814491 - [Browser] Change first run start screen to be less confusing

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox OS Graveyard :: Gaia::Browser, defect, P3)

Description

[Ian Barlow (:ibarlow)]

Attachment: start page

See screenshot.

Comment 1

[Ben Francis [:benfrancis]]

I raised this before with Josh, can't remember what the conclusion was or if there's already a bug for this.

Comment 2

[Larissa Co [:lco]]

Is there something nicer we can do here besides a blank page? This IS the first think that users see when they start the browser. Even a "Welcome to Firefox! Enter address or search to start browsing" note?

Comment 3

[Larissa Co [:lco]]

Er, turns out my past self had thought about this case. See pg. 4: https://people.mozilla.com/~lco/FX_B2G/Release_1_Specs/R1_Start%20Page_v2.pdf

Comment 4

[Ben Francis [:benfrancis]]

(In reply to Larissa Co from comment #3)
> Er, turns out my past self had thought about this case. See pg. 4:
> https://people.mozilla.com/~lco/FX_B2G/Release_1_Specs/R1_Start%20Page_v2.pdf

Yep, and this was what was originally implemented. Josh changed the strings to be more concise but we lost information in the process. Like I say I remember raising this exact issue at the time, but I don't remember the conclusion.

The sensible thing to do seems to be to just not show the Top Sites heading if there are no top sites, as described in the bug summary.

Comment 5

[Larissa Co [:lco]]

Well, don't show the "top sites" heading, but I think you should still show some kind of string or have some nice visual design. Patryk, is this something visual design can take care of?

Comment 6

[Josh Carpenter [:jcarpenter]]

Hi all,

Yep, this one was my doing. Thanks for catching the strange result it created. By way of explanation, I edited the original verbiage because I felt that welcoming users to the browser by informing them that that they don't have any of a thing they don't know about (Top Sites) is odd, and adds needless complexity. Better to reveal "Top Sites" only once the user actually has some to view, and make the empty landing page clean and intuitive.

I feel that's the right approach. However it has left us with this strange result, per Ian's screenshot. So I recommend tweaking this page to fill the gap. IMO, when the user hits the Browser for the first time (or in the absence of any Top Sites), they should see a blank canvas with minimal distraction. A logo, and a call to action in the address bar (which we already have). 

To get to this point, if we look at Ian's screenshot, we need to:

* Remove the "Firefox" heading
* Remove the "Top Sites" heading
* Consider tweaking the logo (remove fade-out, and center vertically and horizontally?)

Patryk and Larissa, what do you think?

Comment 7

[Larissa Co [:lco]]

> To get to this point, if we look at Ian's screenshot, we need to:
> 
> * Remove the "Firefox" heading
> * Remove the "Top Sites" heading
> * Consider tweaking the logo (remove fade-out, and center vertically and
> horizontally?)
> 
> Patryk and Larissa, what do you think?

Fine with me. 

I would also be OK with having the FF logo and brandmark on the page instead.

Comment 8

[Josh Carpenter [:jcarpenter]]

(In reply to Larissa Co from comment #7)
> > To get to this point, if we look at Ian's screenshot, we need to:
> > 
> > * Remove the "Firefox" heading
> > * Remove the "Top Sites" heading
> > * Consider tweaking the logo (remove fade-out, and center vertically and
> > horizontally?)
> > 
> > Patryk and Larissa, what do you think?
> 
> Fine with me. 
> 
> I would also be OK with having the FF logo and brandmark on the page instead.

Me too.

Patryk, can you work visual design magic here?

Comment 9

[Patryk Adamczyk [:patryk] UX]

I'd have the welcome message, remove the "top sites" string. Also the "Web Browser" string feels pointless, so I'd remove that as well... Perhaps have "Welcome" instead, sounds much less generic. I'd leave the layout as is. We'd want to rethink this start page altogether for v.2.

Comment 10

[Josh Carpenter [:jcarpenter]]

Ben, can we:

* Remove "Web Browser / Firefox" string
* Remove "Top Sites" string
* Retain the logo
* Retain the welcome message ("Enter a search term of Web address to start browsing")

?

Comment 11

[ffos-browser]

A Pivotal Tracker story has been created for this Bug: http://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/53549185

Comment 12

[Tiffanie Shakespeare [:tif]]

Attachment: browser_HomePageV.01.pdf

Please find proposed UI to fix this bug attached.

https://mozilla.box.com/s/iwlc7rashgdtbv6um54o

Comment 13

[Kevin Grandon :kgrandon]

With the new system browser we ship a collection of default sites and headers. Since this has been redesigned from the ground up, I believe this to be fixed. Please re-open or file a new bug if you'd like to see further improvements here.