The 'Back' Button the Most Clicked Firefox Icon

darthcamaro writes "How many times did you click the 'Back' button in your browser last week? According to a new study from Mozilla, it's likely that you clicked 'Back' a whole lot. 'Across Windows, Mac and Linux 93.1 percent of users clicked the button at least once over the course of a five-day period. In total the study reported that users clicked on the back button 66 times over the course of five days. The next most used button is the 'Reload' button with 73.2 percent usage and 22 clicks on average per user over five days. Other areas of the main window that were heavily used include the Search Bar where users input search queries. The study found that 67.9 percent of users used the Search Bar for an average of nearly 16 clicks per user over the course of five days.'"

Comments

Why it was made big

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Old news. This is why they made it bigger in 3.0.

Re:Why it was made big

[Shin-LaC]

I never use the back button. I hate having to wait for pages to load/render/whatever, so I got in the habit long ago of opening most links in new tabs so they load while I'm reading something else.

Re:Why it was made big

[spazdor]

Sometimes links won't open in a new tab because they're implemented with some Flash and/or Javascript fuckery. When this happens, I just regular-click on the link and then middle-click on the 'back' button - thereby opening up the previous page in a new tab instead.

Re:Why it was made big

[PopeRatzo]

When this happens, I just regular-click on the link and then middle-click on the 'back' button - thereby opening up the previous page in a new tab instead.

I didn't know that, spazdor. Thanks. That's a good one.

Re:Why it was made big

[Threni]

I hate Back taking ages cos it's reloading the screen. It's in memory - just show what you showed last time. I don't care that it might have changed. No, I don't want you to resend the message - just show me the bloody page you showed me just seconds ago before I accidentally clicked/changed my mind.

Re:Why it was made big

[__aamnbm3774]

If I had mod points, I would have modded you up purely for using the word fuckery. Bravo.

Re:Why it was made big

[Blue Stone]

I rarely us the back button either.

All links get opened in tabs, so my tab bar becomes a readily-accessible history trail all immediately visible at any time. Using 'click'+'back' feels too much like wandering along a dark tunnel.

Re:Why it was made big

[Anonymous Coward]

And why Microsoft decided to make the thumb buttons on their mice act like "back" and "forward" by default. Would you believe this is still not implemented in Konqueror? (Bug filed March 2006.) Although perhaps, if the article is right, the small button should be "reload" instead of "forward".

Re:Why it was made big

[commodore64_love]

Nor me. I use the right-click to open a menu and select back

Re:Why it was made big

[ircmaxell]

Nor me. I use a 5 button trackball at work (back, left, wheel, right, forward), and my Lenovo laptop has dedicated forward and back buttons. And before that, I installed gesture support (Right click and drag left to go back, drag right to go forward). Seriously, I don't understand how people use the actual button on the top of the screen...

Re:Why it was made big

[Barny]

Would have been a tough one, was it informative for the tip, or was it insightful because of the use of fuckery or just plain underrated?

Re:Why it was made big

[poopdeville]

It ought to feel like dealing with a stack... Or a linked list, if you use Forward.

Re:Why it was made big

[bunratty]

That's what Firefox has done since version 1.5, when they implemented the back/forward cache (bfcache).

Re:Why it was made big

[voodoowizard]

Ahhh wow, I never tried that middle mouse button... damn that is nice. You just opened up a new world for me and I have been using FF for years. Learning is fun.

Re:Why it was made big

[izomiac]

Sounds like when I realized Ctrl + Left Click works the same way for touchpads. OTOH, right clicking then hitting "T" wasn't that big a deal.

Re:Why it was made big

[Anonymous Coward]

>Although perhaps, if the article is right, the small button should be "reload" instead of "forward".
+1 insightfull

Re:Why it was made big

[Anonymous Coward]

>Old news. This is why they made it bigger in 3.0.
Test pilot didn't exist with ff 3.0.
Maybe they got more reliable and precise metrics from test pilot now?
At least that's one of the goals of this project.

Re:Why it was made big

[mysidia]

Yeah, but oftentimes with the flash quackery, the back button doesn't work anyways.

Breaking the back button is one of the most serious design mistakes a webmaster can make. Since, as we can see from just these observations about FF, the back button is one of the most frequently used functions by a large majority of surfers.

Re:Why it was made big

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, that's what that button does? I don't click anything but my quick launch, the awesome bar, hyperlinks, tab buttons, and the x in the upper right corner (yeah, I redefined the default in Ubuntu 10.04).

Why don't I ever hit the back button? Answer: I have a 5 button mouse. I feel crippled if I have to use someone's computer and they only have a 3-button mouse, because I click the thumb button dozens of times per day. (Hint: the thumb button is automatically recognized as "back" on both Windows and Linux.)

Re:Why it was made big

[geminidomino]

And why Microsoft decided to make the thumb buttons on their mice act like "back" and "forward" by default

Now if only that could be disabled... I love my big ol' sidewinder, but those huge honking buttons that are so useful when I'm killing things in Cantha turn into a HUGE liability when I'm browsing the web and they tap against the edge of my keyboard. =\

I really hate that...

Re:Why it was made big

[mcrbids]

I worship the back button. It's my bestest friend, and I happen to know the keyboard shortcut (Alt-Left-Arrow) just so I don't have to reach for the mouse to use it.

But the truth is, sometimes you *have* to break the back button. Sometimes, you have to update portions of a page in order to keep it "fresh". Sadly, doing so breaks the back button. You can kinda get around some of these things, but increasingly, websites aren't websites anymore - they are weblications, and do real work, right now, in your browser. I use them for everything from calculating grades to processing transcripts to distributed notifications.

So while the back button still more or less "works", it won't take you back to the exact page you left earlier. And that's kinda sad, but it's a reflection of the fact that the document model of the original web is disappearing like nail polish in a dish out on the patio on a hot, hot day.

Re:Why it was made big

[mysidia]

When I refer to flash quackery, I am not talking about legitimate web applications.

I am talking about web pages which are basically web pages for presenting mostly static information, and they seem to use flash just to use flash

And break the back button by introducing solely flash based navigational elements.

Obviously if you have a complex web application that has a very good reason for the back button not to go back to an identical page you navigated from, that's OK.

Actually, it's plenty for it to just go to the same major document you came from.

Or if there's some dynamic auto-refreshing content, it makes sense that would be updated and no longer the same.

That's not what I am talking about.

I am talking about corporate web sites that have say an "About Us link"... you click that, and it displays text in-line in the page.

If you push 'back' after doing that, it doesn't go back to the homepage you started at, it sends you back to Google search results (for example).

Another example of breaking the back button, is you click a site on search results... decide you don't like it and want to leave.. you press back, and it Redirects you straight to the home page.

You press back again.... well, it redirects you to the home page AGAIN!

Because the link listed on Google search results goes to a page that just automatically redirects you to the home page instantly.

So then you got to go dick around with your back button history list to bypass the brokenness...

Re:Why it was made big

[Killjoy_NL]

I just press backspace, doesn't that do the same??

Re:Why it was made big

[shawb]

Mod parent +1: I also use mouse gestures. Nothing like sitting on a friend's computer, and getting a moment of disorientation when right click/swipe left doesn't push me back in the history. Even worse is sitting down at the computer of a friend that DOES have mouse gestures... because I have a couple customized commands, and they generally have a couple others customized.

Re:Why it was made big

[Ant P.]

In all these years I've figured out you can middle click menu items, but never thought to use it on the back button of all things. And it works in other browsers!

Re:Why it was made big

[tepples]

But the truth is, sometimes you *have* to break the back button. Sometimes, you have to update portions of a page in order to keep it "fresh". Sadly, doing so breaks the back button.

Have you tried encoding some of the app's state in the HTML document's fragment identifier (the part after the # in a URL) whenever the user follows a link in your Flash app?

Re:Why it was made big

[AmiMoJo]

There is a plug-in called "Smart Middle Click" which fixed Javascript links to open in a new tab properly. Unfortunately Flash is still fucked but most webmasters seem to have now realised that a big .swf file is not a web site.

Re:Why it was made big

[helix2301]

That's cool to point out until now I never realized it was bigger in 3.0. Sometimes your so busy checking out the big features you don't take time to look at the small ones.

Re:Why it was made big

[Anonymous Coward]

that depends on the http headers the server served.

Re:Why it was made big

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod this guy up. That is why tabs were created.

Are they also counting when you press either Backspace or "Alt + -".

Re:Why it was made big

[RoadNotTaken]

This is one reason I'm not crazy about the over-use of AJAX we're seeing everywhere. It looks cool but often breaks the normal flow of navigation in ways that aren't intuitive. I'll stick with CGI, thanks.

Re:Why it was made big

[Anonymous Coward]

Learning IS fun. As Voodoowizard points out below. I also did not know of this middle button click on the back button and I've been using firefox since the early stages of 3.0. beta

Re:Why it was made big

[halcyon1234]

Every time I see this:

<input type='submit' onclick='formsubmit()' text='submit'>

<script type='text/javascript'>
function formsubmit() {
    document.form.submit()
}
</script>

I swear I want to tie off one end of a long length of barbed wire, make the developer swallow the other end-- and when it's passed through, give them a full body floss.

(Same goes for big, big, red text that says "DO NOT USE the back or reload buttons on your browser, because I learned everything I "know" about Web Page Design from a book called Web Page Design")

Re:Why it was made big

[Tablizer]

Bush would have used "Fuckification".

Re:Why it was made big

[noidentity]

Yep, I've always hated browsers for reloding when going back. Yet another reason I open new things in tabs, rather than use the back button.

Re:Why it was made big

[Jeremy Visser]

But the truth is, sometimes you *have* to break the back button. Sometimes, you have to update portions of a page in order to keep it "fresh". Sadly, doing so breaks the back button.

A bit like how Gmail, Twitter, or many other sites don't use the document fragment identifier to do such a thing. Or a bit like how there's no such thing as history.pushState() to implement that (and because it doesn't exist, it doesn't work in Google Chrome, but if it did, it would work perfectly).

Yep, sometimes you have to break the back button.

Re:Why it was made big

[Anonymous Coward]

I press backspace :P

Re:Why it was made big

[Anonymous Coward]

On Linux, not by default, on Windows, yeah. Besides Alt-LeftArrow is closer to the touchpad on my netbook, so it is easier.

Re:Why it was made big

[Tubal-Cain]

...middle-click on the 'back' button - thereby opening up the previous page in a new tab instead.

Awesome. Works in Chromium, too!

Re:Why it was made big

[Killjoy_NL]

Cool, thanks for letting me know :D

O:

[OopsIDied]

I use alt + left for back. my most clicked button = stumble upon ;)

Re:O:

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Or three finger swipe on a Mac.

Re:O:

[LostCluster]

Yep... and that's the most-often mistakenly given command I ever issue.

Re:O:

[zippthorne]

Multitouch is amazing. I'd say get a Mac just for that, if I hadn't heard that windows 7 has some gestures, too. Mac has a decent gesture vocabulary, but they really need some way for you to define your own, too, especially as many applications don't support the full vocabulary.

At any rate, I love my "giant" (or as I now refer to it, "the right size") trackpad. The new iMacs should've come with a USB multitouch pad instead of the new mouse.

Re:O:

[X0563511]

Backspace is even easier. Assuming you're not in a text field of flash object.

Re:O:

[roju]

Not being able to rebind four-finger-horizontal-swipe is super annoying. App switch, really? It would be amazing if it went to the next/previous virtual desktop in spaces instead.

Re:O:

[tumnasgt]

I agree, I use the Expose four finger swipe very frequently (so much I feel lost on my iMac), but the side to side application switching is useless, Cmd+Tab is way faster.

Re:O:

[OnlyJedi]

I have a mouse with a back button that maps to alt-left behind the scenes. Most other built-in functions I use mouse or keyboard-shortcuts for as well, so my most-clicked buttons would all be from extensions. Or to close background tabs.

Re:O:

[Anonymous Coward]

That sounds dirty.

Re:O:

[imakemusic]

The new iMacs should've come with a USB multitouch pad instead of the new mouse.

There's an app for that.

Re:O:

[Barny]

Yeah was wondering that, so many people using gesture pads, arthritis inducing key combos...

Just Backspace.

Re:O:

[hack slash]

On my Eee I often find myself using "Left Alt + Left Arrow" to go back a page because it's more reliable than backspace, or zip the pointer up to the far top left of the screen and tap the trackpad to go back, it's very convenient that the back button occupies that area when fullscreen F11 is used and the location bar is showing.

I just wish there were dedicated "next tab" / "prev tab" buttons on the keyboard rather than having to click the tab or do a variant on the Vulcan neck pinch to press "Ctrl + Tab" or "Ctrl + Shift + Tab", because like others have found it's much easier to open a bunch of tabs rather than using back/forward buttons and reloading whole pages.

Re:O:

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I use the back button on my mouse very frequently.

Regarding Backspace that some people mentioned, that really annoys me when I'm typing a bunch of text into a web form and hit Backspace when I'm accidentally not inside the text area, causing the browser to go back and I lose everything I had typed; clicking the forward button often doesn't restore the contents of the text area.

Re:O:

[Culture20]

Or three finger swipe on a Mac.

I only use a three finger swipe when there's no TP or paper towels. Then I spend a few minutes washing my hands.

Re:O:

[mysidia]

You mean two finger swipe?

It doesn't distinguish between two and three fingers....

Re:O:

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep... and that's the most-often mistakenly given command I ever issue.

First thought: So why don't you disable it?

Second thought: How easy is it to mistakenly gesture with practically your ENTIRE HAND on the trackpad?! Unless you have your laptop actually on your lap, and you're trying to stroke something else entirely....

Re:O:

[sound vision]

Woah, you think Apple laptops are the only ones with multitouch? Let me introduce you to my EeePC from nearly 2 years ago. Running XP, no less. Granted, it's not as large as Apple's pad. But it does get quadruple the battery life.

Re:O:

[vlueboy]

I use alt + left for back. my most clicked button = stumble upon ;)

I do too. But keyboards can be more dangerous than mice in your browser:

I have lost many a /. comment when mistakenly <BACKSPACE> gets hit intead of "=" (most browsers proccess that as "Back".)

Pre-Firefox 3.5, swapping the letters W and Q by mistake would exit your browser while trying to close a window. Years of Mac use should have trained me to perfectly avoid that, but it seems that browsing the web puts us in a different / less controlled mindset. That, or these "fullsize" keycaps don't matter in a sub 17" laptop keyboard form factor.

Re:O:

[cheese_wallet]

You mean two finger swipe?

It doesn't distinguish between two and three fingers....

it does on my mac. two fingers does scrolling.

Re:O:

[Kalriath]

The MacBook doesn't. The MacBook Pro does.

Re:O:

[anss123]

I don't get the gesture hype myself. Opera started it back in the nineties and now it's on the track pads. It was one of the bullet point features on my laptop but I've only used it once or twice, there are quicker ways of scrolling and plenty of keyboard shortcuts.

The next step must be eye tracking. Use the webcam to see where your eyes are looking and scroll up and down ala middle click auto scroll. That's when we know we're in the future.

Re:O:

[shutdown -p now]

The most convenient of all combos that I've seen is the default mouse gesture in Opera - you click and hold right mouse button, and meanwhile click left button (forward is reverse - click & hold LMB, click RMB). It doesn't force you to take hand off the mouse, and doesn't make you move it, either, so it can be done extremely fast.

Re:O:

[SimonTheSoundMan]

MacBooks have multi-touch the same as the MacBook Pro.

http://www.apple.com/macbook/features.html#trackpad

Re:O:

[zippthorne]

I didn't know XP had it. I have an apple laptop with multi-touch and a larger-than-many trackpad and the size is really nice.

I've heard that windows 7 has it.

I've gotten *some* multitouch gestures to work on an 8 yr. old laptop by installing Ubuntu on it, so more trackpads than just recent ones are capable of it.

That is the extent of my personal experience, so that's what I wrote about. Mostly I wanted to say that it is in general very nice, and I think Apple made a mistake only including it by default on their laptops and not their PCs (which are otherwise made with laptop parts....)

Re:O:

[netsharc]

Indeed, a browser built-in "You have unsaved changes" alert would be useful there, GMail has that feature coded in JS, but most sites aren't GMail are they.

Re:O:

[mysidia]

I wonder how to enable that feature then... on all the Mac Minis and iMacs i've used, it's just a two finger swipe on the top of the mouse to the side for going back or forward.

And a one-finger swipe for scrolling.

I haven't seen any preference options to enable a 'three finger swipe' action

Re:O:

[Kalriath]

They do, but the software recognises only two fingers maximum. And I happen to own a MacBook.

I have never hit the back button

[Codename Dutchess]

Because I have a 7-button mouse. Hax!

Re:I have never hit the back button

[Yaotzin]

Actually, it's the same for me. Although I only use 5 of the buttons. Two of those are right by the thumb, very handy for back/forward usage. MX518, the best mouse I've ever used.

Or...

[deesine]

it's the most used gesture: Right button down, drag left.

Re:Or...

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, if you have a newer Mac laptop, putting 3 fingers down and sweeping them left. Combine that with two-finger scroll, and I never actually use the back/forward buttons or scrollbar. Hell, for most general browsing, I can do it one-handed without a keyboard and very minimal moving of the mouse.

Yes, I realize that makes it sound like I browse a lot of porn. So?

Actually, I have seen Win laptops with multitouch scrolling, but not sideways. I don't know if those support multi-finger gestures or not, though....

Re:Or...

[Anonymous Coward]

Or ALT+Left arrow

Re:Or...

[Barny]

Uh, you could just press backspace...

Re:Or...

[Inda]

Which is what I do, along with space to page-down. So please, all you web developers, stop focusing on a textbox onload. It's annoying. Stop all the other 'helpful' shit too; I don't have time to Greasemonkey the whole net.

Re:Or...

[Ant P.]

How is that better than the built-in "right button down, nudge pointer two pixels to the bottom-right, release button"?

Re:Or...

[gencha]

With Mouse Gestures Redox you just have to hold the right mouse button and click the left one.

Re:Or...

[bingoUV]

This works with FireGestures too.

Re:Or...

[Anonymous Coward]

With the gesture add-on I'm using, the most common gesture is even simpler : Hold Right Button, Left Click

Re:Uhhhh

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Just using Mozilla Test Piliot add-on.

Re:Uhhhh

[Sir_Lewk]

How exactly could you know the answer to your query? Well by RTFA of course!

The study data was collected on an opt-in basis from nearly 10,000 users of the Mozilla Test Pilot addon which surveys Firefox usage.

keyboard

[Anonymous Coward]

What about keyboard shortcuts like command+R or F5?

Re:Uhhhh

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, does it just count clicks on the interface or what I do (mouse button under right thumb)? Backspace key?

IE

[Tablizer]

For Internet Explorer, Ctrl+Alt+Delete is tops

Re:IE

[Barny]

Uh, you know that triggers the OS to possibly bring up either task manager, a login window, an overscreen menu or anything else a network admin wants to set it to?

Alt + f4 is the best tool for IE

If you just wanted the task manager without a chance of other crud, try Ctrl + Shift + Esc

Re:IE

[hack slash]

A more reliable way is to press this sequence of keys:

Windows
U
U

Re:IE

[Anachragnome]

"For Internet Explorer, Ctrl+Alt+Delete is tops"

That is almost as bad as setting my Hunter's Feign Death hotkey in Warcraft to Alt-F4...and not testing it until the 4th boss fight in Black Temple.

Re:IE

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

For Internet Explorer, Ctrl+Alt+Delete is tops

For all the young people who only started using Windows as recently as 10 years ago, he's referring to the pre-2000 versions of Windows that crashed all the time. Back then, Alt+Ctrl+Delete rebooted the machine instead of bringing up Task Manager. If you go back even further, to around 1995, IE was known for being unstable.

Sorry to ruin the fun, this joke's so old I figured it required a little explanation for those 25 and younger. :)

Re:IE

[Shoe Puppet]

IIRC, in Windows 9x, Ctrl+Alt+Del brought up a "close application" Windows, a primitive form of a task manager. Pressing CAD with this Window open, however, rebooted.

Re:IE

[Anonymous Coward]

Warcraft 1 or 2?

Re:IE

[soppsa]

Hopefully Warcraft 1, because alt-f4 even predates early Windows dating back to many DOS TUIs...

Waste of time

[Anonymous Coward]

Just right click --> back or install mouse gestures.

How many buttons are there?

[line-bundle]

There aren't that many buttons to click on anyway.

Re:Uhhhh

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Depends on what they want to test. Here is a list so far: https://testpilot.mozillalabs.com/testcases/

I didn't click any ...

[siddesu]

I'm using Vimperator, you insensitive clod!

Or for this Opera user:

[Slutticus]

Right click followed immediately by a left click.

I can't live without Opera mouse gestures. Now if only they would integrate this idea with the mutli-touch functionality of the iPhone for their mobile browser..... Just imagine it.

Zero Times

[h4rr4r]

Zero times, I use vimperator.
I don't need to move my hands from the keyboard like some ape.

Re:Zero Times

[X0563511]

I do it gamer/modeler style. One hand on mouse, one hand on keyboard.

Backspace is my back button of choice (I tend to mouse left-handed when I do stuff like surf)

Re:Zero Times

[Anonymous Coward]

I bow before you, oh majestic lizard man from the future! ALL HAIL THE LIZARD MAN! ALL HAIL THE LIZARD MAN!

Re:Zero Times

[h4rr4r]

Good, you can be used to round up others of your kind when I wish to cook and eat your men or mate with your women.

Re:Zero Times

[Anonymous Coward]

I sometimes use the mouse left-handed too...just depends on what I'm surfing for

Re:Zero Times

[X0563511]

I get the joke, but the reason I do it: it helps keep my RSI under control.

If I were to use a mouse and keyboard all day at work, and then do the same at home, I'd be in a load of pain after a day or two.

Going left-handed at work and right-handed at home seems to keep it under control. It's also helped my left-hand coordination. I was fairly ambidextrous before, but at this point the only thing I can't do well is write. That's less a matter of handedness and more of practice (I never even try) and writing-direction issue (stabbing paper doesn't work too well, if you write right-handed you drag the tip, not push it)

Re:Zero Times

[disemq]

I use the same style, it's like playing Quake, with a brower :D

Re:Zero Times

[X0563511]

Haha! Exactly!

Re:Zero Times

[Anonymous Coward]

Zero times, I use Alt+LeftArrow.
I don't need to move my hands from the keyboard or depend on addons that are not available in all contexts like some ape.

I very seldom "go back"...

[Anonymous Coward]

I pretty much consistently use ctrl-click to open links, then just ctrl-w when I'm done with them...

Re:I very seldom "go back"...

[h4rr4r]

Middle mouse button would do if you must use a mouse.

Re:I very seldom "go back"...

[zippthorne]

That's because firefox still doesn't do page caching properly. Afaik, only Opera does it close to right (Safari used to, with "snap-back" but then they limited it to just google for some stupid reason): you shouldn't have to re-download/refresh the head page when you're exploring links. Opening them in a buncha different tabs to get the same effect is a kludge.

Re:I very seldom "go back"...

[Reziac]

Explain exactly what you mean, please? about the improper caching, I mean.

I use "open in new window" all the time, due to not wanting to reload (or lose) some previous page. Old Netscape didn't seem to need to reload stuff, but Moz/SM is inconsistent about it.

Re:I very seldom "go back"...

[izomiac]

Personally, I use tabs so I can open the relevant links and get to them after I read the current page. There are fewer interruptions that way. Usually, I'd rather finish what I'm currently reading than go off on a tangent, but I'm sure it's just a matter of preference. OTOH, I'd say your strategy of Click, Back, Click, Back is how most people would intuitively try to search for something.

Re:I very seldom "go back"...

[zippthorne]

What I mean is that although it saves resources to a cache, instead of saving the fully-rendered page and just re-displaying that when you hit back, it re-loads the whole page, which more often than not means *checking* those very same resources and incurring the largest part of the delay: the chain of DNS lookups, initial queries, and gawd-awful dynamic bits.

I use "open in new window" all the time, due to not wanting to reload (or lose) some previous page. Old Netscape didn't seem to need to reload stuff, but Moz/SM is inconsistent about it.

That's exactly what I'm complaining about. If you were just *at* a page, you shouldn't need to reaload the whole thing just to check a link really quick. Opening the link in a tab or new window is a kludge because the natural thing to do is just click it.

Re:I very seldom "go back"...

[Reziac]

That must be why Moz is also worse about losing partially filled-in forms, and losing your place in a previous page too. And I can't imagine why it would need to recheck all the whatnots -- isn't that what the "only check for newer versions of a page, not every freakin' time you see it" setting is supposed to prevent?

It does seem to have a lot of bad coding Zen all around. :(

Only thing that keeps me using SM is that IE and Opera are even more annoying, and FF is unusable IMO. I still use NS3 on slashdot, and a lot of other places that render down to text gracefully :) The speed and convenience differences are absolutely... appalling.

Self-contradictory?

[Anonymous Coward]

"The heatmap will be updated over the course of the Firefox 4 beta program. Hopefully, this visualization will help us understand how the various UI changes affect user behavior, and ensure that these design decisions are in fact improving the product for our (beloved) end-users."

"Now that we know how users are using FF3, we can figure out how to pessimize FF4's UI. It'll look like Office's Ribbon, or Chrome, or Opera, but whatever it is, it won't look or feel anything like FF3. But it'll look good on our resumes when we can say we're up on all the hot new UI trends, even though everyone's flaming us for them. And we'll make sure to use little icons for everything instead of words, because then we don't have as much stuff to translate when it comes time to localize the product."

Sorry if I sound like a curmudgeon, but UI these days seems more about mental masturbation and keeping up with the Joneses than actually taking a good product and making it better. The first couple of months of any major Firefox upgrade has consisted of nothing more than figuring out what they changed, and which about:config settings I need to tweak in order to change it back to something I found usable.

Re:Self-contradictory?

[hkmwbz]

Are you saying that you know better than professional UX people how a UI should look, feel and behave?

You say they are contradicting themselves, but so are you. First you complain about how the UI will get worse because they are just following trends without considering usability, and then you admit that you just don't want Firefox to change.

Re:Self-contradictory?

[Anonymous Coward]

This a million times.

And i hope to tech god that they don't go near a Ribbon Style interface, they are AWFUL. I have perfectly decent eyesight, in fact, i had it tested Thursday, perfectly healthy for my age.
Nor will i be using a touchscreen for it. And if i did have a touchscreen, i certainly would not be using my fingers on it, stylus or nothing.

WHY do people insist on ruining perfectly decent designs? Screw silly looks, that is what themes were built for, leave default UIs basic enough to get the job done, and easy enough for customization.

I don't even use the buttons in FF (when i use it), or even tabs, address bar, menu, anything.
Everything is behind a click / hotkey. I want as much visible space for webpages.
Sadly the Chromium devs aren't up for this, despite the fact they want to get rid of the browser and make the webpage the most important part. I haven't came across any of them that want the ability to modify / hide UI elements. I would ditch that tab bar in a heartbeat if i could.
My FF has been smaller than Chromium from before it was even announced...
I still use it as my main browser though, FF is just stuck way behind. Maybe FF4 will bring me back. Maybe.

Also, WHY do Mozilla insist on screwing around with APIs so damn often?
APIs were meant to hide crap like that from the developers, changes shouldn't break anything... unless it is some SERIOUSLY large changes that make it redundant. Apparently this is the case every "major-minor" release.

Re:Self-contradictory?

[adbge]

In my opinion, Firefox could definitely use some work on their UI. I would like the default install of Firefox to take up less screen real estate, but I can see where power users might be uncomfortable with drastic change. It's obviously a balancing act: don't become antiquated, but at the same time don't make large UI changes all at once. However, I'm more interested in performance. When it comes to a web browser, performance probably means more to me than the polish of the GUI (within reason).

Re:Self-contradictory?

[Hatta]

Yes. I know better than anyone else what I find useable. A good UI should have sane defaults and be customizable to what I need. Once I configure it properly, it should not change. UI designers should focus on giving us as many options as possible, and setting them to sane defaults.

In any case, horribly broken defaults that can be customized to something I like is far, far better than moderately acceptable defaults that cannot be customized at all.

Re:Self-contradictory?

[Anonymous Coward]

You just summed up why I prefer KDE over Gnome

Re:Self-contradictory?

[hkmwbz]

But there's the fallacy right there. The default UI is not designed for you personally. It's designed to be as accessible as possible to as wide an audience as possible.

Because it's in the upper-left?

[MrEricSir]

I informally studied the habits of websurfers at my websites with Google Analytics. I found that for almost every page, the most clicked link was whatever I put at the top left.

My hypothesis was that our eyes were just drawn to any graphic at the top left, no matter what it was, and so we'd click on it.

I'd be interested to see some behavioral UI studies about this.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[Mitsoid]

been a long time, but back when I was building websites it was commonly stated that (as long as the website is in english/for english audiences), people attempt to read from top-left to bottom-right, just like a book... if you made a well designed menu you might channel their eyes more top-down along the left, if you don't, then they will start top-left but may read across....

At least, that's the natural tendency... annnddd most of the information I'm stating was from the time before Flash was on almost every website... The most 'active' distraction would be a multi-color flashing .GIF that stripped too many colors from the pallet to reduce the file size... so my info's dated ;-p

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[RivenAleem]

This is the same for many Instructional documents we use in industry. It has been identified that the first place anyone will look when you give them a page of instructions is the top left (in countries that read right to left this is reversed).

So we always put the most important information up there (Safety) and then the next most important information feeds to the right and down etc.

You might be interested in Talsico who's ideology we use to create instructional documents.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[ratnerstar]

I informally studied the habits of websurfers at my websites with Google Analytics. I found that for almost every page, the most clicked link was whatever I put at the top left.

My hypothesis was that our eyes were just drawn to any graphic at the top left, no matter what it was, and so we'd click on it.

Alternate hypothesis: all those people were trying to click the back button, but missed.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[Reziac]

There are some studies about what people actually SEE on web pages at http://www.useit.com/

Don't let the site's plainness and 1996 colours put you off, it's got a LOT of good info.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[Anonymous Coward]

My hypothesis was that our eyes were just drawn to any graphic at the top left, no matter what it was, and so we'd click on it.

Not too sure how useful this.

Remember how many people complained about where the print/save/etc. command was in Office 2007 applications? It was under an unlabeled "Office Button" menu at the top left. Seems that lots of people need some cue about a buttons function before the button is useful, other than just a location.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd venture that actually it was that most sites have the upper left graphic represent a link back to the root node / home page of the forum / site / whatever.

i got to your page with google, and then i wanted to know more so i try to get to the root..

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[MrEricSir]

Glad to know I'm not the only one; it took my 30 minutes to figure out how to print in Office 2007.

(I should have just Googled it.)

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[MrEricSir]

Alternate-alternate hypothesis: people who clicked the back button were actually trying to click the top-left of the webpage.

Or maybe there's a bit of both going on there, the two are hardly mutually exclusive.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[PatPending]

You're presuming left-to-right languages. Some languages are right-to-left (e.g., Arabic), so of course "top right" would apply in this case.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[hedwards]

That's been known for many years. People tend to scan left to right across the top then diagonally to the middle of the left hand side, then diagonally to the bottom right of the page. It's a habit people picked up presumably from reading things like magazines and newspapers. Not sure what works for languages that go from left to right, but in English and similar languages it works out.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[Anonymous Coward]

Me too.. I used CTRL-P and CTRL-S because I didn't know that was a menu button. I got stumped when I needed to do a "Save As" and had to find it. Using a new version of office shouldn't raise your blood pressure.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[Hatta]

I think you have the causation backwards. They put the most useful button in the upper left because that's where it's easier to find it.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[Hatta]

The problem there is that it doesn't look like a button, just gaudy decoration.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[RavenChild]

I always have a link to the homepage at the top-left when I design the a site just because I like to click the site's logo to start over at the root. That's where I look first. The top-left corner of my screen has 80% of all clickable objects.

That's where our eyes go. When you read a book, first word is top left of the page. It's be interesting to see stats for that broken down by country to see if right-left language users go to the top-right more than left-right. Who knows, maybe multilingual sites should align to the right or do a horizontal swap when the user changes to a right-left language (or do they already?). Could easily be done in CSS too.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[Just Some Guy]

My hypothesis was that our eyes were just drawn to any graphic at the top left, no matter what it was, and so we'd click on it.

I have a Google Adwords block on my personal website. Up until a month ago, the ad had been on the top right corner of the screen. I was playing around and moved it to the top left.

From January 1 to June 1, I had x hits, y clicks, and made $z in ad income.

From June 1 to July 1, I had almost exactly x/5 hits; I served 1.03 times more hits during that month than I had per average in the last five months. I also had .54*y clicks that month, or 2.71 times as many clicks per average month. Finally, I earned 1.42*$z last month, or 7.11 times per month as much as during the first five months. Of the top 20 highest-earning days in the last 5 years, 6 were in the last month.

Let me repeat that: changing almost nothing but the ad placement from top-right to top-left increased my click-through rate 171% and my monthly ad income by 611%, on almost the exact same number of hits.

Yeah, I'd have to agree with you.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[NonSequor]

My guess is that since all of the navigation buttons tend to be concentrated in the upper left, there's a good chance that anyone looking towards that direction is on their way out of your site.

I'm thinking that users would be less likely to follow an ad that interests them if they see it while still engaged by your site, but if they see it on the way out, well, they were looking for some place else to go anyway, right?

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's because thats where people expect to see your "home page"
When your deep inside the bowels of a website and want to return to the home page - guess where you typically click - yep, the logo at the location of the defacto standard home page location

You are sacrificing your own customers for money - it's up to you if it's worth it or not.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[Just Some Guy]

When your deep inside the bowels of a website and want to return to the home page - guess where you typically click - yep, the logo at the location of the defacto standard home page location

You are sacrificing your own customers for money - it's up to you if it's worth it or not.

Good point, except that you're wrong. The customary top-left "home logo" is still there. I just moved the navigation sidebar (with the ad at the top) from the right side of the page to the left.

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[Anonymous Coward]

Read up on the f-pattern. More at poynter.org

Re:Because it's in the upper-left?

[noidentity]

I take you to be saying that it's the most-clicked because it was placed in the upper-left. I think you've got the causation backwards; it was put there precisely because it's the easiest to find and click.

Two types of users

[ascari]

Read once in a web usability design book that there are two types of users: The ones who are search oriented and the ones that are navigation oriented. Search oriented users use a search engine instead of the browsers navigation bar and the browsers back and forward buttons instead of the web site navigation and links. Navigation oriented users use the browsers navigation bar and the web sites navigation links.

Of course that's an oversimplification but if that's even remotely true (which I don't know if it is) the high frequency of back button use indicates that there are a lot of search oriented users out there. And if that's the case most web sites are designed poorly or plainly wrong from their usability perspective. What I mean is that in-site navigation is a heavy part of most web sites when it really shouldn't be. Instead web design should promote the use of in-site search and back button use.

Re:Two types of users

[Anonymous Coward]

Search-vs-Navigation sounds like a fancy way of saying command-vs-gui, based upon what we already know about user preferences from non-web applications.

It's the same; multiple simple, powerful commands in sequence to produce the desired output vs. simple, basic, but repetitive - or possibly overgeneralized - commands that don't require any pre-knowledge of the system other than the ability to infer the function of a widget by the graphic (icon) or text (buttons, menus, etc.) associated with it.

So, searching for what you want (if you know how to ask) vs clicking link after link after link, gradually (hopefully) getting closer to what you want each time.

Re:Two types of users

[Alwin Henseler]

Your comment makes no sense. First, if there would be these 2 types of users (and each group is significant) then the only thing that makes sense, is to provide both search & navigation options to get around a site, not emphasize one method over the other.

Second, you suggest that one method may be more effective than the other. Which is also nonsense: this depends on the site, how large it is, how well layed out the site's navigation is, the site's users, individual user habits & preferences, and even what contents is being searched. And sometimes a combination of search + navigation may get better results than either method.

Instead web design should promote the use of in-site search and back button use.

I'd assume that users who rely on in-site search, also rely on search engines a la Google to find a site in the 1st place. In that case, 'back' either doesn't work (new browser tab/window), or gets you back to search engine results. Read: makes the user leave a site immediately after hitting 1 page. That makes no sense from web designer's point of view: if you have something to offer, you want users to stay on your site.

As for me, I prefer to start with answering visitors' question "WTF is this?" for each page they land on. As to not annoy / waste time of visitors who were looking for something else, and provide a sense of "I'm here" for users that were looking for whatever you put up.

Re:Two types of users

[RavenChild]

I always have a link to the homepage at the top-left when I design the a site just because I like to click the site's logo to start over at the root. That's where I look first. The top-left corner of my screen has 80% of all clickable objects.

That's where our eyes go. When you read a book, first word is top left of the page. It's be interesting to see stats for that broken down by country to see if right-left language users go to the top-right more than left-right. Who knows, maybe multilingual sites should align to the right or do a horizontal swap when the user changes to a right-left language (or do they already?). Could easily be done in CSS too.

Re:Two types of users

[RavenChild]

Good job slashdot, keep those javascript changes coming. I clicked the reply to on the above post, not this one. Time to noscript.

Re:Two types of users

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe it has to do with how quickly someone can get to what they are after. If you want to load a particular page on a site that your browser hasn't memorized for you, you can either navigate the web-site until you get to the page you are looking for, or you can use a search engine (either on the site or just a google search) and find it. The search is often less page loads and usually quicker then using a site map (when a web site actually has a useful site map).

Re:Two types of users

[vlueboy]

Read once in a web usability design book that there are two types of users [...] Search oriented users use a search engine instead of the browsers navigation bar and the browsers back and forward buttons [...] Navigation oriented users use the browsers navigation bar and the web sites navigation links.

Shame that browsers get bloated with features that users and web designers ignore or misuse. People being oblivious to the tools in their browser toolbar are a big problem. The nineties gave us sites with "back" and "home" links on every single static page. Eventually this evolved into javascript linkbacks, frames and css / flash menus, because sites babysit their products by reinforcing unecessary behavior as if early web adopters were clueless back then.

Our early barometer for web progress is pr0n sites, which have the belief that people STILL need to be told how to "get out of a page they mistakenly landed on... pointing back to google or disney and rising click rates and pageranks in the process. Thinking back to my parents' lack of interest on learning the most basic GUI navigation instead of being mechanical, this sounds about right. My mother closes the browser every time she wants to read a new site; the address bar looks "full" to just edit it. This whole madness is exacerbated by how browser toolbars no longer just have 3 buttons, and no two browser toolbars look the same. Lowest common denominator says whoever encourages the most braindead behavior will gain the most converts quickly. Ergo, popular GUI's like Chrome and iPhone's Safari version.

Linux 93.1

[Anonymous Coward]

"Across Windows, Mac and Linux 93.1 ..."

Linux 93.1 ?!?! does this refer to kernel version? have I been in a coma for one helluva long time?

ohhh, i get it. the use of another comma could have saved me much worry

So much...

[noncaptusest]

for technology thrusting you forward!

I hope this doesn't guide programming decisions

[wealthychef]

I hope programmers don't equate "most clicked" with "more valuable" or "more useful." In my view this is a useless statistic.

Re:I hope this doesn't guide programming decisions

[SmlFreshwaterBuffalo]

Screen real estate is valuable, and knowing how often buttons are used tells you which ones to make easily accessible and which ones can be buried.

When it comes to UI's, "most clicked" should absolutely be equated to "most valuable". Doing otherwise could result in a horrid design where the simplest tasks require very convoluted and excessive steps.

Re:I hope this doesn't guide programming decisions

[Abcd1234]

I hope programmers don't equate "most clicked" with "more valuable" or "more useful." In my view this is a useless statistic.

Then thank god you aren't a UI designer.

These are the *precisely* kinds of metrics one wants when optimizing a user interface, as "most clicked" *absolutely* equates to "most valuable", in the sense that it's the most frequently used feature, and therefore invoking that feature should be made as easy as possible.

Re:I hope this doesn't guide programming decisions

[bigdavex]

When it comes to UI's, "most clicked" should absolutely be equated to "most valuable". Doing otherwise could result in a horrid design where the simplest tasks require very convoluted and excessive steps.

Often people click Back multiple times to get where they want. If we could invent a "Go Back to where I wanted to be" button that the user clicked only once, this would be more useful but receive fewer clicks.

Re:I hope this doesn't guide programming decisions

[SmlFreshwaterBuffalo]

Often people click Back multiple times to get where they want. If we could invent a "Go Back to where I wanted to be" button that the user clicked only once, this would be more useful but receive fewer clicks.

Agreed. But having to click Back multiple times is precisely the reason why it needs to be so easily accessible.

And if your hypothetical button is not the "most clicked" button on the UI, then it should be demoted to provide the new "most clicked" button with the most screen area. "Most valuable" in terms of UI design does not equate to "most functionality". It means "the button people use the most often". Buttons that are clicked once every 6 months can be buried in a series of menus because people will put up with the extra effort once every 6 months. But no one would want to jump through so many hoops if they have to use the feature every 6 minutes.

Re:I hope this doesn't guide programming decisions

[NoMaster]

"If we could invent a "Go Back to where I wanted to be" button that the user clicked only once, this would be more useful but receive fewer clicks."

FF had that, more or less - note the little down-arrows adjacent to the back and fwd buttons here; they showed a dropdown menu of the history in each direction.

For some reason the allegedly "professional UX designers" (to quote someone upthread) thought combining the separate fwd and back buttons into a Vista-aping keyhole, removing those extra indicators, combining the separate histories into one, and accessing that combined history by right-click, was a step forwards.

Even worse was their decision to ape the butt-ugly Safari for the default OS X theme...

Re:I hope this doesn't guide programming decisions

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe it should tell them that they need to make back-a-page navigation easier without the button - like making the use of BackSpace more prominent, maybe through a tooltip on the Back button?

Context menu

[pkbarbiedoll]

Right-click & back. Never use the button on the toolbar.

Re:Context menu

[Reziac]

Likewise...

Except when the entire visible area is an image, in which case there IS no "back" on the context menu, thanks to a moronic decision back when Mozilla was new, and that persists today across the entire Moz-based family.

Seems the lead programmer thought there was too much "clutter" on the context menu, so removed "back" when the pointer was over an image. There was a huge outcry in the MozDev newsgroup, and a vote of 701 to 2 (yes, real numbers) to restore it, but his response was essentially "*I* like it this way, so fuck you. Moz isn't meant for end users anyway." (I witnessed this exchange in the newsgroup myself.)

Someone made a patch to address the deficiency, but it was not widely distributed and seems lost to history. Perhaps someone will see fit to recreate it, for those of us who curse this decision on a daily basis (but not being coders, have no way to fix it).

Re:Context menu

[Anonymous Coward]

FYI you can right click one of the margins around the image just fine.

Re:Context menu

[Reziac]

Yes, but that's not always practical (I've run into many cases where it is not). Regardless, it was a stupid, selfish decision that totally ignored the needs of average users, as evident by both the vote back then and the subject of this article.

People use the search bar?

[Zixaphir]

I took the search bar off my firefox. I prefer using keywords. Just gotta type in the address bar, "g query" and it'll do a google search for whatever query I want. I also have it setup for wikipedia, lyricwiki, php.net, isohunt... y'know, the works. I find it to be a ton faster than some drop down menu. Of course, I'm a tinkerer. Most people, sadly, aren't.

Re:People use the search bar?

[Garble Snarky]

I use the keyboard shortcut to go to the search bar, then ctrl-up/down to select my search site, which is google or wikipedia in 99% of cases. It's pretty fast.

What's funny to me is that I know technical people that will ignore the google search bar, type "www.google.com" into the url bar, search for wikipedia on the google homepage, click the top result, then FINALLY type their wikipedia search query into the wikipedia search box.

Re:People use the search bar?

[Daneurysm]

I use Opera with an extremely minimalist setup. No nav buttons no search bars, just thin unobtrusive tabs and address bar. My mouse has back and forward buttons. I know where my F5 key is. To google I just right-click a word and search that (with google as my default search engine) or, more often, I just type "g [search term]", sans quotes and brackets obviously--in the address bar.

Though Chrome makes it one step easier by making anything that's not a properly formed URL into a search term, I still don't like Chrome compared to Opera....that DNS prefetch is terribly inconsistent.

Re:People use the search bar?

[Zixaphir]

You have g [search term]. I also have w, php, torrent, and various other custom ones setup. I love it. :D

Re:People use the search bar?

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Same here. I guess the search bar makes sense if you only ever do one type of search (the default), or rarely use the others. I just find it easier to have one address bar to go to, no matter what I'm looking for (including direct URL entry)

Ctrl-[

[Anonymous Coward]

I never use the back button but I do use the keyboard shortcut.

back button?

[Anonymous Coward]

I got rid of my back button long ago, along with all the other useless button that waste precious screen area.

lrn2kbrd

Re:Back button?

[lmnfrs]

I swear I clicked the reply link at the top before noticing your post..
Sounds handy so I'll have to look it up; I only have scrolling on my touch pad.

Re:Or... or... or... or...

[Animaether]

Is that in FireFox by default? It doesn't seem to do anything on this machine (Win/FF3.6.6).
I know I can add it by using e.g. http://www.mousegestures.org/ , but do add-ons count?

A sibling poster already mentioned the alt+left arrow.. I wonder how many ways there actually are...

1. Back button
2. Alt+Left Arrow
3. menubar: History - Back (and thus: Alt+s, B)
4. Right-click (context menu) on any blank area of a page - Back (and thus: Right-click, B)
5. Backspace button (maybe Win only?)
6. Shift+Mousewheel Down

Can't think of a 7+ right now.. any takers?

4th mouse button

[Anonymous Coward]

Fourth mouse button you insensitive clod

Back is my least-clicked

[ap0]

I can't remember the last time I actually clicked the back button. If I'm on my Mac, I three-finger swipe right to left to go back, or if I'm on a desktop, I use backspace. I do use the search toolbar a lot, though.

It's simply because of bad design

[drinkypoo]

The keyboard shortcut for reload is F5, which you hit with the left hand, but the keyboard shortcut for back is backspace (or some combination of keys involving an arrow) which is hit with at least the right hand, if not both. If you're mousing (which is handy for web browsing) then you don't want to have to take your hand off the mouse all the time. Likewise, the back button is near the upper-left corner of the window so it's easy to find.

Huh

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

I would have thought Slashdot's 'submit' button would have been the one most clicked in Firefox.

Re:Or... or... or... or...

[Anonymous Coward]

Most mouses have a back button built in. That's what I tend to use more than anything.

Zero.

[simetra]

In Opera, it's right button down, left button click to go back, left button down, right click to go forward. Always.
It's the same in Firefox, until Firefox gets updated and the gestures plugin is broken for a few weeks until the maintainers fix it for the new firefox version.
Going to IE is a nightmare. Then it's right click, click Back on the right-click menu.
Once you get used to mouse gestures, you wonder why anyone would ever waste so much mouse mileage going up to the Back button all the time.

Re:Zero.

[jpate]

Once you get used to mouse gestures, you wonder why anyone would ever waste so much mouse mileage going up to the Back button all the time.

i'd say something about using vimperator (in a tiling window manager), and wondering why anybody wastes so much time going to the mouse all the time, but I'm just not that smug.

Re:Zero.

[cbhacking]

So... why do you use extensions to add your much loved feature if Firefox, but deride IE as though it doesn't offer the same functionality through its own add-ons? I'll grant that the library is smaller, but they exist, there's a centralized location to get them from (open the Add-on manager and click "Get more toolbars and extensions" or just navigate to http://www.ieaddons.com/en/ ), and they seem to provide most if not all of the generally sought-after features. I have ad blocking, mouse gestures, user-agent switching, fast proxy switching, search aliases, user scripts... there's a ton more, for those who want to add more tricks.

The mouse gestures component supports your hold-one-button-click-the-other triggers, too. I typically just use my mouse's 4th and 5th buttons for this, but if you're used to doing it your way, it seems awfully silly to blame the browser rather than just installing the add-in.

clearly!

[Dyinobal]

Clearly this means they should make the button larger so people can find it more easily!

Re:clearly!

[hedwards]

Eh, screw it, just make it take up 3/4 of the screen space and remove all those other annoying buttons. The perhaps replace the URL field with a Google bar. Also it should only actually go to lolcats and pr0n sites.

But what's really interesting...

[msauve]

'Across Windows, Mac and Linux 93.1 percent of users clicked the button at least once over the course of a five-day period. In total the study reported that users clicked on the back button 66 times over the course of five days.

Now, I'm no statistician, but that seems to indicate that there are (66/93.1% =) 70.9 people who use Firefox. Probably less, since some users would have clicked more than once.

Re:But what's really interesting...

[Mr Z]

Erm, that's an average of 66 clicks per user I'd imagine.

Re:But what's really interesting...

[Threni]

> Erm, that's an average of 66 clicks per user I'd imagine.

He's no statistician.

Re:But what's really interesting...

[stjobe]

Since the study was made with a Firefox plugin, I think you'll find that 100% of the Windows, Mac and Linux users in the study use Firefox.

Re:But what's really interesting...

[Anonymous Coward]

thats actually clicks per six days per percentage of people using the back button (clicks/day/usage), which is nothing....

Re:But what's really interesting...

[Anonymous Coward]

>I'd imagine.

Yes, and you see there's your problem. The whole sentence clearly states 'in total' and not 'per user'. This way the writers let you imagine that the study was a lot more comprehensive than it was in reality, without having to lie about anything. That's what you get for imagining things, don't do that again.

This thread surprises me

[Zouden]

Do you all just use the 3-button mouse that came with your Dell? Back and forward buttons have been common on mice for the last decade. Why click a toolbar button when you can just use your thumb?

Re:This thread surprises me

[h4rr4r]

My use a mouse when you can use the keyboard?
Vimperator FTW!

Re:This thread surprises me

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you all just use the 3-button mouse that came with your Dell? Back and forward buttons have been common on mice for the last decade. Why click a toolbar button when you can just use your thumb?

Because if my muscle memory is trained for my mouse, I'm going to be nonfunctional when I'm on someone else's machine.

If my muscle memory is trained for the lowest-common-denominator mouse, on the other hand, I'll be functional on any machine I encounter. Keyboards don't change nearly as often (nor between models) as mice.

Once upon a time, the goal of a UI was that it be equally usable on any machine, so that it didn't matter what platform you were on. (Note to self: Find the guy who invented tear-off tabs and tear his tab off. I clicked on the damn tab and moved the mouse down so I could highlight some text, and the fucking thing popped open a new goddamn window. WTF? Fuck mouse gestures.)

Re:This thread surprises me

[drinkypoo]

(Note to self: Find the guy who invented tear-off tabs and tear his tab off. I clicked on the damn tab and moved the mouse down so I could highlight some text, and the fucking thing popped open a new goddamn window. WTF? Fuck mouse gestures.)

let's instead find the guy who decided to implement tear-off tabs without a checkbox to disable them, and check his box until he's disabled.

Re:This thread surprises me

[Zouden]

Because if my muscle memory is trained for my mouse, I'm going to be nonfunctional when I'm on someone else's machine.

I'm sorry that you become nonfunctional when faced with a slightly different hardware configuration. The rest of us have more than one set of muscle memory and don't feel the need to limit ourselves to the "lowest common denominator".

Re:This thread surprises me

[Anonymous Coward]

i'm guessing those also count as using the back button, as does alt+left

Re:This thread surprises me

[discord5]

Do you all just use the 3-button mouse that came with your Dell? Back and forward buttons have been common on mice for the last decade.

The dell workstation at the office came with one of those abominations. Every now and then my thumb would hit that conveniently placed button, causing whatever webpage I was looking at to disappear for whatever webpage was in the list previously or next. Not to mention all those badly programmed javascript webpages have a tendency to break the behaviour of the back button. I have traded the mouse with one of my coworkers who was envious of it, for a regular 3 button mouse. It just gets in the way like the windows keys do.

I'm sure that some people find those things incredibly handy, windows-key-D'ing their way to the desktop, having that extra mouse button for going back in a browser, all those fancy multimedia buttons and knobs with blue leds underneath... The last keyboard I got had the six key block (insert delete home end pageup pagedown) layed out vertically. Fun times I tell you, when you wish to go to the end of a line and end up deleting something. Oh, it wouldn't be so bad if keyboard designers at least used a standard layout in case that block is vertically aligned, but they all do it differently.

Also: context menu -> move mouse a little to the right -> back

Re:This thread surprises me

[toddestan]

Why should I buy a special mouse when I can use the mouse I have with mouse gestures to accomplish the same thing? (Actually, my mouse at work does have those buttons, but I'm so used to mouse gestures I never use them and have them disabled to avoid erroneous clicks).

Re:This thread surprises me

[MartinSchou]

Why click a toolbar button when you can just use your thumb?

Button? Thumb? Back is done with the Z-key on my keyboard, and that's activated with my pinky. Since my left hand is always on the keyboard, and my right hand spends most of it's time on the keyboard, why would I want to go hunting for my mouse?

Re:This thread surprises me

[Phroggy]

The dell workstation at the office came with one of those abominations. Every now and then my thumb would hit that conveniently placed button, causing whatever webpage I was looking at to disappear for whatever webpage was in the list previously or next.

Yeah, this has happened to me at work too, at least two or three times. Very annoying, but it hasn't happened often enough for me to take the time to figure out how to disable them.

It just gets in the way like the windows keys do.

Weird, I never have trouble with that. Maybe you have a non-standard keyboard layout that puts the Windows keys in an easier-to-hit-by-accident place?

Open last tab closed

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure I press Ctrl + Shift + T more than I press Ctrl + T

Re:Open last tab closed

[Anonymous Coward]

Hadn't heard of that, very nice.

and in other news

[rossdee]

the F2 key is the most used key in Solitaire

Re:Or... or... or... or...

[Animaether]

I suppose that would make #7 - an application or driver sending a 'back' command directly to the browser (no idea if that's still DDE or somesuch).

Although it's also possible that the mouse driver simply fakes keystrokes (such as the Backspace key) when that button is pressed.. in which case, I'm not sure that would count as a different FireFox method so much as an input device method.
( my laptop has a little 4-way direction button that can be configured to have left = Back as well )

Am I the only person

[CSFFlame]

who just uses the backspace key?

Re:Am I the only person

[kent_eh]

That seems to be a windows only thing.
I am a bit surprised there are so few mouse gesture responses, though. It's one of my first add-ons when I do a clean Firefox install.

Re:Am I the only person

[cbhacking]

No, but it's inconveniently located for right-handed people on most keyboards; you've got the numpad between it and your mousing hand, and half of the normal keyboard between it and the hand you always leave on the keyboard.

Re:Am I the only person

[Shoe Puppet]

Between the hand you want to use to press backspace, there are both your mousing hand and the hand you leave on the keyboard? From what planet are you?

No wonder it's most clicked

[A_Non_Moose]

You have to because some freaking idiot made it a unified/menu-like like IE.

So instead of a single click and you're done, it's now, click, menu, choose/click the fwd/back,
go wrong direction (possibly) or too far, click the unified button again (repeat).

A FWD (with menu and clear direction/levels) and BKWD with the same menu and CLEAR direction.

I HATE the way IE does it (can't seem to fix) and it's the first thing I fixed in FF3.

Re:Or... or... or... or...

[jbuk]

Command-[ on a Mac has the added benefit of breaking free of any keyboard captures a flash applet may have induced.

Or perhaps bad site design affecting usage?

[Anonymous Coward]

It could be the most clicked icon because some asshole put javascript in a website that hijacks the back button. As in "Gawddammitwhycan'tIgetbackwhereIwasbefore!!!" while clicking it 500 times. At least that's what happens until they figure out the what the little arrow for the history dropdown is for and then managing to go back by using the list.

When most people hit back, they want to go back, not have the browser refresh send them to the same page they just left. There should be an (obvious) option to disable that kind of (malicious) script somewhere without needing an extension.

Re:Or perhaps bad site design affecting usage?

[bingoUV]

With firefox 3.x, you don't need an extension for this.

Preferences -> Advanced -> General -> "Warn me when websites try to redirect or reload the page".

Re:Uhhhh

[multisync]

Also, does it just count clicks on the interface or what I do (mouse button under right thumb)? Backspace key?

Ctrl-t is my "most common button," followed by Alt-left arrow, Alt-B + down and right arrows, enter, tab, shift-tab, Ctrl-r, Ctrl-w, Ctrl-c, Ctrl-v, Ctrl-x ...

Ha, amateurs!

[EnsilZah]

I've stripped my UI to just the menus I need, the address bar and the search bar, for back I either use the mouse or backspace when I'm feeling fancy.
It's quite amusing to see someone else try to use it, though on the downside I don't have a girlfriend anymore.

Re:Ha, amateurs!

[value_added]

Hey amateur!

You do know that you can search using the "Address Bar"? And, believe it or not, you can use that same Address Bar to perform Wikipedia, Flickr, You Tube, Google Groups, dictionary, IMDB, etc. searches. ;-)

Google for "Firefox". Keyword "keywords"

Re:Ha, amateurs!

[leamanc]

I thought it was called the Awesome Bar. And while a lot of folks on the internets jumped at the chance to complain about how not awesome it was, I always liked it. Since I've mostly migrated to Chrome at this point, I see that others have implemented the idea even better.

Re:Ha, amateurs!

[Shoe Puppet]

You loose suggestions that way, though. Also, dragging selected text to the search bar is a handy way to search for text you find on the web page.

Re:Ha, amateurs!

[camperdave]

I use the address bar to tell me if a domain exists or not, and to take me there if it does. I likes my 404s.

What annoys me most is that lately, the Firefox feature where you highlight text, right click on it, and choose Google Search to find pages; that feature doesn't work anymore. It just brings me to the www.google.ca/firefox page. Well, to be fair, sometimes it works, and sometimes it brings me to the Google Firefox page.

That's because ...

[PPH]

... there's no "OMG! My eyes!" button.

Re:Or... or... or... or...

[commodore64_love]

And this is why I don't bother with "shortcuts". I would waste more time trying to memorize all those different buttons, commands, gestures than if I just clicked on the back button, or used the dropdown menu.

So

[Anonymous Coward]

Why does the Linux version not support the Backspace keyboard shortcut (one key)? I have to use Alt+Left (two keys, and on a full-size keyboard this requires two hands).

Well, duh! WTF did you expect?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you expect the "forward" button to be the most used? What, is the browser psychic now?

Or perhaps "print?" We all, of course, print 10,000 pages per year, right?

Your page is useless and/or slow, so I'm going to back out of it.

And as for "reload" being second most used: also duh, bordering on derp. Your insistence on linking out to 25 ad servers and to google analytics causes your page to freeze with half a paragraph of text showing. I'll try to reload before I back out.

Seriously, who paid for this uselessness?

Re:Well, duh! WTF did you expect?

[Anonymous Coward]

Turns out Opera *is* Psychic. The Fast-Forward button gets automatically enabled pointing to the next page/relevant link. I think Safari does something similar now with the reading-mode or iReader or whatever they call it.

Back button?

[Traf-O-Data-Hater]

I use StrokeIt and do a quick right-left swish, you insensitive clod!

Back "button"?

[lmnfrs]

Interesting; I usually use 'ALT+Left', but also use 'F5' and 'CTRL+L Tab' pretty often..

Re:Back "button"?

[Rectum2003]

Try Ctrl-k instead of Ctrl-l Tab, it's easier...

Re:Uhhhh

[ls671]

I remember using those a lot more in the beginning of times when it almost always worked as expected. Nowadays, I still try it on new sites that I visit and I use it on sites where I know it works.

I always think "buffoons" when I visit a site where it doesn't work but I have to admit that I am pretty old guard on this matter... ;-)

Anyways, I have encountered very complex sites using newer technologies such as Ajax where the back button worked fine. So if you state it as a requirement when you start to design the site, it should still be possible to respect the old HTML/HTTP spirit IMHO.

By the way, clicking quickly twice on the back button still lands you to the expected page once you have been through a redirection although I have no data with regards to if it only works when the redirection is done through HTML in contrast with one done in the HTTP headers.

Re:Or... or... or... or...

[poopdeville]

Or you could spend a minute to learn the most frequently used ones once, and save a few seconds 66 times a day. Sounds like a win to me.

A friend of mine is a "search oriented" user...

[IANAAC]

as you call it.

Frankly, I never understood his reasoning. Anyway, he *ONLY* enters URLS into Google's text box. When I tried to explain to him that there's a much easier way of doing things, he flat out refused to even consider it.

But then, he's an old curmudgeon set in his ways, just as I'm set in my own curmudgeonly ways.

Re:Or... or... or... or...

[mattack2]

What is this "flash" you speak of? Do you not have this installed: http://clicktoflash.com/

(OK, obviously even with this, you can purposely load/whitelist specific Flash items..)

Re:Or... or... or... or...

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that in FireFox by default?

No. FireGestures is an addon like many other things people take for granted in firefox after long use.

I used to use StrokeIt (yes yes, get your jokes in now), a free program that basically allowed mouse gestures to work in Windows and any program opened in Windows. Unfortunately, when I went from XP to Vista it was incompatible, forcing me to grab FireGestures instead as an alternative for at least internet browsing.

And...looking it up thanks to being reminded by your post, I found this.

StrokeIt Updated After 4-Years; Works on Vista & Windows 7

Oh thanks god, now I don't need to click to open any programs ever again and I can get rid of FireGestures.

5 button mice FTW

[Com2Kid]

Back button on the mouse, booyah.

Seriously though, why reload? I use it maybe once a week, if that. Have some patience people! (or just hit F5)

Re:5 button mice FTW

[dreamer.redeemer]

This. I get very frustrated very quickly when I'm forced to use a mouse that doesn't have back/forward buttons. It makes navigating the FS a lot faster too.

Re:5 button mice FTW

[Com2Kid]

For file system navigation I usually use the keyboard, especially since Vista+ you can use alt-up to go up a directory. I always tried to do that in 2000 and XP, since it naturally SHOULD work. Someone finally realized this in Vista and added it.

To all you Web designers that...

[bmo]

...disable or otherwise fuck up using the back button with javascript douchebaggery: If I ever meet you in a dark alley, I won't simply beat you to a pulp, I will rip off your head and fuck your medulla oblongta with my engorged turgid penis which I will have lubricated with your tears that you shed begging for your life.

Or so the fantasy goes. Goddamn it, guys, stop it. Once I get burned by something like that, I *never* go back.

--
BMO

Re:To all you Web designers that...

[Anderu67]

And they have no excuse considering stuff like http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/3/history/ exists!

There's a fix for that.

[iYk6]

If a web page uses "nostore" for a value in the HTTP Cache header, then Firefox won't store it for the back button. Unfortunately, PHP sends the nostore value by default when the page runs "session_start()", so lots of pages end up fucked up like you say.

The solution I have found is to run sed on libxul.so. Replace every instance of "nostore" with some random alphabetic garbage of the same length. This causes Firefox to only fuck the page if it finds that exact same random garbage in the cache string, which is very unlikely. So every page gets stored for the back button. The nocache header still behaves as expected, so shopping carts carts and such still work without having to constantly reload pages. There is no value to the "nostore" header, for the reasons that you said, so this works out OK.

Unfortunately, this solution seems to have a side effect that I can't explain. Pages on some sites (such as the Slashdot home page) will load blank every once in a while. When you reload it will load properly. It's still worth it.

Re:There's a fix for that.

[Anonymous Coward]

It’s too bad Firefox isn’t open-source so you can just change the source code instead of fucking around in the internals of the compiled binary, breaking shit along the way.

Re:There's a fix for that.

[Shoe Puppet]

Unfortunately, this solution seems to have a side effect that I can't explain. Pages on some sites (such as the Slashdot home page) will load blank every once in a while. When you reload it will load properly. It's still worth it.

I experience that too without having modified anything.

Re:There's a fix for that.

[tepples]

It’s too bad Firefox isn’t open-source so you can just change the source code

Should everyone who uses Windows have to buy a copy of Visual Studio Standard just to recompile Firefox?

Re:There's a fix for that.

[xtracto]

and then having to download the whole 36MB of code just to change 1 freaking string...

Parent post gives quite a good and practical idea

Re:There's a fix for that.

[Threni]

I'm confused. Firefox is open source, and you can use the free Visual Studio Express to compile on Windows systems if that's your bag. Does Firefox use special Windows-only extensions which require a non-free edition of VS? However did they compile the Linux version I'm using now?

Re:There's a fix for that.

[tepples]

Does Firefox use special Windows-only extensions which require a non-free edition of VS?

It turns out that you're right: Express is enough. I was just extrapolating from the problems that I have run into with some things other than Firefox, such as the Windows Mobile 6.x SDK not being available for Express Edition.

However did they compile the Linux version I'm using now?

Even if the Linux version can be compiled using tools in the Ubuntu repository (as listed here)

Mouse "Thumb" button?

[asylumx]

Ok, I'm sorry if I sound dumb here, but doesn't just about every mouse these days have a thumb button which defaults to "back" in most major browsers? I know I've had mice with that button for at least seven or eight years now, and I guess I just assumed they all had it by now.

Seriously, now I'm so used to that, that if I'm using the laptop touchpad or my 10 yr old trackball, it actually takes me a minute to remember how to go "back" without that button...

In fact, I can't think of a single UI button on the browser that I actually do use...

Re:Mouse "Thumb" button?

[mysidia]

3 button optical mice where the center button is a scroll wheel are still very common.

Actually, I rarely see anyone with a mouse that has more than 3 buttons. I don't think most computer users have what you are referring to. /p

Re:Mouse "Thumb" button?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thumb button on just about every mouse?

Erm...no.

Re:Mouse "Thumb" button?

[WCVanHorne]

I use the thumb button for "back" *all* the time. When I started a new job I tossed the corded, three button optical in drawer and plugged in a wireless with thumb button from home. I find it hard to use a mouse without one. I feel as if my thumb has been cut off. Once you know the speed and ease of browsing with a middle scroll button for tabs and a thumb button for back you will never go back.

Someone tell the Safari UI designer

[matrixskp]

I'd like to personally meet the guy that moved the reload button from the tool bar and put it in address field way off to the right of Safari. They also removed it from the customizable buttons so it HAS to be there. That was the day before I started using Firefox as my number one browser.

it depends on the OS...

[Qubit]

Backspace key on Windows, Alt-Left Arrow on *nix, and whatever the heck it is on OSX (curvy-cornered octothorpe + Left Arrow, I think).

Especially if I'm on my laptop, the trackpad is a pain to use and causes more strain on my hands than using the keyboard.

StrokeIt all the way

[Joshua Fan]

Bind right gesture to Alt+Right, left gesture to Alt+Left to use gestures in any browser, even Explorer.

Re:Uhhhh

[CountSmackula]

I'm right there with you... plus backspace. Only the Menu toolbar is visible on any of our computers.

Don't go back, go Private

[Mr Muppet]

For some people, I imagine the most popular is actually Tools -> Start Private Browsing :-)

Mod parent up!

[Anonymous Coward]

+1, Meta-smug!

Re:Or... or... or... or...

[Shoe Puppet]

Were talking about Firefox here, not Safari. Of course, there's Flashblock

Forward button

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is the forward button most of the time diabled? As if I did my browsing for no puprose whatsoever and had no goals... Wait, this is true. The functional design of buttons is pure genius!

We're just wired that way...

[Anonymous Coward]

At some point in art school, they talked at length about the pattern of the eye's gaze on an image working from the upper left corner and then traveling down in a not so perfectly diagonal down to the right manner.

I also recall learning at some point that any culture where words are read on a page/parchment/tablet upper left and then across right as they go down additional contributes to this seemingly innate habit of where the eye chooses to wander.

As far as studies for web design? Here's just one (and they all read mostly the same results): http://www.videodim.com/Eye%20gaze%20Patterns.html

And how about the "next" and "up" button?

[Dr.Ruud]

Has the "next" button already been defined? Or even patented?

I like to see a standard [back/up\next] interface that is easy to set from HTML, so you never have to look for it again when a set of pages is structured that way.

For example, I don't like interfaces like the one this has: http://www.htdp.org/2003-09-26/Book/

Re:And how about the "next" and "up" button?

[Anonymous Coward]

hmmm,

NO! I never want to see a webpage alter my UI. Now, if there was a standard for the top of the page containing buttons that were customisable, I would not mind that (kind of like soft-keys on a point of sale pin pad)

Scroll Wheel button

[tomhath]

The Back button has been the most used browser feature for years. I set the scroll wheel button to Browser Back; click on a link, scroll up and scroll down, navigate back. Fastest way to browse.

Easy to do in Windows but I can't figure out how to set it that way in X. The default settings of either Forward or Universal Scroll for the middle button are useless.

New tab doesn't work on submit button

[tepples]

I got in the habit long ago of opening most links in new tabs

You can't submit a form to a new window or tab in SeaMonkey or Firefox. (You can in Chrome, or so my Chrome-using boss tells me.) That's bug 17754 on bugzilla.mozilla.org, reported over a decade ago.

Re:New tab doesn't work on submit button

[Shin-LaC]

I get the impression that after a bug has been sitting in Mozilla's Bugzilla for a few years, people begin thinking "there must be a reason if it hasn't been fixed in all this time", and you can basically give up on it.

Combinatorics

[tepples]

UI designers should focus on giving us as many options as possible

Every time you add an option, it doubles the testing load to discover unforeseen interactions among options.

Re:Combinatorics

[bingoUV]

And that is just for boolean options. For options of more complex data types, it is much worse.

Not as much as I used to...

[Anonymous Coward]

Quite a while ago, I picked up the habit of hitting Ctrl+Left Arrow to go back, which I still use occasionally. Sometime after the introduction of tabs, I got into the habit of opening several pages in new tabs with a middle-click. Made it a lot easier to visit lots of links on a page, middle-click or Ctrl+W to close them all one-by-one and be back at the "parent" page. Sometime later, I installed Mouse Gestures and have used the "right-click, down, right" gesture to close tabs, and "right-click, left" to go back. So with all of the methods of going "back" these days, I find myself reaching all the way up to the top of the screen pretty rarely. A mouse gesture extension is one of the first extensions I install these days along with NoScript and AdBlock, and I've used both Mouse Gestures and FireGestures quite a bit.

Alt+Left Arrow

[Anonymous Coward]

I use Alt+Left Arrow you insensitive clods

Back is a guranteed FUCKUP on banks + web stores

[Anonymous Coward]

We depend so much on the back button concept but so many web sites fuck it up big time and that costs you money, it RESENDS information and orders you double your order, or books a flight or sends money from your bank

Firefox fucked it up too, when you refresh a POST, it says "DO YOU WANT TO RESEND THE INFORMATION" but fails to say WHAT it is resending. What a royal FUCKUP by the developers who have no Useability CLUE.

Re:Or... or... or... or...

[LBt1st]

I've been using StrokeIt for years. It allows actions like the GP mentioned. You can teach it gestures, and they work in all or specified apps. So it's not just limited to your browser. My FireFox UI doesn't even have any typical icons.

In other news, water is wet

[DragonHawk]

When I first read the article title, my first reaction was to echo a Jon Stewart/Daily Show quote: "This study was published this month in The American Journal of Shit We Already Knew."

Lucky

[swonkdog]

You VIM kids are lucky! If only I could get FireFox to work more like emacs.