799215 - Stub installer's dual progress bars are confusing

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Installer, defect)

Description

[David Anderson [:dvander] - inactive, e-mail if emergency]

The progress bar on the installer is alien to me, it seems to have some kind of sword-like vertical line about 3/4 of the way through. Then there are separate "Downloading" and "Installing" meters.

At the very least the divider is ugly, but I think the progress bar is itself flawed somehow. I've seen this type of progress bar in Blizzard games (Diablo 3, Starcraft 2 come to mind), but usually to differentiate a point between "You can starting playing RIGHT NOW" versus fully downloading all extra content.

With ours, you can't do anything with the information that it's now installing instead of downloading. You're still just waiting. It seems like it should just fill up to the arbitrary mid-way point, then change the "Downloading" text to say "Installing". Or use two colors as it fills, whatever.

Summary: divider thingy, and two labels are unusual.

Comment 1

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

That is what was asked for so cc'ing a couple of UX folk for a decision on this.

Comment 2

[Jared Wein [:jaws] (please needinfo? me)]

I think the difference is that when installing, the Downloaded progress bar doesn't stay filled in. It switches back to empty. Here is a video of it on my computer: http://screencast.com/t/hWwpAkN4Vv (requires Flash).

David, the added benefit of the two-part progress bar here is that users who are on slow connections, dial-up 56k for example, can log off the internet and unplug their connection once the download is complete.

Comment 3

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

(In reply to Jared Wein [:jaws] from comment #2)
> I think the difference is that when installing, the Downloaded progress bar
> doesn't stay filled in. It switches back to empty. Here is a video of it on
> my computer: http://screencast.com/t/hWwpAkN4Vv (requires Flash).
> 
> David, the added benefit of the two-part progress bar here is that users who
> are on slow connections, dial-up 56k for example, can log off the internet
> and unplug their connection once the download is complete.
Jared, is it still doing that for you?

Comment 4

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Attachment: Screenshot of stub installer downloading

Stephen, the progress bar UI was designed by faaborg and I'd like a call by UX as to whether any of the issues reported in this bug should be addressed. Thanks.

Comment 5

[Stephen Horlander [:shorlander]]

Comment on attachment 744000 [details]
Screenshot of stub installer downloading

The two part progress bar is indeed unusual but as designed it gives a consistent overview of the download+install progress. Jared pointed out a bug which appears to have been fixed.

Comment 6

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Closing as wontfix.

Jared, if you are still able to reproduce what you experienced please file a new bug.

Comment 7

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

We are going to revisit this so reopening.

Comment 8

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Attachment: single progressbar screenshots

Hi Philipp, I finally found some time to work on this. Can I get a ui review from you for these changes?

Comment 9

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Attachment: patch rev1

Though I'd like to change how the progressbar steps during the install phase I chose to keep it the same as it was before and I'll change it in another bug.

Comment 10

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

Comment on attachment 8393173 [details]
single progressbar screenshots

Yes, that does look better :)

Comment 11

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Pushed to mozilla-inbound
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/19671f8c658f

Comment 12

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/19671f8c658f

Comment 13

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Attachment: aurora patch

[Approval Request Comment]
Bug caused by (feature/regressing bug #): None. This patch has the potential of improving stub installer successful install rates and I'd like to get metrics for this on the more heavily used channels sooner rather than later.
User impact if declined: None
Testing completed (on m-c, etc.): on m-c and manual testing
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): small since it has been on m-c for several days and is fairly straightforward
String or IDL/UUID changes made by this patch: None

Comment 14

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Pushed to mozilla-aurora
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-aurora/rev/24a8debccf5e