611570 - Provide icons for high usage items in the traditional menu bar

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Menus, defect)

Description

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

Providing icons for only high usage menu items an increase user's efficiency because these targets become easier for them to spot with a single glance.  However, this efficiency gain does not hold if every item in the menu contains an icon (because the user has to return to performing a linear visual scan).

For platforms where it is acceptable to include icons for menu items, we would like to add them only to the most important items.

Platforms (traditional menu bar):
-Windows 7
-Windows Vista
-Linux

Only these menu items that should have an icon:

File > New Tab
File > Print

Edit > Cut
Edit > Copy
Edit > Paste

View > Full Screen

Bookmarks > Bookmark this Page
Bookmarks > Subscribe to this Page [note exception that only this one is also added to OS X]

Tools > Add-ons
Tools > Start Private Browsing

Help > Firefox Help

Comment 1

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

mockup at the bottom of this document: http://people.mozilla.com/~faaborg/files/firefox4Mockups/polishFirefoxMenu-i1/polishFirefoxMenu-i1.htm

Comment 2

[Bill Gianopoulos [:WG9s]]

I think the best way to do this is for the default themes to provide icons for as many menu items as they can provide sensible icons for.  Then, a class can be put on menu items for which the icon should be displayed.  In that way if it is determined that other items should be highlighted by the presence of an icon, or if one that was previously displayed is determined to be less important than previously thought, a one place change in either applying the class, or not applying the class is all that is required to make the change across all platforms.

I got this idea form the way we use the splitmenu-tooltip and splitmenu-iconic-tooltip classes on the new applications menu items.

Comment 3

[Bill Gianopoulos [:WG9s]]

(In reply to comment #2)
> I got this idea form the way we use the splitmenu-tooltip and
> splitmenu-iconic-tooltip classes on the new applications menu items.

if you look at the code for bug585370, I defined icons for items in the application button menu under Linux that are not displayed because they have the class menuitem-tootip rather than menuitem-iconic-tooltip. (sorry I had the wrong class names in the previous post)

Comment 4

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

The UX team is very eager to get this bug landed over the next few days in order to make Beta 11.  If anyone can get a patch for this bug posted soon, we will push hard for reviews and approval (even though this isn't blocking).

You can view all of the related bugs to clean up the traditional menu bar here: http://areweprettyyet.com/4/traditionalMenu/

Comment 5

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

I think this might introduce theme compatibility issues? We can't really do that at this point in the cycle.

Comment 6

[Alex Limi (:limi) — Firefox UX Team]

(In reply to comment #5)
> I think this might introduce theme compatibility issues? We can't really do
> that at this point in the cycle.

You mean, if a theme specifies other icons for the ones we remove, they won't show up? Or are there other concerns that I don't see here?