1113795 - Show something useful when a user visits about:reader without a URL parameter

Status: NEW

(Toolkit :: Reader Mode, defect, P5)

Description

[:Margaret Leibovic]

I don't think this is a high priority right now, and I'm not sure what this would look like, but this issue was raised in bug 795968.

Our UX on Android never accounted for users directly visiting about:reader, but this may happen more on desktop (and after we fix bug 1111729), as the URL is visible.

Comment 1

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

I think ideally we would show something like about:privatebrowsing in non-private windows, which gives some details about what it is and some way to get started.

Comment 2

[Anthony Lam (:antlam) Find me, @antlam on Slack!]

I would think that an idea here would be to surface the Reading list?

Comment 3

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

Attachment: Screenshot 2015-02-16 14.03.37.png

Adding screenshot of the current empty about:reader page.

@mmaslaney, any ideas on what we should do here?  Not much time left for string changes though so might just keep this on the radar for next release fixes.

Comment 4

[Michael Maslaney [:mmaslaney] ([e-mail])]

I agree with Jared, that the page should explain the benefit of the feature, and why one may want to use it. Due to time constraints with string changes, I would prefer push this back and have Matej craft the final copy.

Matej, would you be able to provide a blurb detailing the benefits of the Reading View feature?

Comment 5

[Matej Novak [:matej]]

I don't know what's possible in terms of functionality, so I'm not sure what the CTA should be, but here's a blurb we could use:


Make articles easier to read

Get images and other things you don’t need out of your way with Reader View. Save articles for later and keep them all in one place with Reading List.

Comment 7

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

P5 based on this requiring the user to do this, and it not being something a person would stumble into.

Comment 8

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

Maybe we can just redirect people to something like: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/reader (assuming that page exists).  A redirect would avoid a localized set of strings within the product, however the product page would have to continue to exist.

Comment 9

[Matej Novak [:matej]]

(In reply to Bryan Clark (Firefox PM) [:clarkbw] from comment #8)
> Maybe we can just redirect people to something like:
> https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/reader (assuming that page exists).  A
> redirect would avoid a localized set of strings within the product, however
> the product page would have to continue to exist.

We're not creating a product page for Reader, but we are making a page that will launch the first time use tour and be pre-populated in the Reading List. Maybe about:reader could redirect there?

Adding Holly who has more details on this.

Comment 10

[Holly Habstritt Gaal [:Habber]]

As Matej said, we will not have a product page for Reader View / Reading List at launch and no dedicated page is planned for now. 

However, any time a user lands on the following URL, a web page and series of FTE door hangers will be displayed.  https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=8570608&action=edit  

This experience is meant to be a very high level an intro to the feature. There will be some copy on the web page and the door hangers point out Reading List, Reader View, and Sync. 

If it is possible to direct the user to the above URL via about:reader (either automatically or via text in the page) it seems like its page contents fulfills what a user would want to learn at about:reader.

Comment 11

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

(In reply to Holly Habstritt Gaal [:Habber] from comment #10)
> If it is possible to direct the user to the above URL via about:reader
> (either automatically or via text in the page) it seems like its page
> contents fulfills what a user would want to learn at about:reader.

Looks like a good option to me.