Firefox:Add-ons Manager UI

Previous Designs

Ideas from Feb-May 2006: Firefox:Extension_Manager_UI

Task Flow Overview

Install from AMO (and whitelist)

1. User clicks on an AMO "Install Now" button
2. The modal confirmation dialog appears
   • Issues: The dialog is (a) too intimidating, (b) verbose, (c) confusing
3. Add-ons Manager is launched in the temporary "Installation" view
   1. Progress indication goes by (usually too fast to see)
   2. On completion, the text changes to "Restart to complete the installation"
   3. User clicks the "Restart Firefox" button or goes on with his/her life
4. eventually, the user restarts
   • Issues: the position of the permanent "Restart Firefox" button makes it seem like it must be pressed to close the dialog (as with an OK or Cancel button)
5. Firefox comes back up.
   • Issues: If the installed add-ons pop up prefs panes, they are there; if not, there's no indication that anything has happened, successfully or otherwise

Install from Elsewhere

0. User clicks on something to start an install or the page just pushes it

1. Notification bar appears to let the user know that Firefox has stopped the page from installing something. The users can click the button ("Edit Options") or dismiss the notification bar
2. If the user clicks the button (END otherwise), a dialog appears that lets the user add the current site to the whitelist of sites that can install software (this whitelist is going away); user does so and closes the dialog
   • Issues: overly complex UI (many extra concepts introduced); the user may not want (in fact, likely doesn't) to whitelist the site for eternity
3. User is dropped back on the original page and must figure out how to restart the install (click button or reload page, depending on the situation)
   • Issues: no sign of what to do next -- we've abandoned the user
4. The modal confirmation dialog appears
   • Issues: The dialog is (a) not intimidating enough (differs from the last case), (b) verbose, (c) confusing

• from this point on, the process (and corresponding issues) is the same as in the previous case

Suggested Designs

Drive-by Blocker

Current:

Revised - option 1 (no whitelist):

Revised - option 2 (whitelist):

New favicon-based notification concept (more about this here: mockups)

Scary Confirmation

The rationale behind this redesign is to elevate the warning, rather than the list or reiteration of the identity of the add-on, to primacy in the dialog. The user (should) already know what he/she is installing, so its presence is just as context for the new information (the warning) above.

Notes:

• (Source Unconfirmed)- this takes the place of "Unsigned" in the implementation. If it were signed, the name of the source would be in parentheses.
• the URL should be selectable

Add-ons Manager

Goals of the redesign:

• Major
  • Greater task orientation
  • Greater ability to start the process of finding and getting add-ons from within the browser proper
  • more integration and/or sharing of features with AMO (ie. ratings, descriptions, etc.)
  • decrease (or eliminate) tabs that are sometimes there and sometimes not; a corollary - decrease the number of times the same add-on shows up in more than one tab/space (ie - a near-complete install in one place and a not-quite-yet selectable add-on in another)
• Minor
  • ability to see more add-ons at a glance
  • increase prominence of the user-actions available for each add-on
  • more prominence to details about addons without digging into prefs
  • Moving permanent restart button out of the lower-right-hand-corner (where it looks like an "OK/Cancel" button) and to a place where it's clearly the next step after installing an add-on

Getting Add-ons

Managing Add-ons