430880 - Update open search UI on OS X and Windows

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Firefox :: Theme, defect)

Description

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

To clean up the appearance of open search discovery on windows and OS X, we have decided to place small plus above the drop down arrow, instead of the current blue smudge.  We want this glyph to only be noticeable for people who know to look for it.  We do not want to capture the user's attention because we believe doing so is a needless distraction, given that it is very unlikely that the user will take an action from the visual cue.

Comment 1

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

Attachment: Mockup of the plus glyph

Comment 2

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

This will be updated for XP and Vista with bug 430759

Comment 3

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

I think that little "+" is just-as or more likely to be seen a rendering artifact than the current styling is, and I'm not sure that it would actually reduce distraction (and I'm not even sure that I agree that "reducing distraction" is a worthy goal, since I'm not sure that the current styling is actually distracting).

Comment 4

[Kai Liu]

(In reply to comment #3)
> likely to be seen a rendering artifact
> 

If the reactions that I've seen on mozillaZine are any indication, this is not an uncommon point of view.

Comment 5

[Jim Jeffery not reading bug-mail 1/2/11]

The soft blue glow on the 'add search' box is a lot less distracting than turning on/off the X (Stop) during page loads.  The tiny + is very hard to see with old eyes and is not all clear as to what it is even.  

If you don't want to 'capture the users attention' then remove any indicators at all and let the end user find what he wants through self-discovery.  Not the best approach.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9pre) Gecko/2008042701 Minefield/3.0pre Firefox/3.0 ID:2008042701

Comment 6

[Kai Liu]

Just wondering here... Would it be better if the plus was set off in a corner instead?  Kinda like how the shortcut arrows on the icons on the Windows desktop are always placed in the lower left corners of the icons.  Having it right above the drop-down arrow makes it very front-and-center.

Comment 7

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Apart from the fact that I don't like that change (reasons have already been mentioned here), it doesn't actually look like a + sign on a black background.

Comment 8

[Marc-André Descôteaux]

Sorry for the intrusion, but what if you added a colored plus-sign next to the magnifying glass, pretty much like the go button or the RSS button shows up in the location field? That would be visible to all.

Comment 9

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

I'm upset that this change was made as part of a mass icon drop without discussion. I think we should back out the vista + icon and revert to the previous styling.

Comment 10

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

>I'm upset that this change was made as part of a mass icon drop without
>discussion. I think we should back out the vista + icon and revert to the
>previous styling.

Fair enough, I wasn't trying to slip this through as much as get everything done in the very limited amount of time we have left.  I don't really like the appearance of the plus, although it at least conceptually maps to the command in the drop down in that it is a plus and the command is "Add 'search engine name'"

I'll check with beltzner first, but I'll suggest we revert to the old UI, and just match platform colors on the glow.

Comment 11

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

(In reply to comment #9)
> I'm upset that this change was made as part of a mass icon drop without
> discussion. I think we should back out the vista + icon and revert to the
> previous styling.

a=beltzner for that for now

(In reply to comment #10)
> I'll check with beltzner first, but I'll suggest we revert to the old UI, and
> just match platform colors on the glow.

Can you work up that image?

Comment 12

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

(In reply to comment #11)
> (In reply to comment #9)
> > I'm upset that this change was made as part of a mass icon drop without
> > discussion. I think we should back out the vista + icon and revert to the
> > previous styling.
> 
> a=beltzner for that for now

Checked in:
mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/Search-addengines.png 	1.3

Comment 13

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

(In reply to comment #11)
> > I'm upset that this change was made as part of a mass icon drop without
> > discussion. I think we should back out the vista + icon and revert to the
> > previous styling.
> 
> a=beltzner for that for now

As I can see it was reverted. So marking as verified.