User:David Regev/Ubiquitous Firefox Revisited: Difference between revisions

# '''System area'''. In this environment, besides the two buttons, everything else is content—even this system area. '''Everything is a page.''' (Compare this to the Unix philosophy of ‘[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_is_a_file everything is a file]’.) If you zoom in on the Wi-Fi icon, you get a full page with an interface for managing your wireless connection, thanks to semantic zooming. The same goes for the other objects in the system area. In fact, if you wished, you could replace the standard system objects with alternatives of your own choosing, because these are merely pages. The pages all appear inside a '''page group''' (similar to a tab group in Panorama). The background for this group is dark by default to indicate that it’s the system area, but the background could be changed for any group as well.

# '''Find button'''. The Find button is the only other button in the entire interface, besides the Command button. Its purpose is to take you to the phrase you seek within open pages. It searches every page in view, highlights the results, and takes you to the next one. This is like <code>Ctrl+F</code> in Firefox, except that it can quickly get you anywhere in the entire environment, not only within one page. Its function is so crucial that it deserves its own button, rather than appearing as another command in the list of commands. Like the Command button, holding down this button allows you to speak your search, allowing you to get to it as quickly as possible. For example: hold down the button, say ‘bunnies’, let go, and your screen jumps to the next occurrence of ‘bunnies’. This would also ideally be a hardware button.

# '''Inline downloads'''. Since everything is a page, and this environment is your entire operating system, all objects go here. So, when you want to download a file, it merely appears as another page. Until the file is fully downloaded, a progress indicator appears. In the mockup, a video is being downloaded, which may also be played right there. In fact, every page that is open is saved to the device. You thus never have to worry about saving anything or downloading it to make it available offline. You never have to download a file manually so it’s available outside your browser. If it’s open, it’s saved/downloaded; and you could just move it elsewhere in the environment or organize it if you wish (even while it’s still downloading). There is '''no distinction between opening and downloading'''. Once you delete a page, however, the system is free to overwrite its space in the future as necessary.

# '''New page'''. The way to create a new page is to touch any free spot in the environment, at any zoom level you like. Since there is no location bar for entering URLs and page titles, this is the only way to open a new page. When you tap on an area (indicated by the blue circle in the mockup), a New Page icon appears at that spot to let you know that a new page will be created at that spot. When you let go, a new page is created at that spot and is immediately zoomed in, showing you something similar to Mobile Firefox’s [http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-awesome-screen-search-firefox-android Awesome Screen], which will allow you to open anything you desire right there. Since this is the only way to create a brand new page, it should be harder to lose track of where you put that page. Finally, together with stacks, we have '''a real division between related pages and unrelated pages''': spawned pages are always appended to the same stack, keeping related pages together, and new pages are always created alone in a new area, keeping unrelated pages separate.