262840 - update icon must use more than color to indicate "critical"

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect, P2)

Description

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

The critical update icon in the default theme is exactly the same as the normal
update icon except the circle is red instead of green. These are
indistinguishable to people with red-green color blindness, the most common form.

For critical updates the current icon is pretty unobtrusive anyway. If you made
it blink you'd fix this bug and draw more attention for all users. Or someone
clever could come up with a change in symbol or shape.

Comment 1

[Aaron Leventhal]

How are the critical updates keyboard accessible? If they're not, then this
probably needs to morph into critical updates accessibility issues.

Comment 2

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

You can get part way there... Tools menu, Option item, down arrow to Advanced,
hit enter to select it, then tab into the options.

At this point I get stuck, my software update item is out of the visible portion
of the panel, and it doesn't auto-scroll when I tab out of the visible portion.
I can't find an obvious way to close the open items using the keyboard. If I
could I could bring the sofware update item into the visible portion, but that
technique wouldn't work for the last advanced items so there's obviously a
general Options dialog accessibility problem here (that belongs in a separate
bug if there isn't one already).

Comment 3

[Peter van der Woude [:Peter6]]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 262536 ***

Comment 4

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Not an exact dupe, bug 262532 is about noticeability, this bug is about color
differences. That other bug could be read as wanting the green extension update
icon to blink or be bigger as well, in which case this accessibility problem
would remain.

Comment 5

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

I read in a mail thread that green indicates extension update available, *blue*
indicates > 5 updates available (threshhold set in prefs), and red indicates an
application update.

Blue color-blindness is rare, but the same issue applies: don't make color the
only difference.

So red means any application update, critical security fix or not? Is the theory
that every releases fixes at least one security bug anyway? I guess I almost buy
that. I'd still rather see a distinction so that a security-only release gets
more notice -- because it will certainly get more notice from the bad guys who
can more easily find the exploits to use against the folks who haven't upgraded yet.

Comment 6

[Aaron Leventhal]

*** Bug 262925 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[Jesse Ruderman]

I think we should have a "Check for Updates" command on the Tools menu.  That
would fix the keyboard accessibilty problem, make us match IE, and make security
update press releases less embarrassing.

Comment 8

[Jesse Ruderman]

I filed bug based on dveditz's comment 2.

Comment 9

[Jesse Ruderman]

I filed bug 262966 based on dveditz's comment 2.

Comment 10

[Aaron Leventhal]

(In reply to comment #7)
> I think we should have a "Check for Updates" command on the Tools menu.  That
> would fix the keyboard accessibilty problem, make us match IE, and make security
> update press releases less embarrassing.

Agreed. I know we're trying to minimize the UI, but toolbar items normally get
menu items as well. This is what allows them to be used with the keyboard in a
discoverable way.

Comment 11

[Jim Ginn]

Bug 258277 is about the menu item.

Comment 12

[Aaron Leventhal]

I might downgrade this to a P3 if bug 258277 gets fixed in a way that shows the
current status. Right now this definitely blocks section 508 compliance.

Comment 13

[Benjamin Smedberg]

This bug does not block. The menuitem does.

Comment 14

[Doron Rosenberg (IBM)]

who works on themes?  We need to make the critical button have some indicator
(be it a "!" or such) and someone who works on theme graphics would be the best
choice.

Comment 15

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

cc'd kevin and steven to see if they've got ideas on this.

Comment 16

[Steven Garrity [:sgarrity]]

Does this icon only show up on Windows? I'm not seeing it on either the Fedora
linux build, or the Mac build.

Comment 17

[Chase Phillips]

(In reply to comment #16)
> Does this icon only show up on Windows? I'm not seeing it on either the Fedora
> linux build, or the Mac build.

There currently aren't updates available through the app-update service for
linux and mac platforms, hence why you aren't seeing an update notification icon
there.

Comment 18

[Kevin Gerich]

I'll come up with something. Taking.

Comment 19

[Doron Rosenberg (IBM)]

Note that we had a discussion on IRC, and it seemed people were ok with just
having one icon and the tooltip tell the user more about what the update is
(extension, critical, etc).

We could also go with more visual indications as well.

Comment 20

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

a single icon + tooltip could work. I guess the menubar would become too crowded
to accomodate a button with brief but informative text?

Comment 21

[Nigel McFarlane]

I still think that use of well-known international symbols
could work here. Either Stop, Give Way/Yield, and "One Way",
or else the Beginner, Intermediate & Black Diamond symbols
used on ski runs. Saves I18N, L10N. Immediately recognizable.

- N.

Comment 22

[Aaron Leventhal]

Kevin, are you still working on this?

Comment 23

[Aaron Leventhal]

My understanding is that the update icon is gone now.

Comment 24

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1527381