1819281 - Reduce number of tab keypresses when navigating from folder tree to the message list by implementing toolbar navigation pattern

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, enhancement, P2)

Description

[Peter Vágner]

This is on linux with:

• Thunderbird daily 112.0a1 (2023-02-27) (64-bit)
• at-spi2-core 2.46.0
• python-atspi 2.46.0

However I expect this to be reproduceable on all the platforms

The problem

New message list introduced in Thunderbird 111 has many enhancements including better accessibility support in many ways.
However the general user experience needs some fine tuning.
If filter is showing navigating from the folder tree to the message list requires pressing the tab key more than 10 times.
Keyboard shortcuts F6 and shift+F6 are preserved but they are not working consistently accross the whole window and navigating with tab and shift+tab might still be prefered for some users.

Steps to reproduce

• Launch thunderbird, use tab or shift+tab or F6 and shift+F6 to focus the message list.
• Now press shift+tab key several times to find a button for reordering message list by unread state or any other button that filters or reorders the message list and activate that button with the enter key.
• Now try to quickly navigate either back to the message list or to the folder tree.

Actual results

It is possible to use to navigate with tab or shift+tab but it's not very convenient.

Expected

For better user experience for operating with the keyboard it would be nice if buttons were logically grouped into toolbars and number of tab key presses while navigating from the folder tree to the message list would be reduced.
For example filtering buttons should be grouped in the first toolbar, ordering buttons should be grouped in the second toolbar.
The toolbars should be named with an accessible name in order to be clearly reported with the screen readers when navigating into.
Navigating over the elements inside a toolbar should be done with left and arrow keys.
See the toolbar pattern explanation here

Comment 1

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

This would be a great addition and a massive improvement in our keyboard a11y.
Assigning this to Micah, but the entire front-end team should tackle this in chunks to apply this pattern to the various areas and toolbars where it makes sense.
We might convert this into a meta bug.

Comment 3

[Ali Savas]

I suggest that the toolbar should not be between the folder tree and the message list. At least not from the TAB order. Visually, everything can stay the same. There are people like me that disable the quick filter bar. Thus, as before, one could press TAB only once to go from the folder tree to the message list.

Comment 4

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

This is somewhat related to bug 1816784, which will implement a similar toolbar roving tab approach we implemented in the spaces toolbar.
Micah and Sol, sync up on this and let's figure out a way to extract this navigation paradigm in a reusable module so we can apply it to all our toolbars.

Comment 7

[[e-mail]]

Attachment: Bug 1819281 - Implement roving tab index in table header. r=#thunderbird-front-end-reviewers

Comment 8

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/001a0b0bc620
Implement roving tab index in table header. r=aleca

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9335739 [details]
Bug 1819281 - Implement roving tab index in table header. r=#thunderbird-front-end-reviewers

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Comment 10

[Daniel Darnell [:dandarnell]]

114.0b6:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/34662d6fbfdc