Firefox/Projects/Home Tab: Difference between revisions

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== Summary ==
__NOTOC__This project covers the design and creation of a Firefox Home Tab, a small persistent tab placed at the far left of the tab strip that will serve as the user's home on the Web.  The plan is for this interface to be locally hosted, customizable, and personalized to the needs of each individual user.
This project covers the design and creation of a Firefox Home Tab, a small persistent tab placed at the far left of the tab strip that will serve as the user's home on the Web.  The plan is for this interface to be locally hosted, customizable, and personalized to the needs of each individual user.


The second aspect of this project is allowing users to create "App Tabs," small persistent tabs placed to the right of the Home Tab that contain home pages or Web applications that the user very regularly interacts with.  App tabs can not be accidentally closed, and they do get lost when viewing a large number of documents in separate tabs.  
The second aspect of this project is allowing users to create "App Tabs," small persistent tabs placed to the right of the Home Tab that contain home pages or Web applications that the user very regularly interacts with.  App tabs can not be accidentally closed, and they do get lost when viewing a large number of documents in separate tabs.


== Current Status ==
* Project lead: Mossop
* Project members: limi
* Potential reviewers:
* QA contacts: marcia


Very early conceptual design work.
=Status=


== Next Steps ==
* IN FLIGHT
* General tracking in {{bug|551849}}
* Met with UX team to talk over the initial design. Beginning planning for how implementation will proceed


* Post first round of mockups for feedback
=Goals=


== Related Bugs ==
* Replace Firefox's start page with a local chrome page containing an awesome bar and search bar
* Add support for persistent "app tabs" that appear in every window and persist across restarts
* Have the home and app tabs only load when first viewed in a window


* Tracking bug: {{bug|551849}}
=Non-Goals=


== Team ==
* For the initial project the home page will not feature any dynamic content like history/bookmark lookups


*'''Project Lead''': faaborg
=Timeline/Milestones=
* everyone
*'''QA''': marcia


== Designs ==
* 2009/04: Get more complete mockups for the initial stage blogged about
* 2009/04: Implement the locally hosted homepage as a normal tab
* 2010/04: Implement app tabs per-window
* 2010/05: Make home and app-tabs appear in every window
* 2010/05: Make app tabs persist across sessions and implement the migration path.


[http://people.mozilla.com/~faaborg/files/firefox4Mockups/homeTab-i1.png Extremely early conceptual mockup]
=Delivery Requirements=


Notable aspects:
* Requires an add-on compatibility changing application version increment
* no browser chrome
* Must be complete before the first beta of the target delivery vehicle
* entirely zero configuration by default (ambient news)
* mouse-based access to bookmarks and history
* ability to change the search engine (drop down to the right of it)
* (more frequently visited sites and the ability to customize with a persona below the fold)


[http://blog.seanmartell.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/newtab_1.jpg Great thumbnail idea by Sean Martell]
=Dependencies=


== Goals/Use Cases ==
=Testing=


Designs will explore a range of ideas, including:
* Most of the home/app tab features should be able to be automatically tested by browser-chrome tests
* Frequently visited sites with ambient news
* Migration path will likely need manual/mozmill testing unless we invent a new test suite.
* Leveraging the user's social graph for ambient social news
* Access to all available search engines
* Browse-based interface into bookmarks and history (ties into the [https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Projects/Places_UI Places UI] project)
* Increasing the discoverability of personalization with personas
* Message snippets
* Fully localized season and holiday changes (could be lots of fun, also really lots of work, but worth exploring).


== Non Goals ==
=Related Projects=


* Non goal 1: A streamlined and simplistic page.  This page is going to provide a rich experience, with an expressive visual design and a range of features, it might even be a bit distracting (er, engaging).  This is a fully recognition-based interface (the new tab page will likely remain fully recall-based).
* [[Firefox/Projects/New Theme|New Theme]] is not required but without switching tabs to be on top the chromeless app-tabs will look pretty strange.
 
* Non goal 2: The traditional home page portal slum of tabloid level celebrity news, sensationalistic titles, and pathetic attempts to leverage the screen real estate to promote unrelated products (instant messenger apps, iPods, etc.).  This page will be 100% about the specific user and their fully personalized experience on the Web, it is not about the company that created the browser.

Revision as of 00:36, 9 April 2010

This project covers the design and creation of a Firefox Home Tab, a small persistent tab placed at the far left of the tab strip that will serve as the user's home on the Web. The plan is for this interface to be locally hosted, customizable, and personalized to the needs of each individual user.

The second aspect of this project is allowing users to create "App Tabs," small persistent tabs placed to the right of the Home Tab that contain home pages or Web applications that the user very regularly interacts with. App tabs can not be accidentally closed, and they do get lost when viewing a large number of documents in separate tabs.

  • Project lead: Mossop
  • Project members: limi
  • Potential reviewers:
  • QA contacts: marcia

Status

  • IN FLIGHT
  • General tracking in bug 551849
  • Met with UX team to talk over the initial design. Beginning planning for how implementation will proceed

Goals

  • Replace Firefox's start page with a local chrome page containing an awesome bar and search bar
  • Add support for persistent "app tabs" that appear in every window and persist across restarts
  • Have the home and app tabs only load when first viewed in a window

Non-Goals

  • For the initial project the home page will not feature any dynamic content like history/bookmark lookups

Timeline/Milestones

  • 2009/04: Get more complete mockups for the initial stage blogged about
  • 2009/04: Implement the locally hosted homepage as a normal tab
  • 2010/04: Implement app tabs per-window
  • 2010/05: Make home and app-tabs appear in every window
  • 2010/05: Make app tabs persist across sessions and implement the migration path.

Delivery Requirements

  • Requires an add-on compatibility changing application version increment
  • Must be complete before the first beta of the target delivery vehicle

Dependencies

Testing

  • Most of the home/app tab features should be able to be automatically tested by browser-chrome tests
  • Migration path will likely need manual/mozmill testing unless we invent a new test suite.

Related Projects

  • New Theme is not required but without switching tabs to be on top the chromeless app-tabs will look pretty strange.
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