1477594 - all tabs popup does not mark which tabs are visible in the tab strip

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect, P3)

Description

[Firefox_Ninja]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.14; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.0
Build ID: 20180722100230

Steps to reproduce:

New Bug thanks to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1446101#c40




Actual results:

> Please help me understand what makes that indicator helpful to you? 

It focuses on the tabs currently visible on the tab strip, so can easily switch to tabs which are not currently in the workflow instead of searching though tabs which are currently visible.

> When are you looking at it, for what information?

Tabs visible in current tab-strip

> The new implementation has an indicator for what tab is selected/active, to allow people to relate the list to the row of tabs. 

Again the thin scrollbar is very helpful to locate/search for tabs which are currently not in the current workflow

> (I was expecting that indicator to sever nearly the same purpose than the "visible tabs indicator" or "second scrollbar" as you called it. - where it is not working like a scroll bar in any way, but just looking like one.)

Its purpose is far more important IMO since it lets us know that these tabs are currently viewable so the thing you are looking for is above or below this thin bar at the side.
So it faster to search and find the thing the user is looking for, the new implementation is more confusing since it only highlights one tab.

> The automatic scrolling once the mouse reaches the end of the screen seams
> helpful.
> Can you please file a bug for adding that functionality back. 
> (I am not sure if that behavior is possible with the new implementation,
> Mark might know)

Maybe this bug can be that place for fixing it.

Comment 1

[Firefox_Ninja]

Attachment: Diff

Look at the screenshot

First one quickly says
the tab you are looking for is in bottom four or five since these highlighted tabs are on your screen and since you clicked the button the thing you are looking for is down there.

Second one says
This is the current tab now search for the tab you are looking for even including the ones you know don't have what you are looking for.


Maybe you guys can revert to the previous one as it's far more user friendly and better UX

Comment 2

[Firefox_Ninja]

[Tracking Requested - why for this release]:

Comment 3

[Markus Jaritz [:markus] (UX)]

Please keep bugs focused on single issues.
As most content here is about the indicator showing which tabs are visible in the tab strip, I assume this is the focus here.
(Please create a separate issue, if we should look into scroll buttons at the top and bottom as it is an engineering issue, where this is a UI issue first.)

We should only show the indicator if we find a better solution for how to display it as we currently have.
As explained previously it currently cause more confusion than it helps prevent.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1446101#c35

@Firefox_Ninja I get that this can be helpful for people that understand what this line is for, 
but I found more people that do not get what it stands for, then people that do. 

Having it at the back of the list makes it seam like a second scroll bar, and detaches it from the other marker on the front that indicates the selected tab.

We first need to solve that UI problem, before we can add this back in.
(I will not work on this, but I am open to mentor creating a UI solution.)

Comment 4

[Firefox_Ninja]

(In reply to Markus Jaritz [:designakt] (UX) from comment #3)
> Please keep bugs focused on single issues.
> As most content here is about the indicator showing which tabs are visible
> in the tab strip, I assume this is the focus here.
> (Please create a separate issue, if we should look into scroll buttons at
> the top and bottom as it is an engineering issue, where this is a UI issue
> first.)
> 

Yes the indicator showing which tabs are visible in the tab strip, I assume this is the focus here.

> We should only show the indicator if we find a better solution for how to
> display it as we currently have.
> As explained previously it currently cause more confusion than it helps
> prevent.
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1446101#c35

Strongly disagree, since till now the old behavior was acceptable The thinner bar indicates tabs that are currently visible vs. those that are scrolled off-screen in the tab bar, the only confusion is due to the the new scrollbar which is thick and looks out of place.

> @Firefox_Ninja I get that this can be helpful for people that understand
> what this line is for, 
> but I found more people that do not get what it stands for, then people that
> do. 
> 
> Having it at the back of the list makes it seam like a second scroll bar,
> and detaches it from the other marker on the front that indicates the
> selected tab.

If that's the case then make show the indicator show up as a very thin line with a different color from the scrollbar/use a dark color for tabs on screen and lighter for off-screen to differentiate /switch the line to the opposite side ie to the left/or add a pref to show it for power user who rely on it.

> We first need to solve that UI problem, before we can add this back in.

Why not add it now as this is certainly a regression UX(since it was already there before and has not made it to FF62)

Comment 5

[Markus Jaritz [:markus] (UX)]

(In reply to Firefox_Ninja from comment #4)
> Why not add it now as this is certainly a regression UX(since it was already
> there before and has not made it to FF62)

see
(In reply to Markus Jaritz [:designakt] (UX) from comment #3)
> We first need to solve that UI problem, before we can add this back in.
> (I will not work on this, but I am open to mentor creating a UI solution.)

It seams you have some ideas on how to solve that. Different colors or other side sound interesting.
If you can visualize them, we can validate if one of them improves on the situation.

Comment 6

[Mark Galoway]

Attachment: Missing Things

(In reply to Markus Jaritz [:designakt] (UX) from comment #5)
> (In reply to Firefox_Ninja from comment #4)
> > Why not add it now as this is certainly a regression UX(since it was already
> > there before and has not made it to FF62)
> 
> see
> (In reply to Markus Jaritz [:designakt] (UX) from comment #3)
> > We first need to solve that UI problem, before we can add this back in.
> > (I will not work on this, but I am open to mentor creating a UI solution.)
> 
> It seams you have some ideas on how to solve that. Different colors or other
> side sound interesting.
> If you can visualize them, we can validate if one of them improves on the
> situation.

Not Op but was about to file the same bug since comments on Bug 1446101
were not taken into consideration.

miss the tab in focus bar too it's very frustrating now to hunt for the tabs.
Can we somehow vote what we want?
If it ain't broken why fix it? Users were not complaint or wanted a change for inferior work flow(big part why using firefox not chrome or edge)
For one would only like the new scrollbar to be added only and rest to be same as Firfox61
the old all tabs was visually more easy to use in contrast to current one except the scrollbar is handy.

Comment 7

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

I have no context on this bug and don't have anything to contribute.
Please don't set needinfo on multiple people at once, especially if you aren't asking a specific question or making a specific proposal.

Comment 8

[Adolfo Jayme]

(In reply to Markus Jaritz [:designakt] (UX) from comment #5)
> It seams you have some ideas on how to solve that. Different colors or other
> side sound interesting.

Note that moving the visible-tab indicator to the opposite side was already suggested a year ago in bug 1392489, so it wouldn’t be mistaken for a scrollbar.

(N.B.: I’ve never found this feature useful, because it has never been obvious what it was for. I don’t mind it not being implemented back.)

Comment 9

[Shailen Patel]

Has this bug been resolved? I would love to take a look if not.

Comment 10

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Shailen Patel from comment #9)

Has this bug been resolved? I would love to take a look if not.

I don't think there's a clear path forward yet. Markus, any new ideas about how we should address this if at all?

Comment 11

[Markus Jaritz [:markus] (UX)]

Attachment: All Tabs Pop Up - Visible Tabs

The previous comments indicated what this could look like.
I visualized that here as one possible way we could take this.
If Shailen has any other ideas on how to implement, I am happy to review.

Comment 12

[Markus Jaritz [:markus] (UX)]

Attachment: All Tabs Pop Up - Visible Tabs

Comment 13

[Shailen Patel]

Where can I clone the repo for this?

Comment 14

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Shailen Patel from comment #13)

Where can I clone the repo for this?

All our code is on mozilla-central. See https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/contributing/how_to_contribute_firefox.html

Comment 15

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The bug has a release status flag that shows some version of Firefox is affected, thus it will be considered confirmed.

Comment 16

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The severity field for this bug is relatively low, S3. However, the bug has 69 votes.
:dao, could you consider increasing the bug severity?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 17

[BugBot (nomail) [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The last needinfo from me was triggered in error by recent activity on the bug. I'm clearing the needinfo since this is a very old bug and I don't know if it's still relevant.

Comment 18

[:Gijs (he/him)]

We revisited this with UX + product and decided not to bring this back.