Firefox/Features/New Tab Page

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Status

New Tab Page
Stage Design
Status In progress
Release target Firefox 9
Health OK
Status note Design iteration and active prototyping.

{{#set:Feature name=New Tab Page

|Feature stage=Design |Feature status=In progress |Feature version=Firefox 9 |Feature health=OK |Feature status note=Design iteration and active prototyping. }}

Team

Product manager Asa Dotzler
Directly Responsible Individual Jennifer Boriss
Lead engineer Margaret Leibovic
Security lead `
Privacy lead `
Localization lead `
Accessibility lead `
QA lead Virgil Dicu
UX lead Jennifer Boriss
Product marketing lead `
Operations lead `
Additional members `

{{#set:Feature product manager=Asa Dotzler

|Feature feature manager=Jennifer Boriss |Feature lead engineer=Margaret Leibovic |Feature security lead=` |Feature privacy lead=` |Feature localization lead=` |Feature accessibility lead=` |Feature qa lead=Virgil Dicu |Feature ux lead=Jennifer Boriss |Feature product marketing lead=` |Feature operations lead=` |Feature additional members=` }}

Open issues/risks

  • Performance or memory degradation
  • Scope creep

Stage 1: Definition

1. Feature overview

Whenever Firefox users open a new tab, their goal is to use it to navigate somewhere. Firefox currently displays a blank page when Firefox users open a new page. This is guaranteed to not help them perform their next task.

We'd like to implement a page which displays on new tabs and helps users complete their next task. This will likely include offering options that are most likely to include the user's next task so that valuable time and steps are saved.

Such a page must meet certain requirements:

  • Load instantly
  • Not be so distracting as to take users mentally away from their intended task and into an unintended one
  • Does not require configuration to be useful
  • Can be configured entirely or disabled completely
  • Does not embarrass the user

The simplest functionality would include the following:

This is intended to be the simplest possible version of a new tab page. The requirements are:

  • Show a grid of top 9-16 sites when opening a new tab
  • Responsiveness of new tab shouldn't appreciably decrease
  • It should be possible to remove sites that show up in the list
  • It should be possible to rearrange the list
  • It should be possible to manually add a new site to the list
  • When opening a new tab using keyboard shortcuts, we should visually de-emphasize the grid. (Current direction: desaturate colors to black & white, fade in colors if mouse is being used)

This feature falls primarily in the Discovery category (from the "Discover, Experience, and Connect" vision statement.)

2. Users & use cases

  • Searching from a new tab page
  • Navigating to a location from a new tab page
  • Opening a new tab page without being sure of what task to begin

3. Dependencies

`

4. Requirements

`

Non-goals

  • Implement a very feature-rich version
  • Replace or complement the Home Tab approach; this is a separate issue (that may inform our decisions on that front)

Stage 2: Design

5. Functional specification

`

6. User experience design

Design Questions

These are almost all inter-dependent questions, so an answer to one directs the answer to others. A complete design should address all of these.

  • Should items link to individual pages or entire domains?
  • Should removing an item delete the item only from the new tab page, delete the page from browser history, or forget the entire domain (this would require a confirmation dialog)?
  • How often should we change/update the items shown on the page? Changing more frequently would reflect frecency but reduce consistency.
  • Should we keep these items the same once the user modifies them?
  • Do we want this to be a curated collection or a smart browser-generated set?
  • Only keep items the user explicitly decides to keep?
  • Remember which items the user removed so that we don't add them back?
  • What kind of UI should we provide for adding items?

Older Designs

Next Steps

Stage 3: Planning

7. Implementation plan

`

8. Reviews

Security review

`

Privacy review

`

Localization review

`

Accessibility

`

Quality Assurance review

`

Operations review

`

Stage 4: Development

9. Implementation

`

Stage 5: Release

10. Landing criteria

` {{#set:Feature open issues and risks=* Performance or memory degradation

  • Scope creep

|Feature overview=Whenever Firefox users open a new tab, their goal is to use it to navigate somewhere. Firefox currently displays a blank page when Firefox users open a new page. This is guaranteed to not help them perform their next task.

We'd like to implement a page which displays on new tabs and helps users complete their next task. This will likely include offering options that are most likely to include the user's next task so that valuable time and steps are saved.

Such a page must meet certain requirements:

  • Load instantly
  • Not be so distracting as to take users mentally away from their intended task and into an unintended one
  • Does not require configuration to be useful
  • Can be configured entirely or disabled completely
  • Does not embarrass the user

The simplest functionality would include the following:

This is intended to be the simplest possible version of a new tab page. The requirements are:

  • Show a grid of top 9-16 sites when opening a new tab
  • Responsiveness of new tab shouldn't appreciably decrease
  • It should be possible to remove sites that show up in the list
  • It should be possible to rearrange the list
  • It should be possible to manually add a new site to the list
  • When opening a new tab using keyboard shortcuts, we should visually de-emphasize the grid. (Current direction: desaturate colors to black & white, fade in colors if mouse is being used)

This feature falls primarily in the Discovery category (from the "Discover, Experience, and Connect" vision statement.) |Feature users and use cases=* Searching from a new tab page

  • Navigating to a location from a new tab page
  • Opening a new tab page without being sure of what task to begin

|Feature dependencies=` |Feature requirements=` |Feature non-goals=* Implement a very feature-rich version

  • Replace or complement the Home Tab approach; this is a separate issue (that may inform our decisions on that front)

|Feature functional spec=` |Feature ux design=* Latest design: Faaborg's iteration 1, referenced in UX meeting (May 2011)

Design Questions

These are almost all inter-dependent questions, so an answer to one directs the answer to others. A complete design should address all of these.

  • Should items link to individual pages or entire domains?
  • Should removing an item delete the item only from the new tab page, delete the page from browser history, or forget the entire domain (this would require a confirmation dialog)?
  • How often should we change/update the items shown on the page? Changing more frequently would reflect frecency but reduce consistency.
  • Should we keep these items the same once the user modifies them?
  • Do we want this to be a curated collection or a smart browser-generated set?
  • Only keep items the user explicitly decides to keep?
  • Remember which items the user removed so that we don't add them back?
  • What kind of UI should we provide for adding items?

Older Designs

Next Steps

|Feature implementation plan=` |Feature security review=` |Feature privacy review=` |Feature localization review=` |Feature accessibility review=` |Feature qa review=` |Feature operations review=` |Feature implementation notes=` |Feature landing criteria=` }}

Feature details

Priority P1
Rank 999
Theme / Goal `
Roadmap User Experience
Secondary roadmap `
Feature list Desktop
Project `
Engineering team Desktop front-end

{{#set:Feature priority=P1

|Feature rank=999 |Feature theme=` |Feature roadmap=User Experience |Feature secondary roadmap=` |Feature list=Desktop |Feature project=` |Feature engineering team=Desktop front-end }}

Team status notes

  status notes
Products ` `
Engineering ` `
Security ` `
Privacy ` `
Localization ` `
Accessibility ` `
Quality assurance ` `
User experience ` `
Product marketing ` `
Operations ` `

{{#set:Feature products status=`

|Feature products notes=` |Feature engineering status=` |Feature engineering notes=` |Feature security status=` |Feature security health=` |Feature security notes=` |Feature privacy status=` |Feature privacy notes=` |Feature localization status=` |Feature localization notes=` |Feature accessibility status=` |Feature accessibility notes=` |Feature qa status=` |Feature qa notes=` |Feature ux status=` |Feature ux notes=` |Feature product marketing status=` |Feature product marketing notes=` |Feature operations status=` |Feature operations notes=` }}


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