User:Gandalf/About:Config

Overview

Current about:config window in Toolkit apps is hardly usable. It is almost impossible to be used by non technical people, and it's hard for use to experienced users too.

The plan

The plan is to redesign it's UI and then implement the back end :)

Elements

View config should be made of several elements

* List of preferences
* Search box
* Description of each element
* Widget allowing user to change the value and type of the preference
* Visual presentation of preference grouping - tree, list
* Beginners helper widgets that will make it easier to use about config for beginners.

First mockup

* Mockup 1

This revision allows the beginner to use the left menu to get the first probably most interesting results, it displays descriptions of options (if there are ones), it allows to search through descriptions, pref id's and human readable names.

It does not touch design! I also don't care about the implementation. I'm working on the layout, information architecture, user workflow and experience.

A few notes:

* When you hover a category in the left menu, the description should change to describe the category
* When you search it should search through descriptions, names and id's

What is missing:

* UI to change the pref. Double-click is totally anti-user, cause nobody double clicks on tree elements. The web doesn't double click at all
* Options to show all preferences or only the already set, or all preferences
* Display human readable names instead of pref id's (Font size instead of "gecko.engine.nglayout._fontSize")
* Column sorting, change order of columns
* UI to change the pref should be simple textbox, or the advanced mode in small dialog with things like color picker, file selector, etc.

And overall - everything can be changed. It's the first approach. If you have any idea, share it. I'm not 100% happy with this layout.

== Notes/Ideas/Propositions ==

If you have sth to add, do it here:

* We should be able to get more types, like "file", "path", "directory", "color picker". [timeless]

== Target ==

* Flock
* Firefox
* Thunderbird
* Others?