464204 - Use consistent terminology for history and data sub-components in our UI

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

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

There are a few different places in our UI where we discuss various types of data that Firefox collects, including:

-Privacy preference pane
-Clear Recent History dialog
-about:private browsing content area message (both in and out of private browsing mode)
-others?

cc'ing the various people working on those interfaces so we can all get on the same page.

Here are the terms beltzner suggests in bug 453440 comment #12:

"History":

-Visited Pages
-Download List
-Form and Search Entries
-Cookies
-Web Cache

"Data":

-Saved Passwords
-Offline Website Data

Since we are after the string freeze, it might be awhile before we get everything updated to be consistent.  But if we are doing any new UI work (like the privacy prefpane), we should be sure to use these terms.

Also note that "Private Data" shouldn't be used anymore in our UI, since it implies there is non-private data somewhere, and it conflates the attempted distinction between History (things implicitly collected) and Data (things explicitly created).

Comment 2

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

I think we should go back to the "___ History" design, to help reinforce that history is greater than just visited pages.  Details in http://people.mozilla.com/~faaborg/files/shiretoko/clearRecentHistoryi3.png

Comment 3

[Christopher Orr]

Should the "Clear Recent History..." option not be in (or at least be accessible from) the History menu?

Also, I note that selecting "Clear *Recent* History..." brings up a dialog that will, by default, remove (rather than "clear") the *entire* history.

Comment 4

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

The default was changed to the shortest time period, but it persists your last selection.

Comment 5

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

Also note UI changes planned in bug 480169

Comment 6

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

Updated list of terminology:

History:
-Browsing history
-Download history
-Search history
-Form history
-Cookies
-Cache
-Active logins
-Site preferences

history (that list of items) can be "cleared" or "remembered" by Firefox.

I'll post links to mockups of the interfaces that make heavy use of this terminology (privacy prefpane, clear recent history dialog).

Comment 7

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

I'm going to use this bug to land the strings needed for bug 462041 (refresh
privacy prefpane) and bug 480169 (clear recent history window).

Comment 8

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

(In reply to comment #7)
> I'm going to use this bug to land the strings needed for bug 462041 (refresh
> privacy prefpane) and bug 480169 (clear recent history window).

That's not the right approach; those patches should land as part of those bugs, so that if we decide to pull the feature or back it out, we have a clear way to find all the associated patches. Please just continue to use this bug as a meta or tracking bug to identify all areas where the terminology is inconsistent.

Comment 9

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

Please note that search history and form history must be combined into:

Search and Form History

since we don't delete those things separately.

Comment 10

[Jeremy Visser]

As I noted on bug 471627, there is a discrepancy between the terms "Cache", "Web Cache", and "Temporary Internet Files".

In the new about:privatebrowsing page, the term "Temporary Internet Files" was used, which is an Internet Explorer term. "Temporary Internet Files" is to "Cache" as "Favorites" is to "Bookmarks".

Comment 12

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

Two notes:

1) in the privacy prefpane, we should be sure to say "history" instead of "browsing history" in the phrase "remember my browsing history for at least 90 days" when this pref applies to all aspects, like downloads, cookies, etc.

2) in the clear recent history dialog box we probably need to switch the phrase "browsing history" with "visited pages" so that there isn't any subset/superset confusion, now that we are using the term "history" to describe the set of all things that are implicitly collected.

Comment 13

[Kadir Topal [:atopal]]

In the privacy pane "when using the location bar, suggest:" we say history. Of course you can't show formdata etc. there. So I guess that should be changed to visited pages as well.

I have to say that using history for all kind of data is mighty confusing. Why is form data considered history, but cookies are not? This is especially confusing in the custom settings, where you chose to clear history, but the option applies only to

Comment 14

[Kadir Topal [:atopal]]

I'm sorry, I hit enter accidentally. Just wanted to add, that in the custom settings, where you chose to clear history on quit, you are offered the option to clear cookies, even though cookies aren't considered history.