1106055 - [UX] Design UI for search keywords

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Search, defect)

Description

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

With the Flare redesign, users currently can't add new search keywords and can't modify old ones.

We need a way to integrate these into the new UI.

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

We should fix this for en-US in Firefox 35, and ideally get some solutions across the board for Firefox 36 (if we need strings that will be a bit problematic). Can we prioritize this design highly?

Comment 2

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

Attachment: Mockup

This is a rough mockup of how old features can be reintegrated into the new prefs UI.
Here's what the mockup re-adds :
- Keywords
- Re-ordering of search engines
This is a old feature as well. This is done via drag and drop, it was previously done via up and down buttons though.

- Removing search engines
This was also an old feature. This is needed since we might want to completely remove engines that we don't need, not just hide them.

Comment 3

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

Maybe I'm asking too much but... to begin with, could we stop calling these things "keywords". It it really confusing to have bookmarks keywords and search engines keywords.
Something like "aliases" would help figuring out what bugs are about.
Even if the long term fix should be to somehow unify the 2 features into one.

Comment 4

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

(In reply to Marco Bonardo [::mak] (needinfo? me) from comment #3)
> Maybe I'm asking too much but... to begin with, could we stop calling these
> things "keywords". It it really confusing to have bookmarks keywords and
> search engines keywords.
> Something like "aliases" would help figuring out what bugs are about.
> Even if the long term fix should be to somehow unify the 2 features into one.

Totally agree with that.

Comment 5

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

They still will need to be called keywords in the UI, which is the primary concern of this bug. Whether or not the underlying implementation is separate from bookmark keywords seems like a separate concern and is essentially an implementation detail, right?

Comment 6

[Robert Kaiser]

(In reply to Tim Nguyen [:ntim] from comment #2)
> - Re-ordering of search engines
> This is a old feature as well. This is done via drag and drop, it was
> previously done via up and down buttons though.

How is that done for people who cannot use a mouse (think both heavy keyboard users as well as a11y)?

Comment 7

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

(In reply to Dão Gottwald [:dao] from comment #5)
> They still will need to be called keywords in the UI, which is the primary
> concern of this bug.

My concern is exactly that we have 2 different features with the same name, and that is confusing for users and for us.

Comment 8

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

(In reply to Robert Kaiser (:[e-mail]) from comment #6)
> (In reply to Tim Nguyen [:ntim] from comment #2)
> > - Re-ordering of search engines
> > This is a old feature as well. This is done via drag and drop, it was
> > previously done via up and down buttons though.
> 
> How is that done for people who cannot use a mouse (think both heavy
> keyboard users as well as a11y)?

Good question, I guess we could let the user select a row (up/down) then let them move it using Ctrl+Up, and Ctrl+down. It should probably be mentioned in the UI in the description.

Comment 9

[Marco Mucci [:MarcoM]]

Hi Philipp, can you provide a point value.

Comment 10

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

Attachment: Search-Preferences-i01-(OSX)_0000_Normal.png

Attaching the mockups I received from Philipp, per madhava's request.

Comment 11

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

Attachment: Search-Preferences-i01-(OSX)_0001_Editing.png

Comment 12

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

Attachment: Search-Preferences-i01-(OSX)_0002_Engine-Selected.png

Comment 13

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

Attachment: Search-Preferences-i01-(OSX)_0003_Moving.png

Comment 14

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

Some additional information from Philipp:
- It's OK that this UI doesn't provide an obvious way to edit the keyword for the default search engine. If someone *really* wants one, he can work around it by briefly changing his default and then setting the keyword.
- The keywords edit field should appear upon double click of that part of the row.

I'm still waiting for an answer from Philipp about how we will make this keyboard accessible.

Comment 15

[TGOS]

(In reply to Florian Quèze [:florian] [:flo] from comment #14)
> - It's OK that this UI doesn't provide an obvious way to edit the keyword
> for the default search engine. If someone *really* wants one, he can work
> around it by briefly changing his default and then setting the keyword.

If someone really wants one? Actually this is the most natural thing for me to always do each time I install Firefox anywhere:

1. Give my default search a keyword.
2. Get rid of that stupid search field (kicking it from my toolbar).

Now if I want to search for something, I just type the keyword followed by space and the search terms into the address bar and hit enter. Yes, I know that you can also search directly by just typing your search terms into the address bar (and possibly hit enter if you see no good result in the list), but first of all just typing something there shows all kind of stuff I'm not looking for if I really want to search for something (history, bookmarks, open tabs, etc.) and second, if my search for a term term looks like an URL or part of a domain name, Fx tries to open that directly (happens more often than one may think) and that won't happen if you use a keyword in front. 

So please don't pretend that this is a very rare, unusual, special case that hardly anyone will ever need. I'm a Fx user since the early days where this software was still named Phoenix and I'm probably a power user but it's exactly power features like that one which keeps me using Fx and not switching to alternatives as so many Fx users have been doing the last 2 to 3 years. As even if Fx may not always be the fastest one, the smallest one, the most beautiful one, the one with the most features or best support for latest standards, yet it is and always has been the most customizable one, the one with the most power features and the most extensible one, and that's all more important than anything else to power users. The trend for going more main stream is lovely and nice as long as you don't destroy power user features as just happened with the new search UI.

Comment 16

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

(In reply to TGOS from comment #15)
> (In reply to Florian Quèze [:florian] [:flo] from comment #14)
> > - It's OK that this UI doesn't provide an obvious way to edit the keyword
> > for the default search engine. If someone *really* wants one, he can work
> > around it by briefly changing his default and then setting the keyword.
> 
> If someone really wants one? Actually this is the most natural thing for me
> to always do each time I install Firefox anywhere:
> 
> 1. Give my default search a keyword.
> 2. Get rid of that stupid search field (kicking it from my toolbar).
> 
> Now if I want to search for something, I just type the keyword followed by
> space and the search terms into the address bar and hit enter. Yes, I know
> that you can also search directly by just typing your search terms into the
> address bar (and possibly hit enter if you see no good result in the list),
> but first of all just typing something there shows all kind of stuff I'm not
> looking for if I really want to search for something (history, bookmarks,
> open tabs, etc.) and second, if my search for a term term looks like an URL
> or part of a domain name, Fx tries to open that directly (happens more often
> than one may think) and that won't happen if you use a keyword in front. 
> 
> So please don't pretend that this is a very rare, unusual, special case that
> hardly anyone will ever need. I'm a Fx user since the early days where this
> software was still named Phoenix and I'm probably a power user but it's
> exactly power features like that one which keeps me using Fx and not
> switching to alternatives as so many Fx users have been doing the last 2 to
> 3 years. As even if Fx may not always be the fastest one, the smallest one,
> the most beautiful one, the one with the most features or best support for
> latest standards, yet it is and always has been the most customizable one,
> the one with the most power features and the most extensible one, and that's
> all more important than anything else to power users. The trend for going
> more main stream is lovely and nice as long as you don't destroy power user
> features as just happened with the new search UI.

You can temporarily switch to another engine, then edit your default engine keyword, then switch back. I'm also guessing it's just a temporary UI, since we need to ship keywords in a hurry for Firefox 35.

Comment 17

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

(In reply to TGOS from comment #15)

Like Tim said, setting a keyword for the default search engine will be 2 additional clicks away.

(In reply to Tim Nguyen [:ntim] from comment #16)

> I'm also guessing it's just a temporary UI, since
> we need to ship keywords in a hurry for Firefox 35.

I don't think it's meant to be temporary. If you see issues with the design proposed by Philipp, please speak up :-).

Comment 18

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

Thanks for posting the mockups here, Florian! And thanks to Tim for providing the foundation for those mockups.

The UI is kinda temporary, since we'd like to make the management of one click searches more visual in the long run. That said, I don't know how long exactly the long run will be ;)

There is ongoing discussion about including the default search engine in the one-offs as well, which would solve TGOS's issue (though even in the currently proposed state, it would be possible to add a keyword to any search engine by briefly changing the default).

Comment 19

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Did you really mean to close this bug? Because it's definitely not RESOLVED, eventually WONTFIX.

Comment 20

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

(In reply to Francesco Lodolo [:flod] from comment #19)
> Did you really mean to close this bug? Because it's definitely not RESOLVED,
> eventually WONTFIX.

Yes, the UX work is finished. For the implementation work I'll likely attach the patches in bug 1106559.

Comment 21

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Argh, didn't realize it was a UX bug.

Comment 22

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

Comment on attachment 8530929 [details]
Mockup

Clearing the ui-review flag, since the ideas from this mockup have been incorporated into the newer specs.

Comment 23

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

Florian, on your keyboard question:

- Clicking on the keyword portion of a selected row toggles the text field (a double click is just a special case of that)
- You can also enter the text field with the keyboard: F2 on Windows/Linux, Enter on Mac
- Space toggles the checkbox on the selected item

A good reference implementation is in the OS X system preferences in Keyboard > Shortcuts. It does most of the above except for the toggle on space.

Comment 24

[Mathew Hodson]

(In reply to TGOS from comment #15)
> (In reply to Florian Quèze [:florian] [:flo] from comment #14)
> > - It's OK that this UI doesn't provide an obvious way to edit the keyword
> > for the default search engine. If someone *really* wants one, he can work
> > around it by briefly changing his default and then setting the keyword.
> 
> If someone really wants one? Actually this is the most natural thing for me
> to always do each time I install Firefox anywhere:
> 
> 1. Give my default search a keyword.
> 2. Get rid of that stupid search field (kicking it from my toolbar).
> 
> Now if I want to search for something, I just type the keyword followed by
> space and the search terms into the address bar and hit enter. Yes, I know
> that you can also search directly by just typing your search terms into the
> address bar (and possibly hit enter if you see no good result in the list),
> but first of all just typing something there shows all kind of stuff I'm not
> looking for if I really want to search for something (history, bookmarks,
> open tabs, etc.) and second, if my search for a term term looks like an URL
> or part of a domain name, Fx tries to open that directly (happens more often
> than one may think) and that won't happen if you use a keyword in front.

You can type "?" followed by the search terms. It acts like a keyword for whatever your default search is. It won't autocomplete to a URL.

Comment 25

[Lukas Blakk [:lsblakk] use ?needinfo]

shouldn't be tracking the UX bug, untracking.