Closed Bug 885363 Opened 11 years ago Closed 10 years ago

[FIG] Improve spatial awareness on new about:home

Categories

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect, P1)

24 Branch
All
Android
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: ibarlow, Unassigned)

References

Details

One of the goals of the new about:home work was to make about:home much more easy to access -- both by tapping the URL bar and by opening a new tab. We've done this, but we need to refine the interaction a bit to better communicate what is happening spatially when users perform these interactions. Just switching from a webpage to about:home with no transition in between makes for a jarring, even confusing experience.

Some initial transitions to consider:
1. I click a link on about:home. How does a webpage appear? 
2. I create a new tab. How does about:home appear? 
2. I am on a website and I tap the URL bar. How does the webpage I was just on transition to about:home?

I realize this is kind of a big topic for a bug, so I'm also happy to break this out into smaller chunks of need be.
(In reply to Ian Barlow (:ibarlow) from comment #0)
> I realize this is kind of a big topic for a bug, so I'm also happy to break
> this out into smaller chunks of need be.

Yes, I recommend having each of these transitions in separate bugs.
Priority: -- → P1
Posting all these animations here so people can see how they look together. I'll file separate bugs for each though. 

Our main goal here is to give our users a better sense of place. Since there are multiple ways of accessing about:home -- both by creating a new tab and by tapping the URL bar -- it should be very clear conceptually what is happening in each instance. 

If we look at our "layers" metaphor for the Firefox UI, creating a new tab should feel like a new page layer is being dropped into view on top of the previous one, whereas staying in the same tab should feel like you are staying in the same page layer. 

The animations below show what these experiences should look like:
1. Creating a new tab (eg from a menu)
2. Creating a new tab from within the tab tray
3. Tap the URL bar 

Keynote (recommended, just enter presentation mode to see transitions): http://cl.ly/2Y1t3y2w0W41
.MOV (click to advance through transitions): http://cl.ly/0j402j2I0k2h
.GIF: http://cl.ly/image/1d3N102N201f
Priority: P1 → --
Depends on: 889619
Depends on: 889620
Depends on: 889621
Priority: -- → P1
OS: Mac OS X → Android
Hardware: x86 → All
This is 26 wont-fix right?
Correct, not happening for 26. 

But the sooner it happens the better :)
Bug 889619 and bug 889620 ran out of steam, and the last comments in there say that this needs more UX attention.

yuan, do you have any input here? At this point, I feel like we should close out these bugs as WONTFIX, and open new ones if we ever have new designs for about:home transitions.
Flags: needinfo?(ywang)
I agree WONTFIX this for now. 

Anthony and I opened Bug 1053390 to track ideas for better transitions to get to tab view. With the new tablet UI strcuture, I think the transitions Ian came up are getting outdated.

I am confident that we can achieve some consistency with similar transitions on the phone and tablet UI.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 10 years ago
Flags: needinfo?(ywang)
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
Product: Firefox for Android → Firefox for Android Graveyard
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