987823 - [Task Manager] Prototype: Open the second-most-recently-used window instead of the current window.

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox OS Graveyard :: Gaia::System::Task Manager, defect)

Description

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

In iOS the default app is the app used just prior to focused app, which nails my use case most of the time.

In our card view, the active app is the default app in card view. The only use-case I can think of is if a user is in an app and wants to kill it completely.

But that seems like it'd be less common than app switching.

Comment 1

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

Requesting UX feedback.

Comment 2

[Stephany Wilkes]

Flagging Jacqueline and Patryk on homescreen.

Comment 3

[Patryk Adamczyk [:patryk] UX]

With the new card view around the corner, Przemek and Eric will be best to comment. But I agree that currently the behavior is not ideal.

Comment 4

[Przemek Abratowski [:przemek] UX]

The new task manager will be opened by swiping down from the top of the screen and shrinking the current app down into the task manager. So the app the user was in when task manager was opened will be the app that is in focus in task manager.

+ Francis to discuss the issue further since I feel this is more of an IxD issue.

Comment 5

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

(In reply to Przemek Abratowski [:przemek] UX from comment #4)
> So the app
> the user was in when task manager was opened will be the app that is in
> focus in task manager.

So the behavior in the new design will be the same as now.

Per comment #0 there is no use-case for that behavior. Except maybe to force-kill the app... which is not the use-case we should be optimizing for.

User story: As a user, I enter the task manager with the intent to switch to a different app than the active app, and most often to the most recently used app.

There are a couple of options for addressing this user story:

1. Focus the most-recently-used app, regardless of it's place in the stack.

Addresses the user story most accurately.

However, the user might be teleported to a totally different place in the stack, which may be unexpected.

2. Focus the most-recently-used app if it's directly adjacent (before or after) to the active app in the stack.

Addresses the user story fairly accurately, but trades off some accuracy for more predictable behavior.

3. Focus the app that precedes the active app in the stack (the iOS approach).

Trading even more accuracy for even more predictable behavior, but still with a high likelihood of addressing the user story.

Comment 6

[Francis Djabri [:djabber]]

I can see your point, but this goes against the interaction model we have in place for accessing the Task Manager, which is swipe-from-top. From 2.0 onwards, user will be able to use the gestures to easily access the previous/next apps using edge gestures, so the use cases you mention should be covered. At this point, Task manager will be there for when the user needs a broader view of the surrounding app history, and in this case, the benefit of moving to the preceding app I don't think would outweigh the risk of disorienting the user with the swipe-from-top gesture.

Comment 7

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

Thanks Francis!

(In reply to Francis Djabri [:djabber] from comment #6)
> I can see your point, but this goes against the interaction model we have in
> place for accessing the Task Manager, which is swipe-from-top. From 2.0
> onwards, user will be able to use the gestures to easily access the
> previous/next apps using edge gestures, so the use cases you mention should
> be covered.

I am a huge fan of edge gestures feature :D

However, I am concerned about over-reliance on it, but that conversation is for a different bug ;) 

> At this point, Task manager will be there for when the user
> needs a broader view of the surrounding app history, and in this case, the
> benefit of moving to the preceding app I don't think would outweigh the risk
> of disorienting the user with the swipe-from-top gesture.

A couple of questions for clarification:

1. What is the most common reason the user would need the broader view?

2. Why is swipe-from-top showing most-recently-used app disorienting?

Comment 8

[Jacqueline Savory [:jsavory] UX]

Clearing flag since this is more of a task manager discussion.

Comment 9

[Sam Foster [:sfoster] (he/him)]

I think we can summarize as wontfix, please re-open if you disagree. Having the current app centered in the linear task strip in 2.2 helps orient the user. I'm not sure if accessing the task managager by swipe from top or long-tap on home makes any difference to this?

Comment 10

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

I'll not re-open, since I'm definitely outvoted ;)

I think about this bug every time I use the task switcher in iOS... and it does exactly what I want in a way that is almost at the mind-reading level.

I think the purported value of orienting the user is not very well justified in the comments so far. I'd love to see some research data, or at least a more clearly articulated explanation of the orientation problem.

The iOS approach seems to be based on a well understood and well defined use-case (switching from app A to app B) and from how pleasantly effective it is in my usage, also seems to be grounded in a system-level approach to task-continuity.

Telemetry would tell us exactly how users are using this feature, so maybe that would be worth adding at some point, so we can understand existing user behavior and whether our design is achieving its aim.

Comment 11

[Marcus Cavanaugh [:mcav]]

Per discussion in dev-fxos[1], reopening for tracking purposes; before deciding to close this definitively, I'd like to perform user-testing on both behaviors to better understand users' needs and intuitions; this may be more relevant after we implement swipe-from-bottom[2].

[1]: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.fxos/fHD3Zal-8xg
[2]: https://bugzil.la/1189527

Comment 12

[BMO Automation]

Firefox OS is not being worked on