985168 - Tabs v2 redesign

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: Theme and Visual Design, defect, P5)

Description

[Josh Dover [:jdover]]

There has been discussion and prototype designs for a new tab switcher and this is to serve as a central landing place for these ideas and getting feedback. Any work in this area should be posted on this bug so that we can brainstorm, combine, and refine designs.

Comment 1

[Josh Dover [:jdover]]

One prototype idea from sola / jdover / vt moves the tab tiles list to be an overlay over the web content rather than in a separate tab tray. This also allows for quick switching with a single-gesture swipe similar to how action bar overflow menus work in KitKat.

The goals of the design were:
- Less disruptive UI animations. The current tab tray can be a bit jarring and requires most of the screen to move away.
- Quick tab switching. For the open web, we think this is important if we want users to rely more on their browsers rather than native apps.
- Consistent mental model of tab organization. Chrome has a vertical stack when viewing all tabs, but horizontal organization when doing quick switching. This is confusing and quick switching requires unintuitive memorization of the ordering. We want to avoid this by combining the two functionalities into one.

- HTML prototype of interface: https://vtsatskin.github.io/Fennec-New-Tab-Experimentation/prototype/
- APK prototype that features single gesture switching: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwqqgfwYmRg4U1VOOUtocHEwNDg/edit?usp=sharing

Comment 2

[jwms]

Request at least the option to put the tab switcher icon to the right side of the screen (maybe just to the left of the menu button like Chrome for Android?) or swap positions of the tab button and menu button.

I hold my phone with my right hand, I use my right thumb for everything on my phone and tablet (Nexus 4,5 phones. Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 tablet)

The tab mgmt button is currently on the left side of the screen.  I suppose designers think right-handed people browse holding their device in their left hand and peck with their right pointer finger.  I'm sure telemetry data would show it would take most people significantly less time to navigate tabs after putting it on the right side of the screen.

I hope my request doesn't get lost in a discussion but I didn't want to submit a new bug/request to add yet another request.

Comment 3

[jwms]

(In reply to jrdn.wms from comment #2)
> I meant to say on the Firefox tablet ui.  Looks like the phone version does have it on the right side.  The tablet ui is still on the left which is very unfriendly.

Comment 4

[jwms]

see Yuan Wang's proposal https://speakerdeck.com/yuuuan/firefox-android-tablet-refresh-ixd-proposal

Comment 5

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

Re-triaging per https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1473195

Needinfo :susheel if you think this bug should be re-triaged.

Comment 6

[BMO Automation]

We have completed our launch of our new Firefox on Android. The development of the new versions use GitHub for issue tracking. If the bug report still reproduces in a current version of [Firefox on Android nightly](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.fenix) an issue can be reported at the [Fenix GitHub project](https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/). If you want to discuss your report please use [Mozilla's chat](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Matrix#Connect_to_Matrix) server https://chat.mozilla.org and join the [#fenix](https://chat.mozilla.org/#/room/#fenix:mozilla.org) channel.