unfortunately, I think that this assumes that there is no taskbar or dock or menubars like exist in all supported OSes that Firefox runs on. On Windows (81% of users, based on the Firefox Public Data Report), the taskbar has a height of 40px. That means that we're ending up with 83% of the screen available for web content, not 88%.

Lastly, the story says:

> We want to make sure that we design defaults that suit most users and we'll be retiring the compact mode for this reason.

which feels contradictory to me, as this isn't simply a default - it is the only option. 

This bug proposes removal of a feature that I use exclusively on every desktop Firefox install I have. The compact view is elegant and clean, and while not as minimalist as those that the the Firefox modding community produce, it is well designed and professional looking. As someone who uses the feature daily, my feeling at the moment is - if Proton's scope cannot include a compact mode, I don't quite understand the point of Proton. If Firefox ought to be simple to use, it is hard for me to complain about an option that hardly advertises itself (leading to a paradox of choice), and if it is to be easy to maintain - I don't think that the compact mode UI has been *hard* to maintain.

Team, this bug was linked from a nightly build discussion thread elsewhere on the web, and I read this with surprise:

> With the Proton redesign (refresh of the Firefox UI), we have to make difficult scope decisions to ensure Firefox remains simple to use and simple to maintain. The "Compact" density is a feature of the "Customize toolbar" view which is currently fairly hard to discover, and we assume gets low engagement. We want to make sure that we design defaults that suit most users and we'll be retiring the compact mode for this reason.

I think it is great that the team wants to ensure that Firefox continues to feels fresh and up-to-date, even though in many ways competitors are still catching up to Firefox (Chrome is now working on a scrollable tabstrip, for example). 


However, I think that this is a mistake, and is unlikely to please users - I think it is interesting that the context of this story seems to serve implementers rather than users who use the product ("we have to make difficult scope decisions to ensure Firefox remains simple to use and simple to maintain"). 

The story says that:

> The "Compact" density is a feature of the "Customize toolbar" view which is currently fairly hard to discover

perhaps it *is* hard to discover, although it appears in the panel that appears after users select "Customize" in the toolbar context menu - likely exactly where people are most likely to look for the density options. Amusingly, a quick look at Firefox 1.0 shows that the Customize context menu item is in exactly the same place, and has similar options to "Use Small Icons" or "Icons and Text". 

Personally, I think that the customize UI could be (and the density options) would be easier to use and discover if the options were closer to the thing being customized, rather than in content, with dropdown menus far from the toolbar itself. I had previously filed bug 1660110 to that effect - and once again, this would hearken back to the choice made in Firefox 1.0 (I just started it up to see), where this was a window-modal dialog box. 

If this wasn't discoverable enough, we could also add a "Toolbar Density" context menu option like the new "Bookmarks Toolbar" option - not that I would take this seriously, but it is an option.

More seriously, a toolbar density option could be added to step #3 of `about:welcome`, where we also have options for three themes, and where a density option would be *very* discoverable for new users. 

The story also says that:

> and we assume gets low engagement

which sounds to me like we don't actually have hard data around this, and are instead guessing based on what *feels* like low discoverability (although I would argue that the option is exactly where it ought to be).

> We decided to focus on 768 pixels as the minimum height we want to optimize for and the new Proton tabs and address bars account for 92 pixels height, therefore leaving 88% of screen height available for the users in our worst case scenario of 768 pixels height.

Unfortunately, I think that this assumes that there is no taskbar or dock or menubars like exist in all supported OSes that Firefox runs on. On Windows (81% of users, based on the Firefox Public Data Report), the taskbar has a height of 40px. That means that we're ending up with 83% of the screen available for web content, not 88%.

Lastly, the story says:

> We want to make sure that we design defaults that suit most users and we'll be retiring the compact mode for this reason.

which feels contradictory to me, as this isn't simply a default - it is the only option. 

This bug proposes removal of a feature that I use exclusively on every desktop Firefox install I have. The compact view is elegant and clean, and while not as minimalist as those that the the Firefox modding community produce, it is well designed and professional looking. As someone who uses the feature daily, my feeling at the moment is - if Proton's scope cannot include a compact mode, I don't quite understand the point of Proton. If Firefox ought to be simple to use, it is hard for me to complain about an option that hardly advertises itself (leading to a paradox of choice), and if it is to be easy to maintain - I don't think that the compact mode UI has been *hard* to maintain.