Navigation buttons that are not available should not be visible

[lucidNTR]

Did you search for similar issues before submitting this one?
yes

Describe the issue you encountered:
visibility of disabled navigation buttons does add visual clutter and does not add information to the screen

Expected behavior:
i only see navigation buttons when i can navigate browser history

• Platform (Win7, 8, 10? macOS? Linux distro?):
  all
• Brave Version:
  master
• Steps to reproduce:NA
  1.
  2.
  3.
• Screenshot of expected behaviour:
  
  

[willy-b]

A random user's opinion: this feels buggy. It's unusual (e.g. Firefox always shows the navigation button)
and some new Brave users may just assume the browser is broken.
IMHO, the disabled button conveys information: it is generally possible to navigate, but not right now.

Then again, Firefox does hide the "Forward" button if you have not navigated backwards yet. (But the presence of one of them reminds you that navigation is generally available.)

[lucidNTR]

@willy-b actually you are half right. and i was half right too :-)
Firefox and chrome for ios have the behaviour to hide the forward button if not available and grey out the back button when back has no history. the reasoning is that the back button is the main way to access the history page on most browsers and i could live with that behaviour. Is this good in your oppinion?

[lucidNTR]

another point to clear the interface could be to move the forward and backward buttons out of the titleMode and into the header mode with the url bar this would also be consistent with the reload button often beeing where the back and forward buttons are.

Edit: after sleeping about this, this solution seems to remove to much information, when you look at the browser screen it should be possible to tell with one look if the tab has history or not.

[lucidNTR]

I made a new PR with always showing the back button
#4423

Navigated back and can go forward or backwards:

Can navigate backwards:

No history available:

[luixxiul]

wdyt @bradleyrichter ?

[bradleyrichter]

I'm all for innovation but in this case, I am sure it will be seen as a bug when the forward button appears missing, partially because of muscle-memory standards on most browsers. I agree that on mobile, this works in some cases due to the higher value of screen real-estate.

@lucidNTR Thanks for the parallel thinking on always showing the nav buttons. This is part of the planned improvements when we land the next set of toolbar changes.

(see win screen shots in #3036)

[lucidNTR]

@bradleyrichter sorry i dont understand completely :D wouldnt that be the exact behaviour that master currently has? could you elaborate on the new pr behaviour please?

• yes, all errors are my iPhone's fault

Am 01.10.2016 um 19:55 schrieb Brad Richter notifications@github.com:

I'm all for innovation but in this case, I am sure it will be seen as a bug when the forward button appears missing, partially because of muscle-memory standards on most browsers. I agree that on mobile, this works in some cases due to the higher value of screen real-estate.

@lucidNTR Thanks for the parallel thinking on always showing the nav buttons. This is part of the planned improvements when we land the next set of toolbar changes.

(see win screen shots in #3036)

Can you update your PR so that the button behavior remains for active and disabled states but stays visible in both toolbar modes as you have shown above? This will be a nice step towards the other new changes.

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[paJFJ]

just to make clear the behaviour of firefox for desktop is to hide the forward button too.
I never heard it beeing perceived as a bug. Maybe this is an issue of the person switching from firefox to brave or from chrome to brave? Could everyone that thinks my suggestion feels 'buggy' confirm if they used chrome or firefox besides/befor brave?

[luixxiul]

if we would replace "<" to "<-" probably we won't regard it as a bug, but it definitely makes brave look like firefox. In any case you will need to create a spec image and give it to @bradleyrichter because he's the lead designer.

[bradleyrichter]

@paJFJ Sorry. I was thinking of something a bit different when we move the URL bar to hang left, and then the reload, bookmark, and secure icons will join the nav buttons to stay visible in title-bar mode so ignore that PR update suggestion. (now deleted)

Regarding Firefox hiding the forward button, I think it works OK in their design which is quite different from the other browsers. Our layout is similar to Safari and Chrome/Opera/Vivaldi where I think the disabled forward button works/looks better than hidden and will be expected in this layout.

I am really interested in your thoughts on my proposed updates though. Especially with teh left-side bookmark placement:

(URL mode)

(title mode)

I think it still needs some size and spacing adjustment but this shows the idea where the buttons stay visible which improves usability when heading up to the URL bar.

[lucidNTR]

closing this, due to dependency on 'redesign of navigation-bar to left float instead of beeing centrally aligned'. minimalism has to follow usability, i agree. though after the alignment change i will revisit ways to make the ui more minimal on first sight without sacrificing features...

[lucidNTR]

@bradleyrichter could you post a link to the ' we move the URL bar to hang left, and then the reload, bookmark, and secure icons will join the nav buttons to stay visible in title-bar mode ' ticket number here please for completeness?