1831716 - Improve drag space in unified toolbar

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Toolbars and Tabs, enhancement)

Description

[Axel Grude]

Attachment: old school netscape screenshot and my drag-area-suggestion.png

Since 113b3 we have an extra space of 30px on left of the unified toolbar.

Discussion: https://thunderbird.topicbox.com/groups/beta/Tb1501a7194bb3b61-M20a3c3909fd2307325618ea3

I understand this was added in order to facilitate moving the main window when no caption bar is visible. The problem with this is two-fold:

1. this space is unnecessary when the title bar is shown - and it doesn't even function as window drag handle. So it should be removed for this case.
2. by creating an empty space that takes up a full button width it is not clear what it is there for. It looks like a broken button or button with missing icon. I would propose 2 fixes:

• make it half its width or at least significantly narrower to make clear that it's not a button panel
• add an icon or drag texture. Something like the cheese grater textures that were used by the earliest incarnations of Mozilla, Netscape navigator might be nice (just a little wide added for accessibility. One might add arrows / chevrons around it. I attached a photoshopped little prototype that could be useful for discussion or as a starting point (see right hand side of the picture)
• it might also help (provided the space was narrower) to have it mirrored on the right hand side of the toolbar. But: Personally I feel the unified toolbar is already overweighted with functionality, which is why opted to re-enable the titlebar and get the windows resize / close buttons out of that area thus increasing configurable space for core functionality and Add-ons.

Comment 1

[Axel Grude]

The causing rule is in unifiedToolbar.css:

#unifiedToolbarContent {
  padding-inline-start: 30px;
}

there is a rule that removes it in full screen mode - which hints to its possible purpose as a "drag space":

:root[sizemode="fullscreen"] #unifiedToolbarContent {
  padding-inline-start: 0;
}

I feel removing the space when not needed is probably very simple.
Coming up with a useful size (I suggest 16px max) and consensus on a draggable icon may be more difficult.

Comment 2

[Axel Grude]

Attachment: Suggestion for improving the "write mail" icon

Here is a suggestion / starting point for improving this icon.

I added the following features:

• keep the envelope metaphor, but also enhanced it by opening the envelope to show that the email is W.I.P.
• added a signifier element (pencil) in a different position than where the download arrow was; to help color blind people
• added a focus color (blue pencil) - that's more an nice to have but I think this is probably the most often used button of all of them for somebody who is a productive Email user.
• it was also pointed out in the discussion that the "mark mail" icon is very similar, so I added another focus color (not yellow or green as these are used for other purposes) to the top left dot.

Comment 3

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Let's make this a bit dynamic without adding too much complexity.

Action plan:

• Make the drag space density aware with a 15px size in compact mode. The default and relaxed can stay at 30px.
• Make it 0 if the titlebar is enabled.

Micah, can you take care of this?

Comment 4

[[e-mail]]

Attachment: Bug 1831716 - Improve drag space in unified toolbar. r=#thunderbird-front-end-reviewers

Comment 5

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/b46ac2fc5c5a
Improve drag space in unified toolbar. r=aleca

Comment 6

[Axel Grude]

Nice one, thanks for the quick action. I will test once it lands in the next beta, but it looks good!

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9332421 [details]
Bug 1831716 - Improve drag space in unified toolbar. r=#thunderbird-front-end-reviewers

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Axel, this should ship later today for your testing

Comment 8

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 114.0b2:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/07f7b56870d6

Comment 9

[Axel Grude]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #7)

Approved for beta

Axel, this should ship later today for your testing

works beautifully, thanks for the fast turnaround.