461306 - "Mute" / "Unmute" and "Show Controls" / "Hide Controls" in <video> context menu should be checkboxes instead

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Menus, defect)

Description

[Steffen Wilberg]

Bug 449522 added some context menu items for the html <video> element.
Instead of "Mute" and "Unmute", "Show Controls" and "Hide Controls", they should just have "Mute" and "Show Controls", with a checkbox to toggle its state.

This is for consistency with the main menu:
File -> Work Offline
View -> Toolbars -> ...
View -> Status Bar
View -> Sidebar -> ...

And it avoids confusion whether e.g. "Show Controls" is a state (controls are currently visible.) or an action (display the controls!). I've seen apps interpret it both ways, and always them for being ambiguous.

(In reply to bug 449522 comment #22)
> (In reply to bug 449522 comment #21)
> > I guess it seems odd, now that I look again, to have the Mute / Show Controls
> > entries be checkable instead of changing name (Mute <--> Unmute, Show Controls
> > <--> Hide Controls).  I can fix that in the next version too.
> 
> Definitely agree with this.
I disagree, it doesn' seem odd at all.

Comment 1

[Steffen Wilberg]

... and always *hate* them for being ambiguous.

Comment 2

[Jennifer Morrow [:Boriss] (UX)]

Mconnor pointed out that these checkmarks are a convention on Windows and Linux, but not on Mac.  Assuming this is true, perhaps we should implement this on only Windows and Linux.  I agree with Steffen that a check mark is easier to read quickly, and the fact that the menus aren't changing means they're more easily learnable.  I'm going to check up to make sure this is an everything-but-Mac convention, but implementing this on platforms that are used to it seems a good idea.

Comment 3

[Steffen Wilberg]

Here's the relevant section in the Apple HIG:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/XHIGMenus/chapter_17_section_3.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000356-TPXREF121
They prefer unambiguous wording ("Turn Grid On" / "Turn Grid Off") over checkmarks, since choosing "Use Grid" could result in either "Don't use Grid" or "✔Use Grid"; they recommend checkmarks for style attributes such as "Bold" however.

I still think being consistent with our uses of checkmarks in the View menu creates the least confusion.

Comment 4

[Jennifer Morrow [:Boriss] (UX)]

Re Comment 3 - Your point is good Steffen, and definitely checkmarks make it very easy to quickly tell whether a list item is on or off.  However, I'm going to recommend that we stick with the Apple HIG here for Apple.  Firefox's design is guided in a large part by operating system convention, and I think for very good reason - that Firefox should blend in seamlessly with someone's work environment and, if possible, not blow its cover as a spy.

Comment 5

[Jared Wein [:jaws] (please needinfo? me)]

It seems the best route here is to add a second implementation of these menuitems (one set for Linux/Windows, another for OS X).

The current interaction for these menuitems is not horrible, and the added code complexity + increased testing complexity makes fixing this bug not worth the support that would be required.