Test the new look of addons.mozilla.org!

Please read this blog post and leave your feedback here!

https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2017/10/25/test-new-look-addons-mozilla-org/

4 Likes

Overall, I’m really excited and think it looks great…but apparently, you’re removing the ability to preview a theme just by hovering over it? I kind of wonder why. That was very convenient. Even if you didn’t want to activate this effect using hover for some reason, maybe there could be a little “Tap to preview” button on each theme on the home and search pages, just like there’s a “Tap to preview” button on each theme page.

I mean…it’s honestly not that big a deal considering the site loads extremely fast, meaning traveling from the search page to an individual theme page is almost instantaneous and thus previewing themes is still very quick and easy. So I won’t exactly be heartbroken if you remove the hover-to-preview feature. I still kinda wonder why the change, though.

I don’t dig that there are fewer themes on the Themes home page (and on the category pages) than there used to be. It’s great to be able to see a lot at a glance. I do appreciate that you want to show the themes bigger, but eh…it just feels a bit empty, honestly.

I think it’s great that Featured themes are marked as such on the individual theme pages. Also, you finally fixed the “More themes by…” section to include a variety of a person’s themes even if they’re more recent. Previously, for me, it ONLY showed the three themes I made in 2013 and never any of the 270+ themes I made in 2016 and 2017. It’s so refreshing to see this fixed.

Why do some themes look pixel-y? An example is below:


I think this is the biggest thing to fix.

Overall, I’m really happy!! I think it looks great and this was overdue, tbh. Don’t mind my complaints, I still love it overall and am excited for it to come out.

2 Likes

Oh, one last thing, I wish they still showed a few reviews without having to go to the reviews sub-page. That was a nice feature. Helps you see valuable information about the add-on just from a glance.

3 Likes

Thanks for the detailed feedback. There are a couple of reasons we got rid of the theme preview feature:

  • It hasn’t worked very reliably in the past, probably because downloading large images can fail or be slow at times.
  • We plan to expand themes in the near future, which means they’ll do more and may perform even worse on a live preview feature.
  • It’s fairly easy to install a theme to try it out, and then undo the installation.

Those reasons make sense. Especially the part about expanding themes’ capabilities, which I’m really excited about.

Hi,

I just try the new add-ons site. The changes are really huge. I think some time will be necessary to be comfortable with it. :slight_smile:

As first problems, I was not able to found the ‘Developer’s Comments’ section and ‘Support E-mail’ entry has also disappeared (I try on my own extension Linkificator which does not have a support site defined, just support e-mail). Is it by design or because the development is not yet finished?

1 Like

Hint

I have just one Firefox container, dedicated to testing the new look.

Whenever I want to compare the traditional look to the new, I simply send the traditional page to my ‘mobile’ (new look) container.

To regain the traditional look: de-contain the page.

Horizontal scroll bar at the traditional site

Missing in the screen recording of Firefox 56.0.1, missing here (Web):

2017-10-26 20:25:07 wayback machine :: Search :: Add-ons for Firefox -2-‎

Is https://github.com/mozilla/addons-server/issues appropriate for issues that do not involve the new front-end?

Thanks, and keep up the great work.

I really can’t put a finger on it… But there’s something that feels cold, uninviting and sterile about the new design. I don’t think it’s purely a resistance to change, but accept that I can’t rule that out as one of the reasons I don’t like it.

I quite like the design cues of Chrome’s app store, where it at least feels kind of an extension of the browser itself in the design. I’ve always thought a look more integrated with the browser’s colour scheme, that looks more “Firefox Native”, would be preferable. The impression I’m getting at present is something that looks ultra-modern, but still clashes with the design of the browser.

This isn’t always a bad thing though. The new TestPilot site felt pretty brilliant to me… It felt more than just a website with extensions, but a true web app, in how it was presented and how it presented the installation, extensions that are currently installed, etc. That experience felt very integrated with the browser (despite, again, being a design clash).

I also put my hands up; these are entirely subjective thoughts. A lot of them are from my immediate first minutes of experience.

EDIT: I forgot to add, I’m using 150% text size in my Windows display settings (Windows 10, fall creators update) along with 120% magnification within Firefox (at present I do most of my computing on my TV through HDMI… Mostly out of necessity)

1 Like

The new look is nice, but I’m disappointed that one feature is left out.

For my browser, I use a userscript called Autopagerize. It is supposed to load the content of the next page onto the current page. However, this script will have no effect on the addon site when using version 57 because web extensions are not allowed to change it. One suggestion I have is to incorporate infinite scrolling where more content is added to the lists when nearing the end of the page. Is that doable?

Tags

A worse effect with the new look. Nothing found:

Please, is tagging to be deprecated?

Or is support for tagging not yet implemented in the new look?

Related:

Postscript

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/extensions/privacy-security/ is not yet populated. Cross reference:

… Is that all the privacy-wise …?

Please: is the green jigsaw puzzle icon at e.g. https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/firefox-pioneer/ a generic icon that appears when the developer has not specified an icon?

Or is that an extension for which Mozilla specified the old green icon before the new blue became the norm? First on AMO: 2017-07-21

Collections: no hint of incompatibilities when browsing

:slight_smile: it’s now less than one hundred percent.

The new look does not yet offer any hint of incompatibility:

A key frame from that recording, where I switch to a Firefox 57 view of things:

2 Likes

Browsing key areas such as Tabs: emptiness and missing links

Tabs - Extensions - Add-ons for Firefox is:

  • traditionally populated
  • apparently empty with the new look
  • without the link to 1,919 extensions.

Classic and new looks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8j-P4UUFSw

Cross reference: my comment under Keeping Tabs on the Tab API | Mozilla Add-ons Blog (2017-11-03). From the main post:

… The good news is that there are already hundreds of extensions written with the WebExtensions API to help you configure, organize and otherwise manage your browser tabs. …

– probably intended to link through to the hundreds (of 1,919) that are compatible with Firefox 57+, instead there’s an empty space and promotion of some legacy extensions, and things that are entirely unrelated to tabs.


Web Development :: Add-ons for Firefox is:

  • traditionally populated
  • apparently empty with the new look.

Use case: I aimed to preview the short description of The easiest Xdebug when listed in the midst of other short descriptions.

This looks very nice and congrats on migrating the front-end to React! I do wonder about all the rounded borders. Both Quantum and the new Mozilla branding make me think of sharper and bolder edges. The roundness of the current design takes me back to Kubrick, a 2005 default Wordpress theme :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Will one be able to search by Newest and Recently updated like we can now?

image

Basics, for a moment.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/search/?type=persona&sort=updated is similar to the address that’s given when you use the Sort by menu to choose Recently updated – at the tail of the address in this case,

&sort=updated

Basically: wherever you see sort=updated you can change it to sort=created so, for themes (personas):

and then ignore the word Relevance, to the left.

Compared to the classic look, the new does not show the dates. It’s probably to be done, but not yet on a milestone.


A comment from Gary:

There is no way to search for “New” addons. To be “up and coming” you first have to be “New”!

For now, please bookmark:

– and ignore the word Relevance, which may appear to the left whenever you sort without using the menu of preset sort options.

With the redesign of mozilla.org (including blog.mozilla.org), Firefox Quantum (including the great new logos) and the new AMO logo, I hoped the AMO.org would also go a bit more in that direction - something bolder, more modern. This simple layout might work well on mobile, but on desktop the current blocky layouts look to me little more like wireframes than an end-product.
It might be partly due to the 9px border radius (radii?), which I still saw to much off 2012 - 2015. Removing makes it look a little more serious already - obviously all my personal taste.

Other little changes that helped for example on extension detail pages include increasing the font-sizes to 14px or even 16px (are the 12px for mobile?) and increasing spacing i.e. .AddonMoreInfo-contents dd { margin: 0 0 11px; /* up from 3px */ } or .Card-footer-link { padding: 15px 26px; /* from 5px 26px */ }, etc.

The loading times are incredible. Kudos to the team.

On a side note:

  • “Add new rule” in dev tools > inspector > css rules does not seem to work on that page (due to React I guess?).
  • The screenshot tool does not work on those pages (due to React for sure)

Looking good :+1:

Personal star ratings are not yet apparent – the absence of gold from two areas of the new look:

(The overlay is a SeaMonkey view of the same URL. There’s the gold.)

Found:

2 Likes

A click on Explore does not explore, and so on …

  1. https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/user-agent-overrider/
  2. click either (a) the word Explore, or the word Themes

Hint: the word, not below the word. Click the centre of the letter o in Explore

Postscript

This bug is either transient, or was quickly fixed.