635149 - vertical space user interface improvement: floating expandable navigation and bookmark toolbar

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Firefox :: Toolbars and Customization, enhancement)

Description

[Mathieu Pellerin]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:2.0b12pre) Gecko/20110217 Firefox/4.0b12pre
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:2.0b12pre) Gecko/20110217 Firefox/4.0b12pre

It's now possible to overlay interface element over web content. Firefox interface could make use of this feature and further save vertical space for web content by adding a "floating" behavior to the navigation and bookmark toolbar that expands and shrinks when the mouse moves in and out of the tab bar.

I've attached a very rough HTML sketch of the idea described above. The sketch also demonstrates a "pin" function/behavior that prevents the toolbar from shrinking and pushes the web content below the toolbar (basically, reverting back to the current interface).

Positive impact:
 - saves vertical space
 - further places focus on web content

Negative impact:
 - site identification (grey/blue/green) is less visible and at times hidden, increasing risk of phishing attacks (workaround: i/ site identification hint can be added to tab itself, ii/ floating toolbar appears while page loads and remains for a few seconds after load completed)
 - not applicable for touch screen navigation / tablets (workaround: add show/hide toolbar button to tab bar)


Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Mathieu Pellerin]

Attachment: demonstration

Comment 2

[Mathieu Pellerin]

Attachment: demonstration v1.1

Comment 3

[imradyurrad]

This would be great as an addon, but there's really no need to incorporate it into Firefox.

Comment 4

[Ian Pottinger]

Not sure if this is appropriate for the navigation toolbar but I would certainly use this for the bookmark toolbar.

Comment 5

[Alex Lakatos[:AlexLakatos]]

I think this is a good idea for post Firefox release, maybe. CCing Alex Faaborg for an UX opinion.