1693815 - Remove illustrations on error pages

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: General, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Romain Testard [:RT]]

Context:
Illustrations on error pages used to align with the whismical goals of Photon.
Proton intends to bring a modern and fresh touch to the user experience which the current illustrations on error pages do not align with.

Acceptance criteria

• Remove illustrations on the following pages
  ---URL does not exist (test case: type https://www.gggfff.cvf/)
  ---Tab crash
  ---Refresh was succesfully completed
  --- Incorrectly formatted URL (test case: about:doesnotexist)
  ---Session restore failure
• Ensure resulting layout remains correct (please connect with Proton UX once there is a test build so UX can validate the result)

Illustrations of the error pages for all scenarios above: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pPzUgpIP-P0UmFVPtevQL64qHU2TDKWlatDUUsQHQkc/edit

Comment 1

[B.J. Herbison]

The Google document with the illustrations is restricted. Could it be opened up so we can see the plans?

Comment 2

[Dão Gottwald [::dao]]

(In reply to B.J. Herbison from comment #1)

The Google document with the illustrations is restricted. Could it be opened up so we can see the plans?

The document doesn't show how the pages are going to look, it just lists various the error pages (the same as listed in comment 0 here) with screenshots showing their existing look.

Comment 3

[alexios]

i find the illustrations funny and quite modern. it's nice to have a small illustration to accompany the respective error, plain lifeless text was the norm back in the early 00s.

keep them.

Comment 4

[Michelle Goossens [:masterwayz]]

Attachment: Bug 1693815 - Remove illustrations on error pages r=emalysz

Comment 5

[Emma Malysz]

I spoke with product, and we discussed also removing the illustration from about:restartRequired

Comment 6

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/05143b89cd5d
Remove illustrations on error pages r=emalysz

Comment 7

[Cristian Brindusan [:cbrindusan]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/05143b89cd5d

Comment 8

[Agata Głogowska]

As a Firefox user: I hate this change so much. First of all - I like those cheering up illustrations when something goes wrong, they are great to reduce stress.

What is more, and more much important in my opinion. Those illustrations were giving visual indication what is wrong faster than reading - and as reading is difficult for some persons (for example with learning disabilities). I am neurodiverse person - ADHD (and ASD) - and having visual indication in this form were making my life much easier - it helped me to focus my attention and relieve stress I am more prone than neurotypical person. For me this change is just ablaistic.

Also some other persons wont know technical terms in description. This is discriminating less educated persons, I always saw this little dino and bear as something helpful to them to learn.

This change is just really sad, making persons life more complicated because of "professionalism" or "clean look" - and as it looked really clean and professional before I just do not understand why it is even considered.

I really hope than this change can be reconsidered.

Comment 9

[April King [:April]]

This is a real shame, the little illustrations give Firefox a little levity and character. Not only that, they are pretty memorable, one of the features that stick in my head as unique to Firefox.

Comment 10

[spaghetti3627]

Please give us the option to keep/reactivate them after the update.
It may be a minor thing, but the dino really makes FF feel a bit friendlier (and it looks better than chrome's blocky one)

Comment 11

[kellegram]

Agreed, I do not understand why the illustrations should be removed. This is not year 2000, If someone just wants to see text they can use a terminal browser. Would be nice to have the option to re-enable them, this change feels very much forced. I don't think making something text only makes anything look cleaner or more to the point, the text is already there, illustrations do not take anything away, quite the opposite, they add to it.

Proton intends to bring a modern and fresh touch to the user experience which the current illustrations on error pages do not align with.

Neither does removing illustrations instead of replacing them does. If I think modern, the last thing I think of is just text...

Comment 12

[leo]

Ignoring anything else, I feel like the new error pages just look ugly. Even if the old illustrations don't fit with Proton, maybe new ones should be made?

I agree with the other comments on accessibility, as someone who also has ADHD and ASD.

Comment 13

[Gabriele Svelto [:gsvelto]]

I hadn't paid attention to the tab crashed page until now and from what I can see the illustration there was removed but not replaced with anything else. Without the illustration the page is IMHO rather confusing, having only black text on a white or gray background it most certainly does not convey the idea that something rather bad just happened nor that the user help is needed. IIUC it's been 8 version since the page has had an illustration, when are the new ones suppose to be introduced? Also why were the old ones removed before new ones were in place?

Comment 14

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

Nope, as mentioned in the first comment, they are being removed, not replaced, to achieve a fresh, modern look.
And I think that answers the rest of your questions…

Comment 15

[Gabriele Svelto [:gsvelto]]

Your answer addresses the rest of my questions but made me realize that this explains a phenomenon I had seen and which I was unable to explain: there's been a marked drop in the number of tab crashes that have been reported between 88 and 89 in spite of the crash rate not changing significantly. In 88 roughly ~50% of all reported crashes were tab crashes, in 89 this dropped to less than 33%. The number of comments that the users submitted with the crash reports dropped even more sharply. We had one comment every 28 reports in version 88 and only one comment every 40 reports in 89. In other words it seems that users were less likely to report tab crashes and even less likely to add information about the crash. The new ratios persisted for versions after 89, so it was not a temporary fluctuation. As the crash reporting module owner this concerns me, blind spots in the number and types of reported crashes reduce our ability to keep Firefox stable.

These drops don't surprise me: when I stumbled upon the new page I wondered if my tab had not crashed because the design is left with very little cues to convey what happened. The buttons were also changed from red to blue which certainly also plays a part (though I don't know when that happened).

Either way the function of the page is to invite users to send their reports and to add as much information as possible - a strictly opt-in process. The change here, as small as it is in scope, seems to have reduced its effectiveness.

Note that the last time we changed it - by removing the field used to gather user e-mails - we did extensive research on who used that data, who would be impacted and how it would affect our collection before making a final decision (and obviously before implementing it). So please in the future do inform the crash reporting team about changes to those pages so that we can evaluate together their impact.