1984110 - The search engine "+" option doesn't make it clear that the engine will be installed, especially for screen reader users

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Address Bar, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Henry Wilkes (they/them) [:henry-x]]

Steps to reproduce:

1. Visit https://de.wikipedia.org.
2. Navigate to the address bar and start typing a search term.
3. Navigate to the "pick a search engine" menu.
4. Navigate to "Wikipedia (de)".

The only indication to the user that selecting "Wikipedia (de)" will install the search engine (permanently add it to their search engines until it is manually removed in settings) is a small green "+" icon. This is:

1. Information that is not available to screen readers.
2. Ambiguous.
3. Small, and could blend into the search icon itself.

As such, users may not notice this symbol and may be surprised by the side effect of selecting this item.

I think either:

1. Selecting the item should not install the engine. Instead the user could be shown the existing install-search-engine prompt after they perform the search.
2. Change the text to make the action clear. E.g. "Add Wikipedia (de) as a search engine". Maybe with a prompt to confirm or undo.

Or some variant and combination of either that makes the behaviour clearer and expected.

Comment 1

[Anna Yeddi [:ayeddi]]

Thank you for reporting it, Henry!

The badge should be exposed to assistive technology users, i.e. as Add engine: {on-screen label} or {on-screen label} - add engine (either would work because we probably expecting only one new engine at time).

While users could use the control, they won't be able to know if it would be a one-off search or permanent addition, or if it would be an addition at all, thus access-S2

Comment 2

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

The severity field is not set for this bug.
:adw, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 3

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

The current implementation is the intended design, but it's a valid concern that the badge is too small or unclear. The a11y aspect of this is handled in bug 1979422.

The a11y part is critical and is an actual bug, and bug 1979422 is marked with an appropriate priority and severity. The other concerns in this bug are up to design and IMO aren't defects, so I'll change this to be an enhancement request with downgraded priority.