461352 - Location bar's self-describing text does not get enough exposure

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect)

Description

[u88484]

Now that 396816 has landed, I feel the feature does not and will not get enough exposure.  I don't think enough or barely any users will open a new that and then explicitly make the location bar lose focus and then see the text displayed.

I for one and would think most users do this, open a new tab and start typing in an address (or now some text to use the awesomebar) right away and don't click away from the location bar.

If the user types in an address after opening the tab, the user will not see the text.  If the user opens a bookmark on the bookmarks toolbar, the user will not see the text.  If the user opens a bookmark from the bookmarks menu, the user will not see the text since the menu covers that portion of the location bar.

In the future this argument will expand after the landing of bug 455553 (http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/firefox-31-new-tab-spec/).  I forsee most users just either doing the same as they already do or just selecting one of the most visited tabs on the page and will once again not see the text in the location bar.

I'm proposing that if the location bar is blank be it from opening a new tab or deleting what was in the location bar and that if the location bar is either with or without focus, the location bar should show this text until the user starts typing, pastes or drag and drops an address.

Comment 1

[u88484]

Attachment: Screenshot showing proposed behavior on Vista's...

The screenshot shows what I proposed and it is default on Vista's search bar in the start menu.

Comment 2

[u88484]

CC'ing a few people from bug 396816 that seem to have either wanted the same or was against this to get some more discussion.

Comment 3

[Emil Ivanov]

"Search Bookmarks and History" ??? This is the location bar and its main use is to go to the sites not only search in bookmarks and history. The way its now is like this is a field only for those two things and there is no sign for its main purpose... the web sites.

The emphasis of the text should go to web sites not to already visited pages in history or bookmarks.

The text in the Location bar doesnt seem correct because if you are able to use the features of the awesomebar you should go to web sites first and thus you will have history and eventually bookmarks.

What you think about: "Go To Location" or maybe "Go To Place"?

I like more the first one because this is the Location bar, but the second could be used for promoting Places (Bookmarks and History).

Comment 4

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

>"Search Bookmarks and History" ??? 

You want bug 461184

Copying over some of my comments from bug 396816

>>How do we want to handle the native Vista behavior? It doesn't only belong to
>>this bug but all text fields with an empty text applied. Vista always show the
>>empty text even when the cursor is located in the text field.

>It does in the start menu, but not in other fields like the search field in
>Windows Explorer, IE, Media Player, Photo Gallery, Mail, etc. Although in all
>of these cases the field doesn't start with the focus.  They probably kept the
>self describing text on the start menu because otherwise it would never appear.
>Personally I think this might be one of the cases where we want to
>intentionally go against platform behavior.  Removing the self describing text
>gives good feedback that the field has been given the focus, but it also
>removes the indicator of what you should type before you have started to
>actually enter anything.

Comment 5

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

I know this is the case, but I'm not sure it really matters.  Do we have any evidence that users don't know/learn what that field does, or are we basically just trying to be helpful?  Of all of the flailing I've heard from users about the Fx3 changes, "I don't understand what its doing" is very low down the list.

Comment 6

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

I have a developer friend at google who went for 72 hours of usage before realizing that you could also search against titles.  Another consideration is that people who don't know what the location bar is for (and aren't interested in learning) probably aren't in our community or giving us any direct form of feedback.

Comment 7

[BMO Automation]

Per policy at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Bug_Triage/Projects/Bug_Handling/Bug_Husbandry#Inactive_Bugs. If this bug is not an enhancement request or a bug not present in a supported release of Firefox, then it may be reopened.