Closed Bug 712602 Opened 13 years ago Closed 4 years ago

Remove the history dropmarker from the URL bar

Categories

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect, P5)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
Address Bar
Type:
defect

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED FIXED
Milestone:
Firefox 75

People

(Reporter: ttaubert, Unassigned)

References

Details

(Whiteboard: [Australis:M-])

Attachments

(1 file)

patch v1
9.60 KB, patch
dao
: review-
Details | Diff | Splinter Review
Attached patch patch v1 — — Splinter Review 
Removing the history dropmarker is a side-goal of the New Tab Page. With the New Tab Page landed this is redundant UI and should just be removed.
Attachment #583452 - Flags: review?(dao)
Should this be dependent on browser.newtab.url / browser.newtabpage.enabled?

Note that the dropmarker isn't quite redundant, since you can hit it without opening a new tab.
(In reply to Dão Gottwald [:dao] from comment #1)
> Note that the dropmarker isn't quite redundant, since you can hit it without
> opening a new tab.

This cannot be emphasised enough. Though the new tab page is a good idea, it doesn't negate the awesomeness of the AwesomeBar. The dropdown is in itself a huge page of what makes the AwesomeBar so awesome. Both Chrome and Opera are horrible user experiences for removing such behaviour.

May I propose that we do this as a pref. Have a release with the dropmarker defaulted on, then one with the dropmarker defaulted off. Crunch the numbers and then make a decision based on the data collected via Test Pilot?
(In reply to Dão Gottwald [:dao] from comment #1)
> Note that the dropmarker isn't quite redundant, since you can hit it without
> opening a new tab.
In addition to strongly agreeing with this point, it should be noted that coded as it is will break almost every third party theme that uses round-ended url/searchbars. 

If this proposed change is really thought to be essential (?) please just hide this dropmarker, so that it can easily be reverted by the third party theme authors who are affected.
Comment on attachment 583452 [details] [diff] [review]
patch v1

If we do this, I think we should tie it to those prefs.
Attachment #583452 - Flags: review?(dao) → review-
We could also defer the decision and ship the new tab page and the dropmarker together with some telemetry probe(s)...
(In reply to Dão Gottwald [:dao] from comment #1)
> Should this be dependent on browser.newtab.url / browser.newtabpage.enabled?

Sure, feel free to show it if the new tab page isn't enabled.

> Note that the dropmarker isn't quite redundant, since you can hit it without
> opening a new tab.

Correct. This is a trade-off we are willing to make.
(In reply to Alex Limi (:limi) — Firefox UX Team from comment #6)
> Correct. This is a trade-off we are willing to make.

Based on what? It seems to simply be a decision. What is gained by disabling the dropmarker in favour of a new tab page? Why can't the two co-exist?
> 
> > Correct. This is a trade-off we are willing to make.
> 
> Based on what? It seems to simply be a decision. What is gained by disabling
> the dropmarker in favour of a new tab page? Why can't the two co-exist?


Indeed,why has this dropmarker to disappear completely ? When the history dropmarker in the navigation bar was removed no functionality was actually removed yet many people asked on various boards why they could "only go back one page at time",now for which reason an useful and essential feature of the "awesome bar" is going to disappear for good,causing this time an actual loss of functionality?
(In reply to Alex Limi (:limi) — Firefox UX Team from comment #6)

> Correct. This is a trade-off we are willing to make.

This is not a logically reasoned answer, but just a statement in the same style of 'I have no problem with that' or '...because I say so'. How about some thought out reasoning?
(In reply to Frank Lion from comment #9)
> (In reply to Alex Limi (:limi) — Firefox UX Team from comment #6)
> 
> > Correct. This is a trade-off we are willing to make.
> 
> This is not a logically reasoned answer, but just a statement in the same
> style of 'I have no problem with that' or '...because I say so'. How about
> some thought out reasoning?

ditto. The top sites should also be accessible without having the need to open the New Tab page.
there is no "trade off", this is meaningless chromification that reduces the functions.

in case UX team didn't realize. your new tab page add no functions whatsoever, while your removal of dropmarker will eliminate functions.

Stop this boneheaded exercises for the sake of mimicking chrome. You don't get to be attractive by trying to pretend to be something else.
I would also like to note that my new tab page has 9 suggestions, whereas my dropdown has 12 (all of which I use).

Another point is that if I have finished with the current tab that I'm in and want to go to one of those pages, I can click the dropdown arrow and select it. This is preferable to opening a new tab, selecting the site, and closing the old tab as it takes less clicks.

Can you please tell me why those 2 points are not mentioned in the summary of this bug?
I think this bug is important for the Australis location bar redesign : there are the new tab and the "most visited" file on the bookmarks bar that do a pretty good job and the dropmarker should go away.
Another point to keep in mind,on regard to this,is that the new tab can only host six websites,and "most visited" also is limited,outside of being nowhere as accessible as the URL dropdown.
Another even bigger  point IMHO in favor of the URL dropdown (which I'm frankly surprised no one mentioned so far) is that you can more finely tweak it via wildcards,specifically querying the database for websites among bookmarks,history,tags and combinations of those.
(In reply to msth67 from comment #14)
> Another point to keep in mind,on regard to this,is that the new tab can only
> host six websites,and "most visited" also is limited,outside of being
> nowhere as accessible as the URL dropdown.
> Another even bigger  point IMHO in favor of the URL dropdown (which I'm
> frankly surprised no one mentioned so far) is that you can more finely tweak
> it via wildcards,specifically querying the database for websites among
> bookmarks,history,tags and combinations of those.

Even though I am against removing the drop marker, this bug does not remove the Awesome Bar Popup. What you are takling about is the functionality of Awesome Bar Popup. This bug only removes the down arrow in the Location bar (when not hovered) right left to refresh button or right next to bookmarks star. Only removing the UI element so that we cannot open the drop down without any text.

Also, on opening that drop down, the top 12 sites that are visible are same as what are displayed on the NTP, except if you have pinned something yourself.

Also, its not 6, but 9
(In reply to Girish Sharma from comment #15)
> Only removing the UI element so that we cannot open the drop down
> without any text.

For the record, you can also push the down-arrow-key to bring up the dropdown. But that only helps when the location bar is empty, I guess, because else it brings up suggestions based on the already typed text.
Personally I don't need the dropmarker, but as a suggestion maybe a compromise lies in changing the behaviour of the down-arrow-key to always bring up the "top sites".
(In reply to Girish Sharma from comment #15)
> 
>
> Also, on opening that drop down, the top 12 sites that are visible are same
> as what are displayed on the NTP, except if you have pinned something
> yourself.
> 
> Also, its not 6, but 9

OK,I stand corrected-still,another interesting point has been made here:since having 9 miniatures visible everytime you open a new tab is way different from having a dropdown list that is changing all the time according to what you are actually typing  in the location bar,people will probably tend to pin these tabs therefore locking the functionality of the newtab page as a sort of speed dial.I myself,being annoyed by the miniatures randomly changing,almost immediately pinned the 9 more interesting websites and kept using the location bar and dropdown exactly as before,it's IMHO way more dynamic and flexible than the newtab feature ,so everything aimed at reducing its functionality/accessibility won't do any good for the browser.
IMHO: simply remove the dropmarker and show the AwesomeBar Popup when the AwesomeBar gains focus. this would eliminate the ultra small pointer target limitation and be more keyboard friendly (cmd-L instead of cmd-L & backspace & arrow-down).

when focusing the urlbar on a website and pressing downarrow key twice the suggestions for the already present url (mostly just the selected tab...) have never been of any use to me.

what are the reasons against showing the popup (as it is when you click the dropmarker) when the bar gains focus?
obviuosly with the new newtab page the popup shoud be suppressed on a newtab page.
(In reply to Paul [sabret00the] from comment #7)
> (In reply to Alex Limi (:limi) — Firefox UX Team from comment #6)
> > Correct. This is a trade-off we are willing to make.
> 
> Based on what? It seems to simply be a decision. What is gained by disabling
> the dropmarker in favour of a new tab page? Why can't the two co-exist?

Totally agree it should be upto the user
Lot of users find it very useful & the two co-exist
(In reply to Paul [sabret00the] from comment #7)
> (In reply to Alex Limi (:limi) — Firefox UX Team from comment #6)
> > Correct. This is a trade-off we are willing to make.
> 
> Based on what? It seems to simply be a decision. What is gained by disabling
> the dropmarker in favour of a new tab page? Why can't the two co-exist?

Totally agree it should be upto the user
Lot of users find it very useful & the two should co-exist
New tab will land on next stable release, shouldn't the dropmarker be gone by then ?
(In reply to Guillaume C. [:ge3k0s] from comment #22)
> New tab will land on next stable release, shouldn't the dropmarker be gone
> by then ?

Hopefully not. But should the UX team want to push ahead with this, I hope they'll show evidence to support a decision, like a heatmap that shows since the landing of the New Tab page, the use of the drop marker has dropped significantly.
Not sure if we still want this. Unassigning myself as I'm probably not going to work on this.
Assignee: ttaubert → nobody
Status: ASSIGNED → NEW
UX team feedback is needed on this.
Do we want this for the Australis navbar ?
Blocks: australis-cust
Whiteboard: [Australis:M?]
Not taking this for Australis:M7.
> Hopefully not. But should the UX team want to push ahead with this, I hope
> they'll show evidence to support a decision, like a heatmap that shows since
> the landing of the New Tab page, the use of the drop marker has dropped
> significantly.


Did this ever happen?
I don't think we should do this in Australis. Maybe later.
Whiteboard: [Australis:M?] → [Australis:M-]
No longer blocks: australis-cust
Just dropping a data point here that mconely showed me on bug 923738:

"The heatmap study from 2012 (https://blog.mozilla.org/ux/2012/06/firefox-heatmap-study-2012-results-are-in/) suggests that the dropdown marker is interacted with by ~38.4% of users"

My vote is to retain the dropmarker as I've seen people "in the wild" using it as a "combo box for the web"
>as a "combo box for the web"

Indeed,and it's really very good at this -moreso if using wildcards in the URL bar to filter for tags and bookmarks.
it's unclear whether we want this or not, and we lack data => P5
Priority: -- → P5
Apparently there's a UX plan to use this panel for Top Sites, TBD.

Fixed by megabar.

Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 4 years ago
Depends on: urlbar-update-1
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Target Milestone: --- → Firefox 75
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