Current Behaviour:
- When switching between tabs, I have to make two touches. Most other browsers only require one.
- When switching between tabs, there is very limited space to display tab specific information.
- Tab icons do not have a number indicating the number of tabs open.
- We cannot switch between tabs using the left-to-right swipe motion.
- We are forced to use the in-browser tab switching because we cannot have multiple instances of the browser app.
- I can have a GMail web app, and Gmail open in a seperate tab, but I would have to switch between them differently. This can be fairly confusing because the windows aren't lableled when switching unless you go to the main Apps page.
Expected Behaviour:
- Use a switching behaviour similar to the way we switch between notifications to switch between tabs. I posted a video about it here: https://plus.google.com/113548024460495540073/posts/LKk7yHvFY68
- Alternatively, abandon the entire Tab functionality and only have new browser app instances. This will make the experience more aligned with the Web App experience.
NOTE: I remember reading an article regarding windows switching tab switching. The article explained that the introduction of Tabs in applications was an attempt to take control of windows switching from the window manager. I don't have a reference, but I believe it was written with Ubuntu in mind. If knows about this article, it probably gives good use cases to abandone tabbing all together.
UX Comment:
The new bottom edge functionality will address the issues above.
See bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-ux/+bug/1329943
I was looking at some of the application development guidelines here:
http://
Why do we have tabs implemented twice?
I suspect that the poor implementation of tabs in the webbrowser is a byproduct of the restricitve Tab functionality mentioned above. We are implementing tabs twice because the more generic tab above is designed for a more static set of options, while the tabs used for the browser is more dynamic and can be added, removed, closed, etc.
I would expect that we consolidate these two types of tabs before we see any fragmentation at the application layer. The Tab "building block" should be made more flexible so that applications can add and remove tabs dynamically, while keeping some tabs as fixed (for example, an options tab). Also, we should make it easier to hide tabs (the "building block" variety of tab takes up too much screen real estate), and switch between tabs (which required two touches in the case of the browser).
Here is a proposal:
- The "building block tabs" should be hidden. They should be made visible using a bottom-up swipe. They should be switchable using the side to side motion we use for notifications.
- The "browser tabs" should either be eliminated and treated as multiple browser apps, or assuming the above suggestion is implemented, they should by added dynamically to the existing "building block tabs" where they will be hidden and switchable with a single touch (and various slides).