Comments on: Notifications and Flow

By: Adrien M.

Adrien M. — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:45:19 +0000

Funny that you should mention the example of being late to a meeting and getting the dumb extension updater. I experienced that exact scenario just a couple of weeks ago! I needed to look up the address of a meeting on Google maps, and had to fight through the updater. I know some people like lots of control over how and when their software gets updated, and sometimes, I might like that too, but there should be a way to set up REAL automatic, no hassle, completely in the background updating. (and in my humble opinion it should be the default behavior) If you want to make the software unobtrusive keep in mind that the less savvy user, like my mom and dad, would expect that their software is ALWAYS up to date, and they don’t have to fiddle with it. (this is their #1 complaint about Firefox as well) It should download updates in the background, and install them in the background, and take effect the next time I start the software. (I realize this is more difficult on Windows than Mac or Linux, but it is possible at least to update on reboot) It doesn’t have to even tell me it updated, but a little indicator on the status bar wouldn’t hurt. Opening up to a custom homepage designed by the software team should be an option – not automatic. Every time that pops up, and it does for every extension that updates, I have to close all those tabs to get to what I wanted to do in the first place – VERY annoying. I’m sick and tired of having to click to approve an extension or Firefox update or go look for updates. Just update already and let me get on with what I’m doing! And like I said, there should be options for notifications of updates, or approval of various parts of the process for those who want it – But “automatic” and “in the background” should mean just that.

On another note, I’m not sure where the jab at the Mac dock was headed. I don’t suffer unread stuff on it as you assert. Maybe I turned all that off long ago and don’t remember?

(thanks for trying to make “most visited pages” invisible as possible. This will be most annoying for all the reasons you state. Heck, why is the team still trying to code it in at all? It’s a really bad idea to start with.)

By: Max

Max — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:13:46 +0000

Not the right place I suppose, but another Mozilla product is notorious for getting in your way with notifications – THUNDERBIRD!
Worse of all it suspends all other tasks waiting for you to click on the silly ok button. Now imagine you have 10 email acc’s and one in the middle is unreachable – aaargh.
Also a pet hate, it has a habit of telling you its busy now and cant do what you need -” Thunder… is busy processing folders, please…” why could it not just queue the request and put a subtle notification in red somewhere with a big yellow exclamation mark on it ?

By: David

David — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:07:11 +0000

I don’t find the new-tab content in chrome annoying at all — it’s no different to me than if it opened up a blank screen. I just ignore what’s in the window and start typing. The cursor is in the right place, and I almost don’t even have to pause.

In firefox, on the other hand, the cursor doesn’t end up in the right place, so I can’t just start typing. And I haven’t figured out how to quick-key in firefox to the address bar, so I have to go get the mouse to do it. Then, if I didn’t get confused and have to mouse to the search box, I find that firefox brings up a nice list of items that complete what I’ve typed so far, but I have to remember to tab down to the one I want because it doesn’t pick one And, of course, all this happens typically after chrome hangs, so I’ve had to start up firefox, wade through the “update me now” and the “update my extensions now” processes. After all this, it doesn’t really matter because I’ve been interrupted by someone or forgotten what I was going to do, anyway.

We are serial single-taskers.

By: Greg K Nicholson

Greg K Nicholson — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:24:55 +0000

“Shiretoko prevented this site (blog.mozilla.com) from asking you to install software on your computer. — [Allow][X]”

Why did it do that? I *just* clicked to install it—why can’t you just get on with it?

Shiretoko has prevented the site from asking *me* to install software?! *I’m* the one who wants to install the software! Get on with it, petulant browser.

***

Shiretoko says it has prevented something from happening and offers the option to undo. This immediately begs the question “what did you do *that* for?”.

Just rephrasing this as “something is about to happen—is this OK?” would seem less intrusive.

c.f.: “This site (blog.mozilla.com) is about to install software (abouttab-latest.xpi) onto your computer. — [Allow][X]”

By: sysKin

sysKin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:43:38 +0000

I’ve been using the extension for quite some time, and I find that having news feeds there is distracting.

My reasons:
1, It updates with some delay so the whole content moves. It even moves as I have a mouse pointer over it. I haven’t misclicked anything just yet, but I see how I could.

2, it adds unfamiliar content. For example I have a wikipedia entry there, and rss feeds under wikipedia articles are a highly random list of recent changes to that article. I keep staring at it and wondering “what is this?”

Has someone considered the following alternative: instead of rss feeds, put more sub-pages from the same domain. If I have a wikipedia article there, add three more (or whatever) wikiedia articles I’ve visited.

By: David Naylor

David Naylor — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:09:18 +0000

Interesting post.

Glad to hear you are aware of the possible annoyance factor of this feature. I really hope you manage to get the best of both worlds, i.e. suggest sites but in an unobtrusive way.

Really good decision to ditch the website miniatures. They really don’t do a good job of (quickly) identifying different sites.

By: Adam Guthrie

Adam Guthrie — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:32:23 +0000

Maybe it would be worth conducting a usability study on this instead of relying on purely anecdotal evidence? It wouldn’t surprise me if Google tested out Chrome’s new tab UI on a group of users before giving it the green light. I know they’ve done similar tests in the past.

Maybe casual users do, in fact, open new tabs with the intention of going to a site they frequently visit. (I think I read somewhere that the average Internet user really only frequents about ten different Web sites.)

By: sep332

sep332 — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:50:42 +0000

I already have access to my most visited sites (if I want them) through the “Most Visited” menu on my Bookmarks toolbar. If I want to go to one of those sites, I just click the link, middle-click the one I want, and there it is. I don’t need to open a new tab, “browse” my favorite sites (it’s not like I’ve forgotten them, after all!), and “discover” that I feel like visiting one. I think this is a case where an interface that would be nice for browsing new content, or even reminding the user of old or rare content, is being misused to present the most common sites. It’s totally redundant.

By: Alex Faaborg

Alex Faaborg — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:26:16 +0000

Here is an update to the shield UI based on some initial feedback:

http://people.mozilla.com/~faaborg/files/20090324-notificationsAndFlow/shieldi2.png

By: Brian P

Brian P — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:58:20 +0000

I think that when you open a new tab that you are usually trying to complete a task where you know where you want to go or what you want to search for. I usually don’t even make new blank tabs anymore. I make new tabs by opening a feed item in a new tab or creating a new tab from the searchbar or awesomebar. There’s also opening links in new tabs but that’s usually part of the same task. When I mistakenly open a new blank tab that’s usually just from it being an old habit. I really should remove the mouse gesture for opening a new tab to break that habit. So for me this is pretty much a moot point. Why does one really need to make new blank tabs? The only thing I can think of is to make sure you don’t mess with the current tab by accidentally not opening you search/awesomeba result in a new tab.

If the user is bored then they may be looking to see some site they’ve never been to. Opening a new tab could show new sites like stumble upon results.

But I think you guys got it right with the feed notification. It’s there when you are looking for it. Otherwise it stays out of the way.

As for most visited sites, my daily visited sites are usually always open thanks to session restore. And why would this most visited new tab interface be better than the most visited smart bookmark already provided by places? (Which I never use anyway)