Firefox 2
- Context Menu
- History
- Location Bar
- Menus
- Navigation Buttons
- Sidebars
- XP Theming
Firefox 2 was distributed with a custom skin as the default skin, contradicting its goal of a highly usable interface. It has excellent and award-winning usability despite this. But looking at it under a microscope has turned up some things I think can be improved.
Quick Notes
- Inconsistent spacing between controls.
- Misalignment of controls both horizontally and vertically.
- Deviations from XP theming in the Windows builds.
- Mouse buttons for Back and Forward should work when mouse is over chrome.
Bookmarks Sidebar
- Cannot see folders in FAYT search.
- Present the results in tree form so their location can be seen.
- All folders must be expanded when shown in results.
- After clearing the search, folders must return to their previous expanded or collapsed state.
- Pasting a URI does not create a bookmark.
- Paste is enabled when no suitable formats are on Clipboard.
- A failed Paste creates strange focus errors. Clicking folders makes a page load.
Bookmark Properties
- Make it modeless and allow multiple instances.
- Make it resizeable with description field fitting to the vertical space.
- Big gap between last control and first command button.
- Inconsistent gaps between just about everything.
- Labels are not baseline aligned with textbox text.
Status Bar
- Sizing grip panel is removed when window is maximised:
- This lags behind the resize.
- Shifts right-aligned statusbar panels, such as HTML Validator Extension.
- Panel should remain when maximised, with the grip hidden.
- Should be no separator before sizing grip.