Extension Manager:UI Update

Background

This wiki will serve as a planning page for a redesign of the Add-ons Manager for Firefox 3.7.

Past work

Main article: past work

Madhava worked on redesigning the add-ons manager in 2007, and posted his work here. He also designed much of the current add-ons manager for Firefox 3, which is largely unchanged today.

Current Add-ons Manager

Main article: Current Add-ons Manager

Goals

Main article: Prioritized Goals

Main article: Redesign Themes

There are five main areas of the add-ons manager that this redesign will involve:

1. Maintaining and Configuring
2. Updating
3. Installing
4. Discovering
5. Troubleshooting

Tier One: Basic Functionality Minimum features needed for usable add-ons manager, would substantially change in any redesign, incorporation of newer forms of add-ons (jetpacks, personas) cannot happen without. The functionality here is not provided anywhere outside of the add-ons manager	Tier Two: Current Problems Areas that are currently interrupting user tasks	Tier Three: Enhancements Features that are currently barely present in add-ons manager but could provide substantial value to users. The functionality provided by these is available outside of the add-ons manager, but could be provided within it
1. Maintaining and Configuring	2. Updating	4. Discovering
	3. Installing	5. Troubleshooting

Wireframes

Storing/Managing Add-ons

Two-Panel System

The default Add-ons Manager view will be in a two-panel basic hierarchy view within the content area of the browser. Add-on categories, search, past searches, and recommended add-ons will be in the left panel, and expanded view will be on the right. This increasingly common format is a familiar layout in operating systems and applications, and follows a larger planned design plan for Firefox's auxiliary controls.

For viewing installed add-ons, the Detail View in the right panel will either show the contents of a category or an individual add-on, depending on which is selected. Viewing the contents of a category will show a summary view of the add-ons, with basic information and the ability to disable or remove an add-on. This gives the user the ability to quickly browse the contents of a category with more information than the list in the left panel provides. The information shown will be similar to what's in the current add-ons manager, but will allow for sorting by categories such as size and date added.

When the user selects an individual add-on, the right panel displays the add-on's information, options, preferences, and the ability to contribute to its developers.

Searching for and Installing Add-ons

Disabling Add-ons

= Removing Add-ons

Team

Sprint lead: Boriss
Development: Unfocused, Mossop
AMO liaison: Nick and Fligtar

Other contacts

Jetpack:
- Atul, Aza

Personas:
- Suneel Gupta, Amy Zehren(?)

Firebug:
- Firebug team is currently designing a new install/update solution for Firebug extensions. Let me know if anyone is interested in discussing it. jjb

Planning

Target Release

Firefox 3.7

Status

This project is currently in the planning and early design phase. The participants in the Sprint are gathering requirements and meeting with Add-ons, Jetpack, and Personas developers and planners to determine what changes need to be made to the add-ons manager to reflect the longterm goals of Firefox.

Mossop is currently rewriting the whole motherfucking API.

Resources

Past work

3/2006: Extension Manager UI Comments from developers on redesign ideas
7/2007: Firefox:Add-ons Manager UI: Madhava's two-panel proposed design
12/2007 Add-ons Manager UI interim rev2 Scaled back version of above, one panel design, very similar to current

Posts

12/11/2009: Redesigning Firefox’s Add-ons Manager

Automatic Updates I totally agree with the automatic updates. The FInd Updates feature is a geek thing. There could be an option merged with “automatically update firefox”. But be careful with add-ons not hosted on AMO, this could lead to serious security issues if the domain name was bought by another person. Plus, sometimes updates remove or break features. Normal people are not “update addicted”, they just want things that work. It would be interesting to make the difference between minor and major updates, or better, let extensions developpers say in the update feed “this is a feature and/or bugfix and/or security update”. Then, one could decide “This extension works, I never want to update it” or “Only where bugfixes and security issues are available”, and so on. Undo an update is another interesting point. - Snap

I’d really love the add-ons manager UI to expose which add-ons are not successfully checking for updates, as I have a fair few installed from external sites. - Takoosh

At Tool/Add-ons, you’re very much on the right track. That’s the logical place for new users to go and we need more TLC. What’s the difference among the four headings? In “Get…” if FireShot is an Extension why is it under “Get Add-ons”? If not recommended, why five stars? Got room for the “Browse All…” and “Browse All Recommended…” with “Recommended” above the other one and BOTH links together at the top or bottom? None of the ones that popped up for me were recommended, so why do they pop-up? “Recommended” scrolls off the lower page and some will miss it.

If I do a search for “color tabs,” should be search results be ordered on “Recommended” then alpha with other not recommended in alpha below recommended?

In Plugins, what is “MetaStream 3 Plugin 3.2.2.26 MetaStream 3 Plugin r4,” what did I do to add it, and do I dare disable it? Firefox 3.6 may add a feature to monitor whether plugins are current, and perhaps that should be able to be checked from here.

Flag add-ons not hosted on AMO. See: http://adblockplus.org/blog/extension-conflicts-2009-edition. These don’t go through the review process and should be seen as higher risk.

Integrate Collections (RE: the Add-on Collector) by default. https://add-ons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/add-on/11950. Collections are huge.

I would’ve actually consider of merging with AMO, to have a sort of hybrid like it’s done by http://www.feedly.com/

My extension, Stylish, puts a new panel into the Add-ons manager. It was a pain to make this work and it's still kind of buggy. An easier way for me to integrate my items into the manager would be welcome.

03/12/2009: Relocating Firefox’s Add-ons Manager

Given a sufficiently large canvas available to tab contents, as presumed and required by point 1, the current Add-ons Manager requires obscuring no more of the browser chrome than a tabbed one. However, a tabbed one does require that its tab be focused, which implies that other Web content tabs are not. This presents a problem if the add-on being managed is making alterations in the canvas of Web content, while there exists no benefit of unobscured browser chrome over the current Add-ons Manager. The net effect is an objective loss.

tabs that belong to the chrome could be differentiated from web tabs. This could be a different background, different font, different favicon (or none at all), or some other way of differentiating the appearance. If web tabs looked like Stephen Horlander’s ‘Page Integrated Tabs’ mock-up, differentiating between them and the chrome would be even easier, as chrome tabs would retain the look of the rest of the chrome.

The location bar could also be differentiated. The identity button could be made to look more chrome-like, or eliminated altogether. The URL could be replaced with a more readable breadcrumb trail (like Alex Faaborg’s ‘Personal URL’). Better yet, when Firefox 4 comes around, the whole Navigation toolbar could be eliminated altogether—a behaviour reserved for the browser and applications that are given permission.

I think your mockup is way to complicated. I definitely like the idea of putting the manager in a tab, but you should not put more information there. Information like Compatibility, “updated” and so on should only be shown if the user explicitly clicks on it. I would suggest to show a list of all add-ons with activated/deactivated status by default like in the old dialog.

The rest is not interesting for most of the users and just raises the barrier for users by showing them a clutter interface they have to “learn

let there be an “Overview”-mode/feature e.g. by selecting the “My Add-ons” in the sidebar shown in your mock-up, for a fast look on what’s there, which one should be updated, which one is installed, but disabled, etc -> maybe even similar to fenec or “Mr.Tech Toolkit” – compact-mode (I’d prefer fenec UI)

Bugs

256509 install without restart

Extra Images

Wireframes

Basic two-panel accordian design - gives expanded information and additional add-on actions in right panel, with inventory on left.
Progressive disclosure - a more minimal design with expands an add-on's information from an inventory list
Windows manager style - like navigation in the operating system, similar to current design ideas for better bookmark and history management
Two-panel design, in content or not
Notification on two-panel design, in content or not
Transition with animation from subtle notification to add-ons manager in an update notification

Mockups

Styled like amo for comparison - what a design based on web content rather than Chrome could look like. The problem is that it's not obvious the user is on a preferences page rather than a website.
Chrome-styled design without prefs, similar to current add-ons manager
Breadcrumb links
Minimal white website style
Top of breadcrumb trail
Full top-down prefs and add-ons rough mock