841533 - System Integration dialog buttons are very confusing

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: OS Integration, defect)

Description

[Kent James (:rkent)]

In bug 476246 the default "OK" and "Cancel" buttons for the System Integration dialog were renamed to "Set as Default" and "Skip Integration". I really find those terms confusing, so I never know what I am supposed to press when I just want the dialog to be accepted.

"Set as Default" is confusing because most of the time I am explictly saying that Thunderbird is NOT the default. So "Set as Default" seems like exactly what I do not want to push.

"Skip Integration" is also confusing. I guess that is supposed to mean "Cancel this System Integration dialog" but I really only have a vague idea what "Integration" is to begin with. When I "Skip Integration" am I telling the system to not do any "Integration" in the future? But I really am not sure what "Integration" is nor whether it is important or not, so how am I supposed to know if it is OK to skip it? It is not at all clear to me that "Skip Integration" means simply cancel this dialog, as "Cancel" is a well-understood term that would have been there if it was really supposed to be "Cancel" (or so I supposed).

Comment 1

[:aceman]

Exactly. Cancel was renamed to Skip integration because it is not plain cancel but also saves the (un)ticking of "always perform check at startup" checkbox.

So if you have read bug 476426, what are your proposals for naming the buttons and the behaviour of the dialog?

Comment 2

[Kent James (:rkent)]

My main complaint is that "default" has two different meanings in the dialog, and that is very confusing.

Instead of "Set as Default" I would just use the standard "Accept". That button does everything that the dialog is asking about, which is the normal meaning of the well-understood "Accept".

As to "Skip Integration", I think what you are saying is that "Cancel" is problematic here if we use the standard Accept/Cancel combination. My issue is with the word "Integration" as that is not a meaningful term to the vast majority of users in this context.

A possible solution is to just replace "Skip Integration" with "Skip", as then it is clear that it applies to the dialog itself rather failing to do some unknown "Integration" operation.

Comment 3

[:aceman]

That would work for me. Bwinton?

Comment 4

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

Sure.  Other than Kent in this very bug, I haven't heard any complaints about it, and so I don't really have much of an opinion here (or much of a basis to form an opinion on ;).

Comment 5

[kitchin]

How about "Don't ask again"? I've been using Mozilla products since early Netscape and came here to see if there was a bug about "Skip Integration" not working, because Earlybird was asking me the same question on every startup. I misread the intent of "Set as Default". No, I don't want Earlybird to be the default. Perhaps if all active boxes are unchecked - there is also a confusing grayed out box for newsreader - then "Set as Default" should change to "Save". Come to think of it, it should always say "Save." That's what it does.

Just to remind everyone the dialog says this:

"Use Earlybird as the default client for:"
...
"Always perform this check when staring Earlybird"
...
"Set as Default"

If I uncheck "Always" it nonetheless checks on startup the next time. (Because I declined both "defaults".)

The semantic is "Save".

Comment 6

[Javi Rueda :javirid]

(In reply to Blake Winton (:bwinton) from comment #4)
> Sure.  Other than Kent in this very bug, I haven't heard any complaints
> about it, and so I don't really have much of an opinion here (or much of a
> basis to form an opinion on ;).

One year after opening this bug, another user opened bug 990823 which shows that Labels on buttons are confusing.

Comment 7

[Javi Rueda :javirid]

It was bug 990873, sorry.

Comment 8

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Agreed they are indeed confusing.

Comment 9

[:aceman]

I don't think bug 990873 is any proof. The user there clicks the right buttons but it seems there is a bug in TB that it always shows the dialog again. See also bug 1036592.

But if bwinton accepts the changes to buttons as proposed by rkent, I can of course do it.

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I also find it confusing. Looping in some support people for broader view.

Bear in mind too first time users see this, and likely many don't have the slightest clue what they are reading, and may well just click on something to see what it does.

Comment 11

[:aceman]

Also do not forget we have the defaults in that dialog but also the "search integration" checkbox and "do not check again" checkbox. Ideally we would have a button that saves all, another one that does not set defaults but saves "do not check again" and maybe "search integration" and another one (currently not existing) that does not save anything. But it appeared to me that that would be overkill from UI point of view. But if current 2 buttons are confusing then many clear choices are probably better than fewer confusing ones.

Or is everybody content with just renaming the 2 existing buttons as rkent proposes?

Comment 12

[:aceman]

What about adding a checkbox before the "Use xxx as the default client for". So that the user can indicate whether he wants the default to be changed.

Then we can have a button with clear "Accept" or "Save" that saves the defaults only if that checkbox is ticked (which can be preticked automatically if it is the first run (check on startup)). The other button "Cancel" would not touch anything, not even the "do not check again" checkbox.

Comment 13

[Matt]

I think if we are going to do more that a simple rename of the buttons, that two things need to be seriously considered.

1. Many users do not grasp the concept of a mail client as opposed to gmail or outlook.com. So clarity and an obvious link to more information is critical

2. System integration  needs to offer a clear choice.  IF there is a default we need to list it in much the same way as the windows control panel does and offer to change it or leave it alone.

Additionally given the generally low level of understanding that mail comes in more flavours than "e-mail"  references to RSS feeds and NNTP really need either explanation of relegation to an advanced button..

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

One further point ... regarding windows search ... I know it is there for user discoverability, and I suspect I concurred in the past with that reason, but:
1) almost every windows user I've encountered that had it enabled either didn't remember they had done it and/or didn't know what it was for (typically said persons had performance issues)
2) it's not supported in windows 8 (bug 574525 comment 7), so on windows it's probably a feature whose future usefulness is short.
3) it has bugs that are very unlikely to be fixed (yes, nothing new there but FWIW - bug 574525 comment 8)

I suggest for windows users that it not be presented. 

I can't speak for it's utility on Mac - I don't deal with many Mac users - but unless it's widely popular we might well consider just removing it for Mac also.

But we could mention it exists and point users to advanced options/preferences.

Comment 15

[:aceman]

I think we can hide the Search integration for Win 8+. It already has infrastructure to ignore unsupported OS versions. I have looked around in the code and can do some stuff like this.

Also it seems the cause of bug 1036592 is that we do not save that we have already shown the OS Search integration option upon clicking "Skip integration" (do not save the firstRunDone pref). That causes us to redisplay the dialog at each startup. I can workaround it a bit in that bug, but we need to rethink this part here too. If we hide the option altogether for TB38, that would be a solution too.