1914451 - Open new tabs to the top of the list for vertical tabs

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, enhancement, P1)

Description

[Sarah Clements [:sclements]]

This is a new request from UX/product to have new tabs open at the top of the tabstrip instead of the bottom but only for vertical tabs.

Comment 1

[Sam Foster [:sfoster] (he/him)]

What should happen when we switch back to horizontal tabs? If the tab order changes between views - even just visually rather than the intrinsic order - I'm worried this will be really confusing for the user.

There is a bug on file to ensure we scrollIntoView the selected tab (Did it get fixed already? I looked but was unable to find it). Would that help address the root issue here?

Comment 2

[Sarah Clements [:sclements]]

(In reply to Sam Foster [:sfoster] (he/him) from comment #1)

What should happen when we switch back to horizontal tabs? If the tab order changes between views - even just visually rather than the intrinsic order - I'm worried this will be really confusing for the user.

There is a bug on file to ensure we scrollIntoView the selected tab (Did it get fixed already? I looked but was unable to find it). Would that help address the root issue here?

Its a one-line fix for that issue which I will submit a patch for (see bug 1913279). I did talk to Ania and Yulia about this and asked whether that fix would be good enough but there were strong opinions from them that with the vertical tab strip we are establishing a new pattern which can be harder to change after the fact. And one of our user researchers has apparently also weighed in saying since this is a new surface its okay to establish a new pattern.

Comment 3

[Sam Foster [:sfoster] (he/him)]

Ok I'm still trying to understand what is and isn't changing. I think we're saying:

1. No tabs would move or get re-ordered when switching between vertical and horizontal tab strip.
2. New tabs created via the new tab button in the horizontal tab strip will be created at the end of the list. I.e. no behavior change for the horizontal tab strip.
3. New tabs created via the new tab button in the vertical tab strip will be inserted at the start of the list.

Comment 4

[Sarah Clements [:sclements]]

I'm not sure what you mean by the first point, but you're correct that:

• No behavior change whatsoever for horizontal tabs
• No behavior change for when a new tab is added via the tab right-click menu for vertical tabs.
• Behavior change only for when a new tab is opened via the vertical tabs new tab button and the modifier + T keyboard shortcut, and then yes it would be inserted at the start of the list.

After a first pass at looking into this, I think it might be a matter of adding a condition in _insertTabAtIndex.

So something like index = this.tabContainer.verticalMode && !openerTab ? 0 : index in the else block.

 // Ensure index is within bounds.
      if (pinned) {
        index = Math.max(index, 0);
        index = Math.min(index, this._numPinnedTabs);
      } else {
        index = Math.max(index, this._numPinnedTabs);
        index = Math.min(index, this.tabs.length);
        index = this.tabContainer.verticalMode && !openerTab ? 0 : index;
      }

But we'll need good test coverage to be sure.

Edited to include the modifier + T keyboard shortcut.

Comment 5

[Sarah Clements [:sclements]]

There was further discussion about the location of the new tab button on slack with Kelly, Ania and Yulia and we've made the decision to move the new tab button to the bottom for the time being. This will also make things less complicated for keyboard navigation/focus work in bug 1906888.

Comment 7

[Will]

@ devs, Firefox's vertical tabs is fantastic, thank you very much. In 1959865 I posted a list where you can see the sheer amount of users wishing they could put the new tab button at the top. I worked in tech support and customer feedback for years and one of the things you learn is that only a small percentage of users actually give feedback, so when you see a list of feedback THAT long, that means quite a large chunk of "silent" users feel the same way (Firefox's vertical tabs only shipped to stable 1 month ago and there's already many posts and upvotes about it). And yes of course it should be optional because just like dark mode vs light mode, users seem to feel quite strongly about this.

Comment 8

[Sarah Clements [:sclements]]

(In reply to Will from comment #7)

@ devs, Firefox's vertical tabs is fantastic, thank you very much. In 1959865 I posted a list where you can see the sheer amount of users wishing they could put the new tab button at the top. I worked in tech support and customer feedback for years and one of the things you learn is that only a small percentage of users actually give feedback, so when you see a list of feedback THAT long, that means quite a large chunk of "silent" users feel the same way (Firefox's vertical tabs only shipped to stable 1 month ago and there's already many posts and upvotes about it). And yes of course it should be optional because just like dark mode vs light mode, users seem to feel quite strongly about this.

Believe me, we're well aware of the value of user feedback - but as you highlighted many people have personal preferences and we can't possibly adapt this to meet everyone's. We don't have the ability with the sidebar/vertical tabs to customize elements like the new tab button and doing so would be a large amount of work. I'm quite sure our PM and UX team has seen those requests, but like with any change it needs to be prioritized and weighed against other changes they want to make, along with bugs we need to address.

Comment 9

[Will]

(In reply to Sarah Clements [:sclements] from comment #0)

This is a new request from UX/product to have new tabs open at the top of the tabstrip instead of the bottom but only for vertical tabs.

I understand and I apologize if I've been a bit overzealous about this issue, but I think UX/product's initial decision to have new tabs at the top was the right call. Firefox's vertical tabs mode is fantastic but the new tab button being below the tabs just feels bad for a number of reasons, I strongly suspect it's one of the major reasons some people don't stick with vertical tabs.

Comment 10

[Will]

Attachment: NTBVivaldivertical.png

Thought it was worth a ping because Vivaldi just added the option to put the new tab button at the top. Simply right-click the tab strip, click Customize Toolbar, drag the new tab button to the top and click Done. It's worth trying it out for yourself, it feels a lot better and more natural having the new tab button up at the top.