697029 - [tabletui] Allow closing or selecting tabs in the portrait tab menu without multiple taps

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: Theme and Visual Design, defect)

Description

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Browser: current nightly on Asus tablet

Scenario: 
Portrait mode. Viewing one tab, finished reading, want to close it and read another. This requires 3 clicks:
1. Open tab list
2. Find your current tab and click X
3. Tap anywhere else to dismiss list

On desktop, you just press Ctrl-W. Simple.

Gerv

Comment 1

[Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck)]

The planned design (not yet implemented) is to let you press on the "tabs" button and then drag to choose an item in the tab menu before lifting your finger -- similar to menus in desktop operating systems.  Does this sound like an improvement to you?

Alternately, we could also add a "close tab" button to the main toolbar, possibly through an add-on.

Comment 2

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

:mbrubeck: that would be an improvement in switching tabs, but I also want to close the one I am reading. So the new design would not be any fewer clicks, because I couldn't use the drag mechanism, even if I discovered it.

IMO, the "swipe-to-the-side to see tabs" was one of Fennec's great UI innovations, and I am flabberghasted that we have removed it in the new tablet design in favour of this window list thing. Reinstating it would make it a swipe and a tap, which is definitely better than three taps. 

Gerv

Comment 3

[Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck)]

(In reply to Gervase Markham [:gerv] from comment #2)
> :mbrubeck: that would be an improvement in switching tabs, but I also want
> to close the one I am reading. So the new design would not be any fewer
> clicks, because I couldn't use the drag mechanism, even if I discovered it.

What if you could tap-and-drag to the close button in the same way?

> IMO, the "swipe-to-the-side to see tabs" was one of Fennec's great UI
> innovations, and I am flabberghasted that we have removed it in the new
> tablet design in favour of this window list thing. Reinstating it would make
> it a swipe and a tap, which is definitely better than three taps. 

Well, in the current phone UI it requires a swipe, a tap, and another swipe to do the equivalent of comment 0.

Comment 4

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

(In reply to Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck) from comment #3)
> Well, in the current phone UI it requires a swipe, a tap, and another swipe
> to do the equivalent of comment 0.

More than that, it requires horizontal scrolling of the page, losing where you were, then a swipe, a tap and another swipe.

Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

How does horizontal scrolling "lose where you were"? And anyway, if I want to close the page, or even to switch tabs, I'm no longer interested in my most recent reading point on the current page.

Part of the problem perhaps is that all the controls at the top are out of reach of my fingers as I hold the tablet. So there's various bits of hand-shuffling I have to do as well, which makes it more awkward.

I think a "Close" button is the correct solution here. One tap, and the tab is gone and you are reading the next thing. Simple. It's a really common operation.

Gerv

Comment 6

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

It still takes 3 taps in landscape mode to close a tab and move to the next one (open tab strip, close tab, close tab strip), and the dragging behaviour mbrubeck mentioned seems not to have been implemented. :-(

Gerv

Comment 7

[BMO Automation]

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