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Tabbed Browsing/User Interface Design/Tab Overflow: Difference between revisions
Tabbed Browsing/User Interface Design/Tab Overflow (view source)
Revision as of 14:24, 13 January 2010
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We need to find a better way of handling the "too many tabs to fit nicely on the tab bar" case. When users get beyond 15/20 tabs, depending on screen resolution, the tabs become almost unusable. | We need to find a better way of handling the "too many tabs to fit nicely on the tab bar" case. When users get beyond 15/20 tabs, depending on screen resolution, the tabs become almost unusable. | ||
[[User:Ge.diego/Tab_Management_Comments|Suggestion from user Ge.diego on opening too many tabs]] | |||
= Goals = | = Goals = | ||
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- keyboard accessible navigation | - keyboard accessible navigation | ||
... and that we want to try retain those even for overflowed tabs (dragging a | ... and that we want to try retain those even for overflowed tabs (dragging a tab back to the start of the set when it's at the end is occasionally useful): | ||
tab back to the start of the set when it's at the end is occasionally useful): | |||
=== Chevron Menu Only (Safari) === | === Chevron Menu Only (Safari) === | ||
* When you select an item from the overflow menu, the indication of selected | * When you select an item from the overflow menu, the indication of selected tab vanishes from the strip, which looks weird and gives no indication as to what is actually selected. | ||
tab vanishes from the strip, which looks weird and gives no indication as to | * D&D and keynav break, unless you want to implement various horrid hacks to show the popup menu and allow dragging/navigating into it, which almost certainly don't work on Mac. | ||
what is actually selected. | |||
* D&D and keynav break, unless you want to implement various horrid hacks to | |||
show the popup menu and allow dragging/navigating into it, which almost | |||
certainly don't work on Mac. | |||
=== Chevron Menu with Scrolling Strip === | === Chevron Menu with Scrolling Strip === | ||
* When you select a tab from the menu, the strip is zoom-scrolled so that the | * When you select a tab from the menu, the strip is zoom-scrolled so that the tab is visible. This solves the "no visible selected tab in tab strip" issue that affects the plain Chevron Menu solution. However when the strip is scrolled the set of non-visible tabs changes. There may be more non-visible tabs to the right and now left of the strip, meaning two menus need be shown, perhaps at alternate ends of the tab strip. This sounds cumbersome. | ||
tab is visible. This solves the "no visible selected tab in tab strip" issue | |||
that affects the plain Chevron Menu solution. However when the strip is | |||
scrolled the set of non-visible tabs changes. There may be more non-visible | |||
tabs to the right and now left of the strip, meaning two menus need be shown, | |||
perhaps at alternate ends of the tab strip. This sounds cumbersome. | |||
* D&D and keynav probably work in this case though. | * D&D and keynav probably work in this case though. | ||
=== Chevron Menu with Tab Reordering (Visual Studio 2005) === | === Chevron Menu with Tab Reordering (Visual Studio 2005) === | ||
* LIFO ordering on the strip, sense of insertion is inverted. New tabs appear | * LIFO ordering on the strip, sense of insertion is inverted. New tabs appear at the start of the strip and older ones move to the right until they are eventually evicted into a menu. Selecting an item from the menu re-inserts the item at the start of the strip. I have been using VS2005 for over a month now and this is a disaster. The delicate order of tabs that some users have is not only not preserved, it is actively destroyed. They should have left it the way it was. | ||
at the start of the strip and older ones move to the right until they are | |||
eventually evicted into a menu. Selecting an item from the menu re-inserts the | |||
item at the start of the strip. I have been using VS2005 for over a month now | |||
and this is a disaster. The delicate order of tabs that some users have is not | |||
only not preserved, it is actively destroyed. They should have left it the way | |||
it was. | |||
* Doesn't easily support D&D or keynav to non-visible items. | * Doesn't easily support D&D or keynav to non-visible items. | ||
=== Scrolling Strip (buttons) (Visual Studio 2003 and earlier) === | === Scrolling Strip (buttons) (Visual Studio 2003 and earlier) === | ||
* Supports D&D and keynav while maintaining a single static piece of UI (scroll | * Supports D&D and keynav while maintaining a single static piece of UI (scroll buttons) | ||
buttons) | |||
* Setting the scroll speed correctly is likely to be a challenge. | * Setting the scroll speed correctly is likely to be a challenge. | ||
* No instant way of getting to a hidden tab - speed of access relies on | * No instant way of getting to a hidden tab - speed of access relies on scrolling and dexterity | ||
scrolling and dexterity | |||
| Line 138: | Line 122: | ||
* Shifting rows OR disconnect between tab and tab contents. | * Shifting rows OR disconnect between tab and tab contents. | ||
* Consumes content area space. | * Consumes content area space. | ||
See [https://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Aravindet/Multirow_tabs Aravindet's proposal] for a multi-row layout without the shifting/disconnect disadvantage. | |||
= Final Thinking = | = Final Thinking = | ||
Of the options present, the Chevron Menu with Scrolling Strip seems to feel the most natural, both in UI consistency with bookmarks overflow, and the concept of extending the tab strip. It also avoids a lot of timing/speed issues associated with other solutions. | Of the options present, the Chevron Menu with Scrolling Strip seems to feel the most natural, both in UI consistency with bookmarks overflow, and the concept of extending the tab strip. It also avoids a lot of timing/speed issues associated with other solutions. | ||
[pkasting] So is there a reason we implemented the scrolling strip w/scrollbuttons in Firefox 2 instead? Was that just quicker to implement and will change some day, or was there more discussion not recorded here? | |||
= Other threads about tabs, tab overflow, and tab design = | |||
Over the years there have been many disjointed threads about tabs, tab overflow, and tab design on how to handle the issues of the close button, drag-and-drop, screen real estate, tab width, etc. This list is meant to bring together previous discussions that may have good, but overlooked ideas. | |||
The dates (yyyy-mm-dd) listed are of the first post in each thread. | |||
* 2002-07-17, "Tabbed Browser: Gracefully handling tab overflow" http://groups.google.com/group/netscape.public.mozilla.ui/browse_thread/thread/2fef8f189a52e1d9/ | |||
* 2003-10-09, "When opening too many tabs you can't move to them with the mouse ("X" button and tabs overlap)" https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=221684 | |||
* 2005-08-29, [[Link Targeting#Closing Tabs]] and [[Link Targeting#Tab Discoverability]] | |||
* 2005-09-13, Bugzilla Bug 308396: "UE fixes for tabbed browsing" https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=308396 | |||
* 2005-11-03, Ben Goodger's blog entry: "Improving Tabbed Browsing" http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/009210.html | |||
* 2005-11-04, Comments on Ben Goodger's blog entry: "Using tabs" http://www.beltzner.ca/mike/archives/2005/11/04/using_tabs.html | |||
* 2005-11-05, "New Experimental Tabbed Browsing Builds" http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=337912 | |||
* 2005-11-29, Bugzilla Bug 318168: "Improve tabbed browsing" https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=318168 | |||
* 2005-11-29, [[Tabbed_Browsing]] | |||
* 2005-12-30, [[Talk:Tabbed_Browsing]] | |||
* 2006-01-25, [[Firefox/Feature Brainstorming#Requiring significant changes to existing UI]]: Tabbed Browsing | |||
* 2006-03-05, [[FX2 Visual Update/User Interface Design]] | |||
* 2006-05-04, [[User:Ge.diego/Tab Management Comments]] | |||
* 2006-05-05, [[User:Ge.diego/User Interface Mockup#Tab_management_comments]] | |||
* 2006-06-22, Bugzilla Bug 342385: "get the browser.tabs.tabClipWidth hidden pref working again" https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=342385 | |||
* 2006-06-26, "tab scrolling patch landed on the trunk" http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.apps.firefox/browse_thread/thread/5a15c3357b03deab/ | |||
* 2006-06-27, Bugzilla Bug 342890: "make tab minWidth 125px and heed the browser.tabs.tabMinWidth hidden pref" https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=342890 | |||
* 2006-06-30, "my vote on the new bon echo tab scrolling feature is ..." http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=434106 | |||
* 2006-06-30, Bugzilla Bug 343251: "usability problems with tab overflow / scrolling" https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=343251 | |||
* 2006-07-02, "BonEcho Tabs display in tab bar for builds after 06-28-2006" http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=434924 | |||
* 2006-07-10, Bugzilla Bug 344171: "Show overflow menus when right-click tab scroll buttons" https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=344171 | |||
= Tab modifiers for other versions of Firefox (1.0x/1.5x)= | |||
Looking at addons and their screenshots can give ideas as to what features and capabilities users are looking for in their tabs. | |||
* Tabbed Browsing addons https://addons.mozilla.org/search.php?cat=14 | |||