Re: FF 5. 0 and user interface

On 8/20/2011 3:42 AM, Asa Dotzler wrote:
>
>
> 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.
>

Definitely a bug then.

>> 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.
>
Unfortunately.

>> 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?
>

And how are they to know to click it?  My wife didn't when she saw it.
Assuming something...

>> 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?
>
Oh, on the titlebar, and the menubar, once it is restored, or anything 
in the Aero dominated part of the UI.  Glass isn't really a good thing 
within the UI of an application, in my opinion.


>> 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