Feedback: User Experience on Firefox lacks "basic" features in respect to other Browsers.
Hi,
I would like to address the following feedback to Designers, User Experience Experts, and Developers of Firefox.
I am creating this post to mention something very important about the usuability of Firefox and that people look for in choosing their browsers. Although "just" usability aspects, I think they cannot be overlooked in order to make Firefox the go-to choice of more users.
There are a four (relatilvely) small features that Firefox lacks in respect to Chrome and other major browsers, and a number of people miss them so much that end up using other browsers. Namely:
1) There is no "Type Address + Tab" functionality when typing a URL of a website in the address bar and then pressing Tab so as to directly type the search that a user wants to look for once landing on the given website (this is a famous Chrome feature).
2) a CTRL + F search for a word in a web page does not highlight all words in a page, but only the current one is found (one needs to click enter to find the next one but it does not work like in Chrome or Safari which they highlight ALL instances of the searched text)
3) a laptop trackpad's pinch in/out with two fingers does not allow the zoom of a web page (third party plug ins fail at doing this task properly).
4) ALL other browsers open an incognito window with CTRL + SHIT + N. Why does Firefox does it differenly with CTRL + SHIT + P? This creates confusion for the average browser user.
I think having an attention to detail for such feature is really important. It would increase Firefox's userbase. Although a person choosing Firefox is making an important, usually conscious decision, about privacy, usuability plays an essential role for an average internet user.
All Replies (2)
Hello fed9, Even though I'm not a pro, I appreciate your Feedback!
Hi fed9, I'll mention avenues for feedback at the end, but to address some of these details:
(1) Tab to Site Search
Firefox implements this using a predefined keyword. For example, let's say you want to send searches to YouTube from the address bar. On YouTube, right-click in the search box and use the "Add a keyword for this Search" option. For example, maybe yt is convenient.
To use that keyword, type yt and space in the address bar. The drop down should immediately change to showing that what you type is going to be sent to YouTube's search URL.
More info: How to search IMDB, Wikipedia and more from the address bar.
(2) Find Should Highlight All
The Find bar has a button for Highlight All. This button should be sticky, that is, once you turn it on, it should stay on indefinitely for all future searches unless you turn it off. Is that not working for you?
More info: How to search the contents of the current page for text or links
(3) Trackpad Pinch Zoom
I think what you mean is that you want a magnifier effect that does not re-flow the text like a regular zoom. Is that right? I assume someone is working on this due to other requests, but it doesn't hurt to ask again.
(4) Use Ctrl+Shift+N to launch Private Windows
Firefox uses Ctrl+Shift+n for "Undo Close Window" since Ctrl+n opens a new window. It's probably too late to change what Ctrl+Shift+n and Ctrl+Shift+p do since a generation of users is familiar with the current behavior, but it would be nice to allow users to change keyboard shortcuts. Currently there is no way to do that except in a couple cases where they can be disabled.
- - - -
To submit feature suggestions, you have many choices, depending on your desired style of interaction.
Discussion Sites/Advocacy
- Mozilla Discourse: https://discourse.mozilla.org/
If none of the categories seem to fit, try https://discourse.mozilla.org/c/firefox-development - Reddit (monitored by Mozilla): https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/
- I saw someone created a Change.org petition but I don't know who sees those
Limited Length Comments
- Feedback site: https://qsurvey.mozilla.com/s3/FirefoxInput/
- Twitter (Mozilla official): https://twitter.com/firefox