595128 - Usability problems with new password dialog (regressions)

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: General, enhancement)

Description

[c22487]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:2.0b6pre) Gecko/20100910 Firefox-4.0/4.0b6pre Ubuntu/10.04
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:2.0b6pre) Gecko/20100910 Firefox-4.0/4.0b6pre

The new password dialog is confusing and disappears after a model dialog has been shown. The dialog has what looks like a combo box, except it's also a button. Thus, a new widget has been invented! The behaviour of this widget isn't obvious at all, even to an experienced user (8 years with Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox, 18 years with computers in general). It's also much more error-prone, as it's easy to make the mistake of trying to switch the "combo box" to "Never for this site" unintended. Upon releasing the mouse button, however, the dialog is dismissed immediately. If one actually does want this option, then it now requires a drag instead of a simple click.

And even after "adapting" to this new dialog, it's useless on websites that cause a modal dialog to be shown. After a modal dialog has been dismissed, the non-modal dialog is also dismissed. For instance, try signing in on bing.com. It produces a security warning each time.

Most users will not go into "brute force mode" (clicking on anythinig that might do something) like I did, and just stop right there. The Principle of Least Astonishment has been broken and lastly it looks ugly with that hover effect on the label.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Log in on a website
2. See new dialog
3. Figure it out
Actual Results:  
User is baffled, doesn't know what to do.

Expected Results:  
A notification bar appears.

Fails to work with modal dialogs.

Comment 1

[KLB]

I never thought the new button with drop down was confusing, but I'll flag this as new to see what others think.