Places:Firefox 2 User Interface Ideas
Note
Do NOT edit this page directly unless you are on the Places team. Comment on the discussion page.
Background
A common view of Bookmarks and History, with a back end that allows for flexible presentation and searching of the data in a way that makes it useful and accessible.
User Interface
Hierarchies are bad (difficult to create and maintain*), so default presentation deemphasizes them, but retains support for advanced and existing users.
* It is easy to create too many categories, or a highly nested structure that obscures the available categories, such that it is difficult to categorize links effectively and the amount of work required to do the task exceeds the benefit provided, given searching tools.
Showing Bookmarks
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +----------------------+ Search: [ :^] v |
| | @ Visited Today | +------------------------------------------+ |
| | @ Visited This Week | | Name | Location | |
| | @ All History | |--------------------+---------------------+ |
| | @ Most Visited | | CNN.com http://www.cnn.com/ | |
| | @ Updated Today | | | |
| | @ Bookmarks Menu | | | |
| |#@#Bookmarks#Toolbar##| | | |
| | @ Subscriptions | | | |
| | @ Bonjour | | | |
| | @ Folder 1 | | | |
| | @ Folder 2 | | | |
| | @ Folder 3 | | | |
| | @ Folder 4 | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| +----------------------+ +------------------------------------------+ |
| ( + NF ) ( # ^ ) ( + NF ) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Search Results
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +----------------------+ Search: [ real estate :^] v |
| | @ Visited Today | +------------------------------------------+ |
| | @ Visited This Week | | Name | Location | |
| | @ All History | |--------------------+---------------------+ |
| | @ Most Visited | | MLS Listings http://www.mlslis...| |
| | @ Updated Today | | L.J. Hooker http://www.lhhook...| |
| | @ Bookmarks Menu | | Barfoot & Thompson http://www.barfoo...| |
| | @ Bookmarks Toolbar | | Century 21 http://www.centur...| |
| | @ Subscriptions | | | |
| | @ Bonjour | | | |
| | @ Folder 1 | | | |
| | @ Folder 2 | | | |
| | @ Folder 3 | | | |
| | @ Folder 4 | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| +----------------------+ +------------------------------------------+ |
| ( + NF ) ( # ^ ) ( S |#P#) ( @ Save this Search... ) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Grouping Options
- Group by Page - flat list of all pages
- Group by Site - host/site based grouping,
showing entry page as folder and other pages on site as children
History
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +----------------------+ Search: [ :^] v |
| | @ Visited Today | +------------------------------------------+ |
| |#@#Visited This Week##| | Name | Location | |
| | @ All History | |--------------------+---------------------+ |
| | @ Most Visited | | MLS Listings http://www.mlslis...| |
| | @ Updated Today | | L.J. Hooker http://www.lhhook...| |
| | @ Bookmarks Menu | | v Barfoot & Thompson http://www.barfoo...| |
| | @ Bookmarks Toolbar | | Epsom Stunner! http://www.barfoo...| |
| | @ Subscriptions | | Grammar Zone http://www.barfoo...| |
| | @ Bonjour | | Charming Cottage http://www.barfoo...| |
| | @ Folder 1 | | | |
| | @ Folder 2 | | | |
| | @ Folder 3 | | | |
| | @ Folder 4 | | | |
| |======================| | | |
| | < November 2005 > v | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | CAL FILTER | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| +----------------------+ +------------------------------------------+ |
| ( + NF ) (*#*^*) (#S#| P ) ( @ Save this Search... ) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Grouping Options
- Group by Page - flat list of all pages
- Group by Site - host/site based grouping,
showing entry page as folder and other pages on site as children
Building a Search
+---------------------------------------------------+
| Search: [ :^] v |
| ------------------------------------------------- |
| Pages containing the words: [ ] + |
| Visited [ from :^] [ 27 July, 2005 ] + |
| .. |
| |
| [x] Show no more than [ 30 ] results, selected |
| by: [ most recently visited :^] |
+---------------------------------------------------+
Subscriptions
A case study of smart folders. Show all folders whose type is "feed", and their contents. Should show additional column for published date and author. Should also show read state (bold = unread, normal = read)
Aggregation View (View by Post)
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +----------------------+ Search: [ :^] v |
| | @ Visited Today | +------------------------------------------+ |
| | @ Visited This Week | | Name | Location | |
| | @ All History | |--------------------+---------------------+ |
| | @ Most Visited | | Blog A Post 1 http://www.bloga....| |
| | @ Updated Today | | Blog Q Post 1 http://www.blogq....| |
| | @ Bookmarks Menu | | Blog P Post 1 http://www.blogp....| |
| | @ Bookmarks Toolbar | | Blog A Post 2 http://www.bloga....| |
| |#@#Subscriptions######| | Blog A Post 3 http://www.bloga....| |
| | @ Bonjour | | ... | |
| | @ Folder 1 | | | |
| | @ Folder 2 | | | |
| | @ Folder 3 | | | |
| | @ Folder 4 | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| +----------------------+ +------------------------------------------+ |
| ( + NF ) ( # ^ ) ( F |#P#) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Feed View (View by Feed)
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +----------------------+ Search: [ :^] v |
| | @ Visited Today | +------------------------------------------+ |
| | @ Visited This Week | | Name | Location | |
| | @ All History | |--------------------+---------------------+ |
| | @ Most Visited | | Blog A http://www.bloga....| |
| | @ Updated Today | | Post 1 http://www.bloga....| |
| | @ Bookmarks Menu | | Post 2 http://www.bloga....| |
| | @ Bookmarks Toolbar | | Post 3 http://www.bloga....| |
| |#@#Subscriptions######| | Blog P http://www.blogp....| |
| | @ Bonjour | | Post 1 http://www.blogp....| |
| | @ Folder 1 | | Blog Q http://www.blogq....| |
| | @ Folder 2 | | Post 1 http://www.blogq....| |
| | @ Folder 3 | | | |
| | @ Folder 4 | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| +----------------------+ +------------------------------------------+ |
| ( + NF ) ( # ^ ) (#F#| P ) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Places Pane
The Places Pane is the pane on the left that shows the top level of the Places root. Its contents include several predefined entries. Some are "special" and cannot be removed because doing so would obscure access to areas of the user's navigation history or Bookmarks. Users may also add items to the list.
The Places Pane might include entries for:
- Pages visited today
- Pages visited this week
- All browsing history
- Most visited pages
- Pages that updated today
- The Bookmarks Menu
- The Bookmarks Toolbar
- All the user's subscriptions
- Bonjour sites
- Saved Searches
- Archived Collections
The Bookmarks Menu and Toolbar scale only to a small number of Bookmarks before they become overwhelmed. Add too many bookmarks to your toolbar and they fall off the end into the overflow menu. Add too many bookmarks to your menu and the menu begins to scroll, which slows access significantly. Both of these UI elements are convenient ways for fast access to commonly used links, but they are often (especially in the case of the Bookmarks Menu) misused.
A simple approach is to support collections at the top level in the Places Pane, encouraging users to "Archive" older, less frequently used collections of Bookmarks there where they'll be picked up by search but not be in view when browsing around.
Further enhancements might include smart population of the Bookmarks Menu based on content access frequency/freshness, but this is outside the scope of the first phase of this project.
Menus
Item Context Menu/Options Menu
| Open | |
| Open in New Tab | |
| Open in New Window | |
| Get Info | |
| Remove Item | |
| New Folder... | |
Search Menu
| In All Folders | |
| Only in Bookmarks Bar |
Browser Menu
When loaded, the Places View should attach a controller to the parent window that enables/disables and changes text on menu items. Need to make sure that page operations are not enabled for the places view.
File Menu
| New Window | Ctrl+N |
| New Tab | Ctrl+T |
| Open Location... | Ctrl+L |
| Open File... | Ctrl+O |
| Close Window... | Ctrl+Shift+W |
| Close Tab... | Ctrl+W |
| Save Page As... | Ctrl+S |
| Save Frame As... | |
| Send Link... | |
| Page Setup... | |
| Print Preview | |
| Print... | Ctrl+P |
| Import... | |
| Work Offline | |
| Exit | |
Edit Menu
| Undo | Ctrl+Z |
| Redo | Ctrl+Y |
| Cut | Ctrl+X |
| Copy | Ctrl+C |
| Paste | Ctrl+V |
| Delete | Del |
| Select All | Ctrl+A |
| Find in Places... | Ctrl+F |
| Find Again | Ctrl+G |
View Menu
| Toolbars | |
| Status Bar | |
| Sidebar | |
| Stop | Esc |
| Reload | Ctrl+R |
| Text Size | Ctrl+V |
| Page Style | Del |
| Character Encoding | Del |
| Page Source | Ctrl+U |
| Full Screen | F11 |
Go Menu, Tools Menu, Help Menu As is.
Bookmarks Menu
| Bookmark this Page... | |
| Bookmark All Tabs... | |
| Show All Bookmarks | |
| Bookmark | |
| Bookmark | |
| Bookmark | |
| Bookmark | |
| Bookmark | |
| Bookmark | |
| Bookmark | |
| Bookmark | |
Keyboard Bindings
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+F / ' F3 |
Focus search box |
| Del | Delete Selection |
| F2 | Rename Selected Item |
| Ctrl+I | Show Info for Selected Item |
| Ctrl+C | Copy the Selection |
| Ctrl+X | Cut the Selection |
| Ctrl+V | Paste the Selection |
| Ctrl+A | Select All Items |
| Enter Cmd+O |
Open Selected Item |
| Shift+Enter Shift+Cmd+O |
Open Selected Item in Tab ??? |