1390551 - Photon submenus don't expand on hover

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Menus, enhancement)

Description

[Erik Rose [:erik][:erikrose]]

For example, opening the Page Action menu and mousing down to the Send to Device submenu does not expand the submenu. I find myself hovering there, waiting for it to expand and wondering what's taking so long. In actuality, it is waiting for me to click it, which is different than the behavior of all others menus on my system. Some particularly exploration-averse people may never discover how to use these special submenus.

The best solution would be to make Firefox's menus act like normal menus. The second best solution (in the interest of expediency) might be to make them look obviously different from normal menus. As Don Norman says, if it acts different, it should look different. Substituting "..." for the ">" would both differentiate and invite a click, since "..." is the standard signifier for a menu item which will require interaction when selected.

Comment 1

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

This is particularly disconcerting on the Mac, where users are trained by experience to expect the submenu to automatically expand on hover. This is historically even true in Firefox, so the change is really jarring. I do the same thing :erikrose does, almost daily.

Comment 2

[Erik Rose [:erik][:erikrose]]

[Tracking Requested - why for this release]: It will likely confuse any mouse-using Mac user.

Comment 3

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Justin, what do you think?
Thanks

Comment 4

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

I'll let Stephen confirm, but pretty sure this is intentional and was considered.

Comment 5

[Julien Cristau [:jcristau]]

Not tracking per comment 4.

Comment 6

[Amy Lee [:amylee] UX]

Attachment: Submenu Hover State

Hi,

This is the proposed solution for the sub-menu hover state to make it clearer to users that they have to click to access sub-menus.

There should be a slight delay before the hover animation is triggered so when the user is mousing over the door-hanger menu, they are not triggering the hover animation each time.

Comment 7

[Erik Rose [:erik][:erikrose]]

I'd of course prefer it to act like every other application in my life, but this is at least an improvement: it acts different, and so now it looks different. Ever forward!

Comment 8

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

I'm going to close this bug as invalid since comment #4 says that this is intentional and was considered. Bug 1408450 will track changing the icon and introducing an animation to make it clearer that the user will have to click.