607103 - make clicking on an empty group do the intuitive thing- create a new empty tab

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox Graveyard :: Panorama, defect)

Description

[Luis Villa]

In current nightlies, when looking at the panorama view, if I create a new group by clicking and dragging on the background canvas, I then have to create a new tab in the group by clicking and finding the very small [+] button in the lower-left of the new group.

In other words, the action is:

1) click and drag to create a new empty group
2) click on the lower left to create a new blank tab inside the empty group
3) click on the new blank tab to use the tab

Step 2 should be cut out. The process should be:
1) click and drag to create a new empty group
2) click anywhere inside the empty group, which automagically creates a new tab and takes you to it.

[Tempted to mark 'major' because this is one of those spit and polish things that new users will run into while experimenting with the thing, leaving them with a bad impression of the magic efficiency gains they should be getting from firefox, but will leave as normal.]

Comment 1

[Kevin Hanes]

We're currently thinking that this behavior should be double click, which we're discussing in bug 604098. With this change, single click will end up not doing anything. 

We think this is a better idea than single click so that it cuts down on accidentally clicking and creating new tabs. Does that seem like the right thing?

Comment 2

[Luis Villa [Outside Counsel; for non-law use [e-mail]]]

I guess I'm not seeing how this would *accidentally* create a new tab- if I've deliberately created a new, empty group, don't I presumably intentionally want a new tab? Is there some circumstance I'm not seeing where one could create a new group, but not want to put a tab in it? Honest question; I'm sure I'm missing something.

(This doesn't seem to be discussed in bug 604908, but maybe it got discussed IRL?)

Comment 3

[Kevin Hanes]

(In reply to comment #2)
> I guess I'm not seeing how this would *accidentally* create a new tab- if I've
> deliberately created a new, empty group, don't I presumably intentionally want
> a new tab? Is there some circumstance I'm not seeing where one could create a
> new group, but not want to put a tab in it? Honest question; I'm sure I'm
> missing something.

Ah, I misunderstood; you think a single click only in an empty group should create a new tab. Presumably clicking into a group that is already populated wouldn't create a new tab then?

If that's the case I think (and pardon me for mistyping earlier) bug 604098 is a  more complete solution. It exists no matter how many tabs you've got in your group, so you can always access it, and making it a double click instead of a single means (because of its existence regardless of the group state) that you will have fewer accidentally created tabs.

Comment 4

[Luis Villa]

(The typo was mine.)

> Presumably clicking into a group that is already populated
> wouldn't create a new tab then?

Yes, I think that would be right.

I still don't think that accidental tab creation is a significant risk in an empty group. That is almost always what the user wants to do with an empty tab, no? Seems like you're making the most common action both harder to discover and harder to do... in order to prevent people from taking the most common action. 

Again, maybe there is something I'm missing, and there is something else people want to do with an empty group? But I'm not seeing it.

Comment 5

[Kevin Hanes]

It's a few things really:

1. There are actions you may want to take with an empty group. If you would like to reorganize tabs from myriad other groups, you would create an empty group, and move other things to it. This wouldn't interfere with your proposed 1-click behavior except that...

2. ... this scenario will be covered by bug 604098 (along with a few others) though by using double-click because...

3.... we have discovered through past interaction models that having a big action occur because of a single click from anywhere in the group leaves users lost.