Proposal for a new bookmarks user interface
- Epiphany version: 3.38.0-118-gc0d32981
- WebKitGTK version: 2.30.4
- Operating system and version: Ubuntu 20.10 with Gnome 3.38.1
I'm proposing a new user interface for Gnome-Web. The current interface (the All) tab can become very easily cluttered if you have a lot of bookmarks. Reordering bookmarks is also currently not possible.
Main Objective: The main objective of this proposal is to improve the overall UX for the bookmarks UI.
Requirements:
- Add a folder view to the UI. You should be able to choose a directory where your bookmark should reside in.
- You should also be able to freely move the bookmarks in each folder.
- It should be touchscreen friendly, so on a touchscreen, the bookmark rows should also be slightly more vertical in size to make them easier to touch.
- Accessibility: Accessing the bookmarks should be done through a button in the menu bar, it is already like this, in the version I am on.
- Desktops: The bookmarks menu should be a sidebar that takes a part of the main view. It should be able to be pinned (This would shift the viewport to a smaller size).
- Small Screens (eg: phones): The bookmarks menu should appear as an overlay over the website viewport when clicked, taking the whole screen view.
- Currently, I have no idea how the bookmarks should be displayed, but I think a folder view would be a good idea, as treeview is not exactly suited for touchscreens.
Other Browser Examples: Below are some examples of how bookmarks are managed on other browsers with some comments amended about their usability:
Chromium (ungoogled-chromium) 87.0.4280.88:
- There are currently 3 ways to access your bookmarks.
- Bookmarks Folder can be accessed through the bookmarks bar. Standard practice.
- Through the hamburger menu, which is overall very clunky in my opinion as it requires multiple clicks to access, is hidden with all the other options in the menu, mis-clicking closes the menu and you have to start over.
- Bookmarks manager, requires multiple clicks to access from the hamburger menu
Edge (Chromium) Version 89.0.731.0 (Official build) dev (64-bit):
- Far better UX than Chromium
- Bookmarks Folder can be accessed through the bookmarks bar. Standard practice.
- The bookmarks manager is now a window, it can be pinned as a sidebar for a easy access.
- It can be accessed as an optional button in the top bar (1 click), or through the hamburger menu (2 clicks)
- New bookmark dialog could be simplified.
- Tree view which is not appropriate for touch screens.
Firefox 84.0 (64-bit):
- There are 4 ways to access bookmarks:
- Bookmarks Folder can be accessed through the bookmarks bar. Standard practice.
- CTRL+B which is a fast way to access them through the sidebar.
- Through the library button, which is a bad UX since it's 3 clicks and hard to access, it opens them as a window.
- Through the show sidebars button, which depending on what sidebar you were in, may require an extra 2 clicks through a menu.
- Ability to add separators which is a nice feature.
- Tree view which is not appropriate for phones.
Feel free to discuss anything that is disagreed with.
Edited by Yiannis Charalambous