Open Bug 1440329 Opened 6 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Cohesive presentation of privacy- and security-related information, to the left (container information is abnormally distanced, separate, far right)

Categories

(Firefox :: Security, enhancement, P5)

58 Branch
enhancement

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()

UNCONFIRMED

People

(Reporter: grahamperrin, Unassigned)

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(Blocks 1 open bug)

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(2 files)

Attached image shot one of two
Positioning of information relating to privacy and security is – in various browsers – to the left of the address field. 

A well-established norm. 

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Firefox containers definitely relate to privacy and security – <https://medium.com/firefox-test-pilot/firefox-containers-are-go-ed2e3533b6e3#2710> and so on – however the information is separated, at a distance from the normal position. Far right of the field. 

As an enhancement, there should be: 

- a more cohesive approach to having 
  these types of information in 
  proximity to each other. 

Expect some resistance to change, but proximity makes sense. 

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Attached: two screenshots from November, before Firefox Quantum was released. 

The distances between left and right – coupled, in this example, with the lack of contrast (yellow text, white background) – increase the likelihood of insufficient attention to choices of container. Likelihood of mistakes. 

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A few points of reference, food for thought: 

An overview of Containers for add-on developers – Mozilla Hacks – the Web developer blog
<https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/10/containers-for-add-on-developers/> (2017-10-03)

Firefox Containers are Go! – Firefox Test Pilot – Medium
<https://medium.com/firefox-test-pilot/firefox-containers-are-go-ed2e3533b6e3> (2017-10-10)

Andy McKay :: Lines of death in Firefox
<http://www.agmweb.ca/2017-10-31-lines-of-death/> (2017-10-31)

Security/Contextual Identity Project/Containers - MozillaWiki
<https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Contextual_Identity_Project/Containers> (2017-12-13)
Attached image shot two of two
I'm not really convinced of the "left side is always related to privacy and security" part. Chrome puts a number of things on the right hand side of the URL bar (blocked popups and now also ads) while we indeed try to group things in the identity section. 

That doesn't mean that if we have an established, working UI concept (as we do for containers, IMO) we need to throw everything over board just for the sake of absolute consistency. It's always a compromise, and in this case I think we're making the right one (I also don't think anyone is realistically staffed to re-think this in the foreseeable future).

I'll leave it to jkt to wontfix this.
I don't think we have any plan to implement this. However I think we should consider moving to the left if we redesign the URL bar.

For me it would make more sense to logically list: secure/insecure. container, domain

However I am also not a UX person and this has never been studied pile. I agree with :johannh about the fact we aren't always consistent and this is usually by design or just evolution. Users don't often match their mental model with how browser security actually works and so I don't think we should force it on them untested.

I'm going to needinfo tanvi to make her aware of this suggestion.
Severity: normal → enhancement
Flags: needinfo?(tanvi)
Priority: -- → P5
Thank you both. 

Certainly, no force; and it would require testing. At this stage, I'm just kicking the ball around :-)

> Expect some resistance to change, 

– and I imagine that if ever there's a redesign, there should be a long settling-in period during which some users might be allowed to prefer the traditional (current) separation.
Is the proposal to put the Container information on the left side of the url bar, or keep it on the right and also include information about Container type in the Control Center?

We have no plans to change this right now, but adding our UR and UX folks.
Flags: needinfo?(tanvi)
Severity: normal → S3
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