Re: FF 5. 0 and user interface

Ron Hunter wrote:
> On 8/19/2011 11:36 PM, Asa Dotzler wrote:
>> Greywolf wrote:
>>> Data point on "usability":
>>>
>>> We got a new laptop for my wife a couple of weeks ago, installed the
>>> "latest version" of FF (= 5.0), and the first thing I had to do was
>>> revert the GUI to look as much like FF 3.x as possible. O'wise my wife
>>> flatly refused to use it. Luckily someone had figured out how to do this
>>> and posted the instructions in m.s.firefox.
>>>
>>> Ciao,
>>> Wolf K.
>>
>> GreyWolf K, can you tell us which particular features were uncomfortable
>> or difficult for her to locate or use in the latest version of Firefox?
>> Do you know what she thinks of the features that you didn't revert to
>> 3.x-like location, behavior, or appearance?
>>
>> I think some details might make the data point more useful.
>>
>> - A
>
> The first outcry:
> Where's my bookmarks toolbar?

The bookmarks toolbar is not supposed to be hidden for existing users 
who had used it. It's only supposed to be hidden for those who never 
used it or for new users. If you're seeing something different, that's a 
bug.

> second:
> Where's the menubar?

Yeah. Menubars for Windows Vista and 7 are gone. This is actually the 
case for quite a lot of software on Vista and 7.

> third:
> What's that orange thing at the top?

One click on it should reveal to most users that it is where the items 
they used to find in the menubar now live. Do you think that having 
clicked it a user will not make that connection?

> fourth:
> Why are the labels so hard to read (Win7 Aero)?

Labels on what? Tabs? The tabs aren't glass so they shouldn't be 
unreadable. Perhaps a bug? A particular Aero style?

>  From the point of view of a user of 3.6, FF4 was a vast change, and WAY
> too sudden for many users. I think we are still seeing evidence of this
> shocked feeling when users get so excited over disappearance of the
> version information in About:

Yes, Firefox 3.6 to Firefox 4 was a major upgrade. So was IE 6 to IE 7 
and IE 8 to IE 9. So is a change from either Firefox or IE to Chrome, 
Opera, or Safari.

The good news is that we've moved to a much better system now where 
users won't get a huge pile of changes every year or two. Instead 
they'll see smaller changes spread out over many smaller releases 
happening every 6 weeks. I believe this will allow us to make the same 
kinds of changes we made between Firefox 3.6 and Firefox 4 but without 
disrupting the user like that.

I can already see it working too. I have been "riding the Firefox 
trains" and it barely feels to me like anything has happened since 
Firefox 4, but when I compare the Firefox 9 nightly build I'm on now 
with the Firefox 4 build from 6 months ago, I can feel a real 
difference. It was really incremental though, so it was almost 
imperceptible while it happened and it's only comparing with Firefox 4 
that reminded me how much we've already changed.

- A