513418 - Use a dark theme for private browsing

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Private Browsing, defect)

Description

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

Attachment: Rough Example

We are interested in potentially darkening the window glass when the user is in private browsing mode in Firefox 4.

This will likely be combined with a change to the appearance of the overall theme. Interactively this is to reduce the number of mode errors (a
darkened theme is easily viewable using peripheral vision).  On a more
emotional and design level, it just feels kind of cool and stealthy for the entire theme for the Window to enter "night mode."

Comment 1

[u88484]

Alex, weren't things like this frowned upon in discussions leading up to private browsing mode landing because people walking by could easily tell users were in private browsing mode?

Comment 2

[u88484]

Like bug 411929 comment 18 as on for another roughly 10 posts.
bug 463764 comment 2 and 3
bug 481785 comment 1 and 2
and especially bug 248970 comment 28

Comment 3

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

Darkening the window chrome isn't the same thing as adding a visible iconic indicator, I don't think. It could just be a different persona or theme, and the meaning is less likely to be inferred over the shoulder.

I do wonder what happens if someone already has the grey Aero glass theme selected, though :)

Comment 4

[u88484]

I completely agree that visible iconic indicators should not be shown but a specific color relating to PB mode is an even bigger visible indicator than a button or any other thing that has an icon.  A color could be easily seen across a room but not an icon as that would blend into the toolbar as they are small 32 pixels at most and indistringuihsable from a few feet away.

Comment 5

[u88484]

CC'ing Mike and Madhava due to the conversation described in bug 248970 comment 28

Comment 6

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

If it's going to be significant/obvious in peripheral version, it'll be significant/obvious to other people in the room as well.  I think people will infer based on their experience, and if they've ever used private browsing, seeing that same shade on someone else's screen will associate with private browsing.  I'm not actually sure how that'd go any other way. :)

Comment 7

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

Attachment: OS X conceptual mockup

There was some discussion of having a check box on about:privatebrowsing to control the theme change for the boundary case of public private browsing.  The only direct way to address the mode error interaction problem is with a change detectable in peripheral vision (and as mconnor notes, also subsequently detectable by other people passing by).

>I do wonder what happens if someone already has the grey Aero glass theme
>selected, though :)

This is just part of a larger theme change.  For instance the attached mockup shows a potential approach for OS X.  This bug is kind of the equivalent of making sure that we can darken the title bar.

Comment 8

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

I should also note that during the Firefox 3.5 ship cycle we weren't all necessarily on the same page about the importance of public private browsing, which is why in comment #0 I say "potentially" I don't think we've made a final decision yet on if we want to consider this change for 4, and I was just getting the bug filed since it is a possible platform requirement.

Comment 9

[Matthew Brown]

What is the expectation of privacy in public? Is it really important if someone knows what mode you are in? I thought the purpose of the mode is just to prevent recording of activity on the machine. There should be some expectation from the user that what you are doing can be seen by passers-by. I'm not sure it is appropriate for the mode/theme to take that into consideration (by default). I would expect someone who activates that mode to be more aware of their surroundings anyway if that is something they are concerned with, and perhaps disable the theme if that option exists and the user is made aware of it.

> bug 463764 comment 2 and 3
> bug 481785 comment 1 and 2

That's a decent point, but it seems to assume that the current user is the one who made that setting change (which could be even less likely on a public computer). And I don't think this theme would necessarily need to be applied to that case.

Comment 10

[[not reading bugmail]]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Darkening the window chrome isn't the same thing as adding a visible iconic
> indicator, I don't think. It could just be a different persona or theme, and
> the meaning is less likely to be inferred over the shoulder.
> 
> I do wonder what happens if someone already has the grey Aero glass theme
> selected, though :)

I for one do have Black Glass on Vista/7, so I've thought about this already too. 

PB is suppose to be about no trail, but stealth mode, I'm not sure.  Though, I think PB is becoming associated with stealth mode, and as a frequent user of the internet at work, I've too have been wary of over the shoulder drive-bys of browsing for personal reasons while during real work (ie by not having the current tab content resemble anything work related).  Glass color changes will be more apparent in the future for drive-bys.

Instead how about:

Using another status line indicator icon, similar to the lock icon just for PB mode while engaged, next to the secure lock location?  

OR  

Update the current SSL Lock to include PB status in the current lock icon location (ie similar to how windows shortcut indicator modifies the current icon).

Comment 11

[Josh Tumath]

Rather than darkening the glass, why don't you darken the icons or something similar?

In the 3.7 mockups, the bookmarks and tabs are contained within a glass box. Why not change the colour of that?

Comment 12

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

If this turns out to be impossible to implement, we'll fall back to an approach similar to bug 513170 to create the private browsing theme.

Comment 13

[Kyle Huey (Exited; not receiving bugmail, old account, do not use)]

(In reply to comment #12)
> If this turns out to be impossible to implement, we'll fall back to an approach
> similar to bug 513170 to create the private browsing theme.

My understanding of the API is hardly encyclopedic, but I don't believe there is a way to accomplish this.  A couple google searches brings up http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1487919/how-does-windows-change-aero-glass-color/1813169 and http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vblanguage/thread/99240c0d-0b05-49ae-81da-62f2992aecf0 as the most complete results and they resort to undocumented functions.

Comment 14

[Rob Arnold [:robarnold]]

I may or may not have played with that function and I believe it sets the color for the entire system - not what we want.

Comment 15

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

if you check office 2010 screenshots, you'll notice there is a gradient on the ribbon unselected "tabs" that goes from glass (top border of the window) to opaque white. Should then be possible to use a gradient brush with some opacity as background, like that.

Comment 16

[Rob Arnold [:robarnold]]

(In reply to comment #15)
> if you check office 2010 screenshots, you'll notice there is a gradient on the
> ribbon unselected "tabs" that goes from glass (top border of the window) to
> opaque white. Should then be possible to use a gradient brush with some opacity
> as background, like that.

I was able to achieve this in a standalone test of D2D + Aero Glass. We will still need to be able to draw in the non-client region to achieve this though.

Comment 17

[Wesley Johnston (:wesj)]

Just a note, the glass color and the ActiveCaption color on Windows Vista+ are different. ActiveCaption is currently available via. CSS colors. Seems like in this case, it would be useful to at least be able to get the glass color to determine the best way to change it in private mode, maybe even to be able to adjust our theme/gradients to match the glass.

Comment 18

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

Getting the glass color would be very useful information, perhaps we should cover that over in bug 543910

Comment 21

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

In order to do this, we'll have to create our own glass frame. If we set chromemargins to "0,0,0,0", we'll have the ability to render to the entire rect of the window. In browser.xul, we'll need to construct a proper glass window frame with the correct border widths and heights. (Need to confirm we have that available via css.) The corners of the frame will also have to be rounded properly, which may present some problems since the corners will need to be transparent. Not sure how that's going to work yet. We might want to start doing some experimenting soon.

Comment 22

[Tan Wei Lin Jason [:Ryuji]]

Since users are concerned about the fact that darkening the Aero Glass for PB will make it more apparant, I believe that if this feature were to be implemented, there should be an option to make PB less apparant to the passer-by. 

In my own opinion I like this feature, I will like it to be implemented. 

However, since people may be using PB in a working environment, we should create a option to enable PB "stealth mode". In PB "stealth Mode", no Visual UI changes, no indication of PB at all. This way passer-bys will never know what mode the user is in. Exit this mode like how you exit the normal PB mode. 

User should be able to choose if they want normal PB or Stealth Mode PB when they enter PB. That's my idea, is it practical?

Comment 23

[d]

Attachment: Mock-up of private browsing from bug 575289

This mock-up was posted in bug 575289 and shows a black theme, plus a privacy icon. It seems that the icon will be added in that bug, but is there a possibility that we could restyle the theme like that?

Comment 24

[d]

Or not. I realized we can't do that since it would probably have two effects:

1. Some people wouldn't like the dark in it, and avoid private mode completely.
2. Some people might like it so much that they request that it should be made default/do all their surfing in private mode.
3. It is probably too much work.

Still, perhaps someone could turn it into a theme :-)

Comment 25

[Tan Wei Lin Jason [:Ryuji]]

But isn't the mock-ups your objective(s) for Firefox 4? 

I completely agree with your 3 points though. 

The dark theme is definately the theme that I would want my Firefox to have when Firefox 4 is released.

Comment 26

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

With Australis, there is renewed interest in this issue.
This is the latest mockup showing what private browsing should look like:
http://people.mozilla.org/~shorlander/private-browsing-mode/mockups/australis-pbm.png

Comment 27

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

(In reply to Jim Mathies [:jimm] from comment #21)
> In order to do this, we'll have to create our own glass frame. If we set
> chromemargins to "0,0,0,0", we'll have the ability to render to the entire
> rect of the window. In browser.xul, we'll need to construct a proper glass
> window frame with the correct border widths and heights. (Need to confirm we
> have that available via css.) The corners of the frame will also have to be
> rounded properly, which may present some problems since the corners will
> need to be transparent. Not sure how that's going to work yet. We might want
> to start doing some experimenting soon.

FWIW, this was implemented in bug 590945 but never landed due to rendering issues with certain video cards.

Comment 28

[Vladimir Vukicevic [:vlad] [:vladv] (needinfo me, slow to respond)]

(In reply to Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] from comment #26)
> With Australis, there is renewed interest in this issue.
> This is the latest mockup showing what private browsing should look like:
> http://people.mozilla.org/~shorlander/private-browsing-mode/mockups/
> australis-pbm.png

It really should be more gold in color, so as to nicely offset the primary ring-shopping use case.

Comment 29

[(no longer active)]

Is anyone working on this bug?  I'd appreciate if I and Josh were kept in the loop.  Thanks!

Comment 30

[Matthew N. [:MattN]]

(In reply to :Ehsan Akhgari (lagging on bugmail, needinfo? me!) from comment #29)
> Is anyone working on this bug?  I'd appreciate if I and Josh were kept in
> the loop.  Thanks!

Not yet from engineering. It looks like the next step is to break it down into smaller bugs in bug 1020386. You will see the assignee change and a sprint/iteration assigned (currently we use the whiteboard with s=…) when someone is working on a bug as part of the iterative development process.

Comment 31

[Matthew N. [:MattN]]

Note that the visual design was completed in bug 986635 in case you're interested.

Comment 33

[Jared Wein [:jaws] (please needinfo? me)]

This has been fixed. We now have a dark theme by default for private windows.

Comment 34

[Klaus]

(In reply to (away 6-July -> 31-July) Jared Wein [:jaws] (please needinfo? me) from comment #33)

This has been fixed. We now have a dark theme by default for private windows.

Has there been a regression on this? Currently when I use private mode, it uses the exactly same theme as normal windows. The only dark thing in private mode is the about:privatebrowsing tab.

Comment 35

[4P]

(In reply to bauer.klaus.dieter from comment #34)

Has there been a regression on this? Currently when I use private mode, it uses the exactly same theme as normal windows. The only dark thing in private mode is the about:privatebrowsing tab.

The same issue for me. Firefox 92.0.1 (64 bit). Private tabs are not different from normal tabs. The only thing in private window is the small purple mask on the right side of the tabs panel. But it's usually not very noticeable. A different theme for private windows would be much better than this small mask.