Firefox 4: Paper Cuts (Alexander Limi, Firefox User Experience)

8/9/2019 Firefox 4: Paper Cuts (Alexander Limi, Firefox User Experience)

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100 PAPER CUTS

AN EXPERIMENT IN

SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDBACK

ALEXANDER LIMI

FIREFOX USER EXPERIENCE

APRIL 22ND, 2010

Wednesday, May 19, 2010


2/97

No amount of genius can overcome a

preoccupation with detail.

Marion Levy


Im usually not a quote person, but if youve read my blog, you might have seen this. I think a lot ofwhat goes into building passion for a product comes down to being obsessive about the details.Thats why paper cuts are so dangerous for our project.

See: Apple, Chrome and Firefox!


3/97

The Reddit

Ex eriment

I work on the Firefox User Experience

team, and this is your chance to tell me

about your pet peeves.


aka. how to ask for punishment
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/boipt/i_work_on_the_firefox_user_experience_team_and/http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/boipt/i_work_on_the_firefox_user_experience_team_and/http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/boipt/i_work_on_the_firefox_user_experience_team_and/http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/boipt/i_work_on_the_firefox_user_experience_team_and/http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/boipt/i_work_on_the_firefox_user_experience_team_and/http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/boipt/i_work_on_the_firefox_user_experience_team_and/


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How many of you know what Reddit is?How about Digg? 4chan? Slashdot?


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The complex matrix of social news sites

Why is Reddit interesting? They are the right size & right people, at least right now. Slashdot usedto be that, for a short while it was Digg, but Reddit has kept it going for a long time without going

downhill. Signal to noise ratio is still great.


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Ground rules

No complaining about Javascript perf

No complaining about the visual design

No complaining about startup time*

No complaining about single process


Im stern, but fair.


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The Reddit

Ex eriment

2300COMMENTS

750UPVOTES

300 LIMI


Posted on a Friday afternoon, by Sunday we had


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Who are they?

45%FIREFOX

19%CHROME

10%

IE6/7/8

9%SAFARI

2%OPERA


Exactly the kind of audience we want, in my opinion.- Early adopters- Strong sense of privacy- Advanced technological understanding

- Influential users- Capable of suggesting good solutions and do some research


9/97

dev.apps.firefox

vs. Reddit

965GOOGLEGROUPS

150,225ASK

REDDIT

382MAILMAN

?NNTP


Voting/moderation, reputation management

(numbers from April 8, 2010)

Not an entirely fair comparison, but I did want to show you how large the community is.


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What kind offeedback did we get?


The feedback was very varied, and interesting reading.


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The bookmarking systemis still a bit of a clusterfk

right now. It used to beunderpowered and now

its like someone taped a

bunch of cats together.


From the hilarious


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Stop adding shit and

start cleaning up


to the pithy.


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Some showed me screenshots of their awesome Firefox experience


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others were looking for help.


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Some people had advice about our technology stack


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and knew who they were talking to.


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We need to get out of the 1980s California bubble and start talking like real men.


18/97


Dont help the stupids.


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A rare example of an expressive user study in text form.


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Seriously, your work isappreciated widely and

deeply. Keep rockin.

Thanks for making this submission

- I think its awesome to have you

do this. :) Firefox kicks ass.


In general though, people really like Firefox, and people that say they switched browsers say theywish they could switch back


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Standard Disclaimer(& Ground Rules)


For this talk, we also have some ground rules:- Theres a lot of stufhere, and in list format- I might be going too fast, let me know- Feel free to leave/rejoin at any time, I wont be ofended ;)

- We cant really go into a lot of these in detail during the presentation, so take notes, and well talkat the end. Even if Im wrong, resist the temptation to tell me so immediately. ;)


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What did we do?

2300COMMENTS

100PAPER CUTS

bugzil.la/papercuts


Im in the process of filing these as bugs.

TAB BEHAVIORS


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FOCUS

ADD-ONS&

PLUG-INSSTARTUP*

TAB BEHAVIORS

UI CRUFT &CONSISTENCY

OS INTEGRATION

BEING INCONTROL


Seven focus areas:1. Focus2. Startup3. Being in Control

4. Add-ons and plugins5. Tab behaviors6. UI cruft & consistency7. OS integration


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Lessons learned

Sometimes we are too smart we use

engineering muscle when a simple

solution would save a lot of frustration

What we think are the issues arent

necessarily what people in general areunhappy about


Since nobody will be awake at the end of the presentation, here are some of the most importantthings to keep in mind.


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FOCUS


The #1 cited issue


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Web sites should notbe able to steal focus

when in chrome


Example:- User starts FF- Connection is slow, so start page doesn't load quite yet- User starts typing in the chrome search box in the meantime- Web page steals focus while user is typing

We often don't see this because we have fast connections + use about:blank as our startup page

Also:- If there's been any keyboard input or mouse scrolling while the page is still loading, don't allowonload=setfocus()- When focused with Cmd-L, if you hit Esc, you should be back in the web page


27/97

Flash / PDF / pluginssteal focus shortcuts,

cant open new tab


Can we stop keyboard shortcuts that have Cmd/Ctrl qualifiers + F11 etc from reaching the pluginand parse them instead?

Now that we have OOPP, can we catch these keyboard events?Keyboard -> OS -> Browser-Controlled-Sandbox -> Flash

If not, can we ask Adobe for help in solving it if not?

This is a really old bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=78414


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Avoid app-modal dialogs,

make them tab-modal


This goes for1) Javascript alerts/prompts,2) htauth prompts,3) master password for the "software security device".Probably others.


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STARTUP**but not what you think


but not what you think. This isnt about raw startup performance, file system I/O, etc.


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Firefox takes 3 minutes

and 12 seconds.Chrome is 7 seconds.

Thats insane. Make sure you are on

Firefox 3.6.3 & try a fresh profile.

Well, shit. 5 seconds.



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Firefox is open butnot responding

alert


Cited as #1 reason for switching to Chrome

Can we do something about this? Kill the process or ofer to kill it or something?

Found this: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=239223


33/97

Dont ask about

updates all the time


- Silent updates for add-ons, with possibility to enable- Firefox updates should be applied on shutdown, never on startup (ideally in the background)


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I use an extension calledUpdate Notifier that

checks for updates everyso often and installs them,

so I dont have updates to

install at startup

YO DAWG

I herd yuo liek extensions


We have a UI term for this, its called the YO DAWG

Yo dawg, I heard you like extensions so I made an extension that installs other extensions


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Ideally: upgrade in thebackground if not,

upgrade at shutdown,not startup!



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Shutdown takes a long

time for some users(30-40 seconds)


Do we think we fixed this? Reported to still be there in 3.6.3, but this may have landed on trunk?


37/97

Include BarTab-like

behavior by default


Delayed loading of tabs on session restore = faster startup + less memory used until you need thetab


38/97

Put Restart and

Restart & Save Session

in Exit combomenu in

the new design?


People like the ability to selectively invoke session restore. I generally dont want it, but sometimesit would be very useful, especially when restarting for updates


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BEING IN

CONTROL


The biggest category, by far probably because people that want to be in control of theirexperience like Firefox in the first place, and therefore have high expectations in this area. And weshouldnt disappoint them.


40/97

Control over audio intabs!


- Limis Last Theorem? Help me find back to this solution! I had a solution, but nowhere to write itdown, and forgot- Might have been opt-in via notification, ie. "this web page wants to make sound, allow?" but thatis a bit draconian, but maybe an optional setting- Global mute button for people who don't want their browsers to make noise at all

- This does get complicated with plugins, of course


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Web sites shouldnt be

allowed to resize main

window


First of 4 related window issues

Setting size for a popup window they spawned is OK

There is already an option to disallow it, we should adjust the defaults.

Options Content Enable JavaScript Advanced.I have only the context menu item ticked.


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Pop-under ads areback, worse than ever


Web sites should not be allowed control of windows in terms of sending them to the background.Ever. There are no good use cases for opening a window UNDER the current window. Make it opt-in.


43/97

Put the user in controlof generated windows


Respect the defaults, but make it possible to revert e.g. turn toolbar/scrollbars back on, resize,etc


44/97

Opening new windows

should be user-

controllable


target="_blank" should be optional

There's a setting for this, but it makes links from external programs (IM/mail clients etc) replaceexisting tabs. That bug should be fixed!


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SSL: Add an I know

what Im doing option

to self-signed certs


boolean general.I_understand_SSL ;)

Possibly use Perspectives? www.cs.cmu.eduindex.html

There should be a one click way to allow the certificate once without having to save exceptions. Weactually encourage people to add permanent exceptions now, ironically.

Would be simpler to just put 3 buttons on that page: "Get me out of here," "Proceed and Allow justonce," and "Proceed and Allow Always." That avoid having to click 5 screens


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Fix Master Password


Don't ask for master password on loadOnly ask when there's a site you actually have a password stored forDon't ask multiple timesLet master password be valid for some time (already the case?)Can we use the OS X keychain password as the default password on Mac?


48/97

Dont let a web app beable to lock up a tab


Add "Prevent this page from creating additional dialogs" link in the notification

This is one of our oldest bugs.

WAAAAAAAAIT BEFORE YOU GO CLICK CANCEL

(ok)PRESS OK TO CONTINUE OR CANCEL TO STAY ON THE PAGE(browser crashes)(restart firefox)hey we were able to restore your tabsPRESS CANCEL TO OK OR PAGE TO TO CONTINUE THE STAYwat


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Browse-by-name isinconsistent and

confusing


Enough people try to use URL bar as search, and are confused by inconsistent behavior. Lets makeit opt-in, and turn it into a normal search if people submit it.

Also, mconnor has promised to fly down here and personally beat me up if we do this.


50/97

Make a hotkey to list

shortcuts + show them

in the right-click menus


People can teach themselves over time

Hovercard similar to Gmail's "?"


51/97

Enable autocomplete

again, but make it

smarter


We stopped speaking URL when AwesomeBar came along, and it makes us seem slowerComplete to next major URL fragment, if you want the full path, it'll be there on arrow-down

No, don't do this it breaks normal text handling.type type type {backspace}, what happens? The last character I typed isn't deleted! Grr! Backspace

has deleted a bunch of stuf I didn't type and wasn't interested in!(we can delete and remove the last letter too?)


52/97

Better preview,especially for PDF &

types we already haveviewers for


Part of the Downloads work.

We cant leave this to Adobe. Seriously!


53/97

ADD-ONS

&PLUG-INS


Our crack cocaine bad for you, but you cant stop

(silent updates is the #1 request, but covered earlier + part of the Extension Manager redesignproject)


54/97

Dont wait 3 seconds

when installing add-

ons from AMO or theinline add-ons browser


People say this was fixed at some point, but it still happens!


55/97

When an add-on is

outdated / no longer

maintained or working,suggest alternatives


IE Tab is a prime example, theres a maintained add-on called Coral IE Tab that does the same.People stay on earlier versions of FF because this was never updated.

Getting the data on which plugins block people from updating (since we check for this and presenta list already, right?)


56/97

Click-to-activate forplugins default for

rare-but-perf-killingthings like Java



57/97

Dont let add-ons opennew pages


We need a better solution for this, possibly doorhanger notifications with option to go to the page?


58/97

Dont let apps install

add-ons without consent


e.g. Skype, Norton

Since you last started Firefox, an application installed add-on/plugin XYZ are you sure you wantto enable it?


59/97

Fix the crufty statusbar, extensions add

clutter


In general, people were unhappy with the clutter extensions can add to menus, toolbars, etc.


60/97

TAB BEHAVIORS


Everybody cares about this.


61/97

Opening tabs at the

end when new & next

to when context-triggered is confusing


Most people prefer the new behavior!Simpler is better, always open next to current tab or always open at end.


62/97

New tabs should keep

history from the tab

that spawned them


Should insert a marker to indicate that the history is from a separate source, either in the menu oron the button itself (color?)


63/97

Tab behavior is verypersonal, expose more

prefs here


I never argue for more preferences, but this is an instance where I think its warranted. :)- People are split on opening tabs at the end or next to- Lots of people have TabMix Plus, but also a lot of problems reported from it- People want control here, we should give it to them


64/97

Make it easy to closelots of tabs


Chrome nailed the dont-resize-tabs-until-you-are-done-closing-them

What I want to do: More powerful tab operations: Shift/Ctrl for range/multiselect + close


65/97

Fix tab stack ordering


Return to previously focused tab when closing a tab


66/97

Fix Ctrl-tab to use

stacks, so it can be

used to comparebetween 2-3 tabs


There are a million shortcuts to switch to left/right of current tab, why do we have to adopt stupidbehavior here?


67/97

Tab reloads when it is

detached; this is

annoying andunexpected/dangerous



68/97

Dont separate

windows and tabs in

the undo stack


People cant remember whether what they closed was a window or a tab.


69/97

Let me fit more tabs inthe bar, make it easier to

find the ones I cant see


Make the minimum tab width smaller, remove the scroll arrows, only list tabs I cant see in thepulldown


70/97

Blank tabs when

clicking should never

appear


- Happens when Cmd-clicking things like downloads, or for sites that do weird stuf, e.g Gmailattachment downloads- We should never show a window that has no content


71/97

Can we fix the "Cmd-click window void"?


cmd-clicking JS links open blank windows, can we either make this work or disable loading these intabs?


72/97

Let me have Privateand normal windows

at the same time


Will land with Electrolysis?


73/97

Ask when hitting Q


Very easy to accidentally hit


74/97

Better load indicators separate activity

from progress


Being handled in the new theme, but:- Separate activity from progress


75/97

Detect whether yourwebmail client is

already open, dontopen new window


My personal problem with FF was if i click on a mailto link Gmail would open in a new tab; thisseems to work properly with Chrome. All browsers should detect if a site is open.

Flipside: sometimes we dont open a new window when we should (if we cant detect)


76/97

Eliminate fake bounce

when scrolling tab bar,

you cant see whenyoure at the end



77/97

UI CRUFT &

CONSISTENCY



78/97

Make search field tab-

specific & clear when

navigating away fromresults page


Look in your browser right now, how many of you have an old search hanging around?Information leakage (screenshots ;) + being global when everything else is tab-specific


79/97

Find in page should to

be page-specific, and

close when you clickoutside it, move to top


The Find toolbar tax how many of you have a Find toolbar hanging out on every tab right now?Also:- Consolidate Quick Find and Find- Remove "/" shortcut, too easy to trigger in error in an app where slashes are important- Show count of how many instances are on the page- bounce the results and make sure they stand out on the page- highlight all occurrences of a search term- make the focused result be in the middle of the page- dismissable with Esc or by clicking outside, or by the Cmd-F toggle again- Match whole word- We have space here, options are good!


80/97

Change Save toDownload


People think Save is the same as bookmarking, and can't find the pages againDownload is more consistent with web use, since Save has other meanings in web apps


81/97

Work offline must die


I believe we can reliably detect this now?

Also: localhost (local network?) should never be oine

Developers should get an extension to simulate this.


82/97

Fix downloads!


Part of the Download redesign


83/97

Fix mess + ordering incontextual menus;

common options first


e.g. Open in New Tab over Open in New Window

Part of the menu cleanup project


84/97

Search Google for

context menu entry

should be in textareas& inputs too



85/97

Fix selection behaviors


- Don't select trailing spaces when double-clicking a word- Double-clicking between words no longer selects both words (selects space instead, useless)- Hyphenated words arent copied properly (only one element)- Generally, highlighting is really error-prone and hard to predict


86/97

Paste & GoPaste & Search


A lot of people right-click to paste


87/97

A useful full-screenbrowsing experience


Access to all controls, menus etc, but hidden. Solving this as part of the touch/slate UIexperimentations


88/97

Make Personas work

better with the default

theme, make themeasy to remove



89/97

Favicons on OS X

bookmarks toolbar +

multiple rows


People are very sad about this, and I agreeThe bookmarks toolbar should have an option to display either text, icons, or both. The fact wehave to jump through hoops (chrome.css etc) to set this is sad.


90/97

OS INTEGRATION


Reddit is probably a bit sysadmin-heavy, so lots of feedback on these things


91/97

Multiple screensbehavior on Windows

is wonky, can we fix?


"when you pull a tab of a maximised window out it maximises to a seemingly random screen""However, in the default themes, it's hard to tell which window is active when you have multiplemonitors, because they don't have enough contrast between which one is active and which ones arenot."

However, I will often draft a tab from a window on the left monitor to the blank space on the right

monitor, and the new window will be created on the left monitor, not the right where I dragged it to.

This is on Windows Vista and Windows 7 with UltraMon installed.When I put the browser on one screen, I expect new windows of the same browser (like thedownload dialog, anything an extension opens, ...) to be on the same screen. Currently it's a matterof luck, and it's quite annoying when a browser window appears, for example, over fullscreen videoon the other screen.


92/97

Additional Win7

features: Jump lists,

windows in Aero Peek,download progress


Opera has it

- Windows 7 Jump Lists- Don't list tabs in Aero Peek, windows are more useful, but list tabs if there's only one window?- Opera does a better job on Windows than we do ;)my.opera.comtake-full-advantage-of-windows-7-with-opera


93/97

Enable NTLM

authentication for

intranets


Chrome has it ;)

Anyone in a corporate environment will appreciate it simply because it stops $&%(&% passworddialogs from popping up every time you click an intranet link.

NTLM is disabled for a reason because in firefox it's a security risk and you wouldn't want any

random website to ask and receive NTLM responses. Agreed local area network should bewhitelisted for you but seriously it takes about 30 seconds to enable NTLM in firefox and it's notthat hard to do.


94/97

MSI installer with group

policies


If FrontMotion has been repacking Firefox as an MSI for [years?] now, I don't see why it has takenso long for Mozilla to do the same. It's kinda defacto now...


95/97

Hard to assign defaultapps on Linux


In Ubuntu - at least, probably in nearly all desktop Linux - it is very dicult to assign diferentapplications to open files. So if I want to open a .wmv in VLC, I go to change it by selecting a newapplication, but it actually wants the filepath of the executable! This may be fine for Windows, butmost linux systems aren't supposed to work that way. I should be able to type the name of theapplication I want to use and just click assign, or perhaps type the command line I want to use.

xdg-open?


96/97

Use of Keychain on OS

X


Is there something smart we can do here? Read-only capability, store in alternate store like1Password does? Something else?


97/97

QUESTIONS?


Thank you!

Firefox 4: Paper Cuts (Alexander Limi, Firefox User Experience)

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