448628 - It is strange that Tab stops at the larry button

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Keyboard Navigation, defect)

Description

[JDev]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1

There seems to be significant inconsistencies between the search bar and address bar.  

Address bar:  
- Contains tab indexes for "you are connected to" box, and text entry field
- Does not contain tab index for bookmark or address dropdown

Search Bar: 
- Contains tab index for text entry field
- Does not contan tab indexes for search engine drop down or search button.

I'm not sure what kind of standardization systems are in place for Firefox but it seems to be that only text entry fields, links, and forum elements have tab indexes.  The inclusion of the "you are connected to" as a tab index seems non-standard.  This is problematic for users who customize the look of FireFox as it changes the expected behaviour.  In the traditional [address][search] setup you can tab/shift tab between the two text fields.  In customizations where [search] comes before [address] in the menu flow you can no longer tab/shift tab between the two, you must then tab/shift tab twice to get to your expected destination.  I think mapping it to a key combination instead of breaking the standard would make more sense.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Tab or shift tab through elements.
2. Move search before address
3. repeat step 1.
Actual Results:  
Focuses on non-standard element

Expected Results:  
Maintains standard and focuses only on text fields, form elements, and links.

Comment 1

[Jesse Ruderman]

This change was made to fix bug 400888.  A keyboard shortcut might make more sense, as you said.

Comment 2

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Should this be an enhancement?

Comment 3

[Marco Zehe (:MarcoZ)]

The problem with a keyboard shortcut is that people must discover it first. Putting int in the tab order the way we did it makes it discoverable without having to learn any other keystroke than standard shift+tab. That was the reasoning behind this implementation.

Comment 4

[JDev]

One of the first lessons in UI design they teach in 1st year computer science (and I quote):  "If it's not immediately obvious what something does, your average user won't figure it out; except by accident".  If it's discoverability you're after, put a down arrow beside it like the forward button has.  Tab indexing is about keyboard accessibility.