579199 - Command+w should exit Panorama UI

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox Graveyard :: Panorama, defect, P2)

Description

[Ian Gilman [:iangilman]]

Actually I'm not sure what command+w should do when in the TabCandy UI. It could close the entire window, but that seems kind of extreme. It could exit out of TabCandy and take you back to the last tab you were in. It can do what it does now (close whatever tab you last played with), but that seems weird to me. 

Exit TabCandy then?

Comment 1

[Aza Raskin [:aza]]

When in normal Firefox land, using command-w closes the current tab and not the whole window. Continuing with that metaphor, in Tabcandy using command-w should close the currently selected tab and then select the next tab in the group. If the last tab is closed in a group then the closest tab outside the group is selected. When all tabs are closed then using command-w closes the window.

Comment 2

[Ian Gilman [:iangilman]]

I disagree. The only reason command+w closes the current tab in normal Firefox land is because the tab feels like a window, and in the entire history of the Mac, command+w only closes windows, or things that feel like windows. Removing a thumbnail from within a window is antithetical to that decades-long training. 

In normal Firefox land, pull up "organize bookmarks" and select one of your bookmarks and hit command+w... it does not in fact "close that tab"; the entire bookmarks window goes away. 

I believe that in the vast majority of cases, the user expectation when hitting command+w in the TabCandy UI is that they'll be "closing TabCandy" and getting back to whatever else is in their browser. Since I don't believe we have any compelling reason to subvert that expectation, I propose we should give them what they're expecting.

Comment 3

[Aza Raskin [:aza]]

Aren't the tabs in tabcandy exactly a window/tab metaphor? They are a direct manipulation affordance!

That said, I'm happy to wear the pm hat here and say the route of least implementation is okay for now. I just worry about accidentally closing the last window when tabcandy is open, thereby obliterating lots of state.

Comment 4

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

If the user hits command-w while in tab candy, I really have no idea what their intention is.  What happens if you hit command-w while in expose or spaces?

Comment 5

[Gordon P. Hemsley [:GPHemsley]]

(In reply to comment #4)
> If the user hits command-w while in tab candy, I really have no idea what their
> intention is.  What happens if you hit command-w while in expose or spaces?
It doesn't appear that Cmd+W does anything in Exposé, because there isn't really a concept of a frontmost window. (I can't speak to Spaces, though, since I'm on Tiger.)

Comment 6

[Aza Raskin [:aza]]

Command+W doesn't do anything inside of Spaces either.

Because we are in a right quandary about what the user's mental model is for what Command+W should do, it seems that we should go with the most useful thing. In this case, that would be giving a keyboard shortcut for closing tabs from within the Tabcandy interface. Hence having Command+W work as stated in comment 1 is my vote.

Comment 7

[Gordon P. Hemsley [:GPHemsley]]

(In reply to comment #6)
> Command+W doesn't do anything inside of Spaces either.
> 
> Because we are in a right quandary about what the user's mental model is for
> what Command+W should do, it seems that we should go with the most useful
> thing. In this case, that would be giving a keyboard shortcut for closing tabs
> from within the Tabcandy interface. Hence having Command+W work as stated in
> comment 1 is my vote.

I agree. Ideally, TabCandy would be seen as a window overlay rather than as a window in its own right, and it will have a separate key combo to bring it up and dismiss it (see bug 579197), so it should not fall under the auspices of Cmd+W. Plus, given that TabCandy is a tab organizer, and that Cmd+W closes tabs in normal window mode, that connection should be carried over into TabCandy, as well.

Comment 8

[(no longer active)]

Mass moving all Tab Candy bugs from Mozilla Labs to Firefox::Tab Candy.  Filter the bugmail spam with "tabcandymassmove".

Comment 9

[Alex Limi (:limi) — Firefox UX Team]

Just to add my anecdotal data here — while observing friends testing TabCandy, two of them clicked the Tab Candy icon, and then immediately clicked Cmd-W to go back to where they were (their mental model was that Tab Candy is a separate window, it seems), and they were surprised when it didn't return them to their previous position.

Comment 11

[Ian Gilman [:iangilman]]

Reopening this to bring back the proposal that cmd+w should exit Panorama (which isn't covered by bug 587276).

Comment 12

[Aza Raskin [:aza]]

In the interest of iteration and going down the path of least resistance for new users, let's try cmd+w to close Panorama.

Comment 13

[Raymond Lee [:raymondlee]]

In the Panorama view, user goes to File menu > close Tab (basically the same as cmd+w), do we close Panorama as well?

Comment 14

[Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine [:mitcho]]

Requesting blocking, marking as targeting beta 8. Perhaps it should be beta 9, though.

Comment 15

[Ian Gilman [:iangilman]]

(In reply to comment #13)
> In the Panorama view, user goes to File menu > close Tab (basically the same as
> cmd+w), do we close Panorama as well?

Good point. There's already a standard way to do this (on the Mac version of Firefox at least): the menu item text changes from "Close Tab" to just "Close". Pull up the download manager for instance to see it in action. I imagine we would just extend this behavior to the other OSes.

Comment 16

[Kevin Hanes]

The path of least resistance would appear to be: make cmd/ctrl+w do nothing.

I happen to think that it should actually kill whatever tab is highlighted, but I admit that this is primarily a "windows" mentality. 

Ian is correct in pointing out how the Mac handles the change of "close tab" to just "close". But on Windows we can never see that transition. The only time a windows user will see the action for ctrl+w spelled out, it will say "close tab". I suspect it would create cognitive dissonance to change that model. Thus, I recommend cmd/ctrl+w do nothing in Tab Candy.

Comment 17

[Aza Raskin [:aza]]

@Kevin: I disagree. Having cmd+w do nothing will really confuse users. ("Hello, computer? Is this thing on...").

Proposal:

* Change the menu item to read "Close Panorama" instead of "Close Tab"
* When cmd+w is used, close Panorama and return to the last active tab

Comment 18

[Raymond Lee [:raymondlee]]

Attachment: v1

Comment 19

[Ian Gilman [:iangilman]]

Comment on attachment 495043 [details] [diff] [review]
v1

Looks good. Let's get a browser peer, say Dao, to do a review, as it extends outside of the Panorama module.

Comment 20

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

Not blocking, unless someone can explain why this is such an extraordinarily bad user experience that we need to block the whole release on it.

Comment 21

[Kevin Hanes]

Moving to b9

Comment 22

[Raymond Lee [:raymondlee]]

Could someone review the patch please?

Comment 23

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

Raymond, it's not blocking, and we should all be 159% focused on Firefox 4. Don't expect action here until the release branches.

Comment 24

[Kevin Hanes]

bugspam (moving b9 to b10)

Comment 25

[Kevin Hanes]

bugspam (removing b9)

Comment 26

[Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine [:mitcho]]

This bug right now means that we have an inconsistency in the behavior between command-w and pressing the close button, and would invalidate the ux-consistency bug 608774. I would urge those who can to review this patch.

Comment 27

[Ian Gilman [:iangilman]]

The big issue here for Fx4 is that it's weird for command+w to close tabs while you're in Panorama. This is just one instance of the many key combos that are covered by bug 587276, so I propose we let that bug fix that issue.

Punting this bug as a follow-up for making the key exit Panorama.

Comment 28

[Raymond Lee [:raymondlee]]

The patch for bug  587276 landed. Command/Ctrl+w wouldn't exit Panorama UI.