758317 - [TABLET] Tab side bar should open with a swipe gesture

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[:Margaret Leibovic]

Something to address after bug 757198 lands.

Comment 1

[dalingrin]

I'd like to echo this request. 

I spoke to Mark Finkle for a short time in IRC and he mentioned the difficulty in differentiating the swipe gesture from horizontal scrolling. He also suggested perhaps using an off screen to on screen swipe to more easily identify the gesture.

Comment 2

[costinel]

I would like to have this when the page is already scrolled to top, so when swiping there is nothing left to scroll. I presume this way you can correctly detect that I want to see the tab bar and not swipe up.

Comment 3

[costinel]

I would definitely not want to see the tab bar appearing when swiping down in the middle of the page. But swiping down when the page is _already_at_the_top_ makes sense.
I thought about this when I saw that with tab bar open, swiping up naturally hides it.
So why not go complete with the other half of functionality?

Comment 4

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

There is tablet redesign work going on that I believe is eliminating the sidebar for a more traditional top-tap experience. While I would have loved to have had this feature for the past few years, I think from today, this is WONTFIX based on a new redesign. Lucas, can you confirm, no more sidebar?

Comment 5

[costinel]

Oh, sorry to hear this! Where can be previewed the new design?

Comment 6

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

There is a mockup attachment from May (possibly outdated) in bug 1014987.

Comment 7

[costinel]

that new design looks "normal" and expected.
but what would be preventing current tab switcher to appear/dissapear at a swipe up/down in the new design? it would be an aswesome feature, no mobile browser has this.
so, change tabs as usual but on top of that, allow this swiping.
what do you think?

Comment 8

[Lucas Rocha (:lucasr)]

(In reply to costinel from comment #7)
> that new design looks "normal" and expected.
> but what would be preventing current tab switcher to appear/dissapear at a
> swipe up/down in the new design? it would be an aswesome feature, no mobile
> browser has this.
> so, change tabs as usual but on top of that, allow this swiping.
> what do you think?

Do you mean allowing swipe to reveal the tab strip on top?

Comment 9

[costinel]

(In reply to Lucas Rocha (:lucasr) from comment #8)
> (In reply to costinel from comment #7)
> > that new design looks "normal" and expected.
> > but what would be preventing current tab switcher to appear/dissapear at a
> > swipe up/down in the new design? it would be an aswesome feature, no mobile
> > browser has this.
> > so, change tabs as usual but on top of that, allow this swiping.
> > what do you think?
> 
> Do you mean allowing swipe to reveal the tab strip on top?

yes

Comment 10

[Yuan Wang(:Yuan) – Mobile Firefox Design Lead]

(In reply to costinel from comment #7)
> that new design looks "normal" and expected.
> but what would be preventing current tab switcher to appear/dissapear at a
> swipe up/down in the new design? it would be an aswesome feature, no mobile
> browser has this.
> so, change tabs as usual but on top of that, allow this swiping.
> what do you think?

Thanks for the feedback. The mockup you saw in the bug 1014987 is only a small piece of the redesign.
Swiping to reveal tab strip on top wouldn't work because that gesture has been reserved for Android notifications.

Instead of swiping to reveal side tab panel, in the new design we are experimenting a pinch-to-zoom gesture to create a zoom-out transition from current viewport to tab panel. 

You can find more about details at: https://speakerdeck.com/yuuuan/firefox-android-tablet-refresh-ixd-proposal

Comment 11

[costinel]

(In reply to Yuan Wang(:Yuan) – Mobile Firefox Design Lead from comment #10)
> (In reply to costinel from comment #7)
> > that new design looks "normal" and expected.
> > but what would be preventing current tab switcher to appear/dissapear at a
> > swipe up/down in the new design? it would be an aswesome feature, no mobile
> > browser has this.
> > so, change tabs as usual but on top of that, allow this swiping.
> > what do you think?
> 
> Thanks for the feedback. The mockup you saw in the bug 1014987 is only a
> small piece of the redesign.
> Swiping to reveal tab strip on top wouldn't work because that gesture has
> been reserved for Android notifications.
> 

swiping _from_ the statusbar is reserved for android, but I did not ask for swiping from the statusbar, but swiping down _inside_ the page contents which is handled by firefox.

my proposal regarding the design you referenced is that when the following conditions are met:
- page is scrolled to the top
- user swipes down 
then slide down everything (page contents and user interface menus, tab titles) and reveal tab previews on top of each tab title (like how is now tab strip positioned) - something you are addressing on slide 23. i won't feel confortable to tap and hold, i would prefer touches and swipes. 

> Instead of swiping to reveal side tab panel, in the new design we are
> experimenting a pinch-to-zoom gesture to create a zoom-out transition from
> current viewport to tab panel. 
> 

i avoid using more than one finger over the touchscreen, it feels unfortable. pinching would require two fingers.

> You can find more about details at:
> https://speakerdeck.com/yuuuan/firefox-android-tablet-refresh-ixd-proposal

Comment 12

[Wesley Johnston (:wesj)]

We've got WIP to have swiping the urlbar do this in bug 909434.

Comment 13

[costinel]

Attachment: swipedown.mp4

This is how I imagine it would work.

Comment 14

[costinel]

(In reply to costinel from comment #13)
> Created attachment 8476953 [details]
> swipedown.mp4
> 
> This is how I imagine it would work.

Thanks, I did not know about that! Should I post the attachment there, too?

Comment 15

[costinel]

(In reply to Wesley Johnston (:wesj) from comment #12)
> We've got WIP to have swiping the urlbar do this in bug 909434.

(err, replied to my own comment and unable to delete)
Thanks, I did not know about that! Should I post the attachment there, too?

Comment 16

[Paul [pwd]]

(In reply to Yuan Wang(:Yuan) – Mobile Firefox Design Lead from comment #10)
> (In reply to costinel from comment #7)
> Instead of swiping to reveal side tab panel, in the new design we are
> experimenting a pinch-to-zoom gesture to create a zoom-out transition from
> current viewport to tab panel. 
> 
> You can find more about details at:
> https://speakerdeck.com/yuuuan/firefox-android-tablet-refresh-ixd-proposal

To use pinch-to-zoom to reveal the side panel is a terrible idea given that it's about zooming content. Just have the edge swipe as per the platform convention. There's no need to attempt to teach users new ways to reveal navigation when it's already been done. That said, perhaps tablet should take on the proposals as per bug 1056141

Comment 17

[Yuan Wang(:Yuan) – Mobile Firefox Design Lead]

(In reply to Paul [pwd] from comment #16)
> (In reply to Yuan Wang(:Yuan) – Mobile Firefox Design Lead from comment #10)
> > (In reply to costinel from comment #7)
> > Instead of swiping to reveal side tab panel, in the new design we are
> > experimenting a pinch-to-zoom gesture to create a zoom-out transition from
> > current viewport to tab panel. 
> > 
> > You can find more about details at:
> > https://speakerdeck.com/yuuuan/firefox-android-tablet-refresh-ixd-proposal
> 
> To use pinch-to-zoom to reveal the side panel is a terrible idea given that
> it's about zooming content. Just have the edge swipe as per the platform
> convention. There's no need to attempt to teach users new ways to reveal
> navigation when it's already been done. That said, perhaps tablet should
> take on the proposals as per bug 1056141

Just to clarify, the proposed new zoom-out gesture is designed for the upcoming tablet layout. I agree with you that it won't work with a side panel.