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What menu items get clicked in Firefox? Copy, paste, and bookmarks.
Developer Alex Faaborg has posted a Firefox menu bar heatmap -- which (in case you're not familiar with the term) shows the items users click on the most. So what items are the most used? Copy, paste, and the bookmarks menu...and not a heck of a lot else.
No other items in the FIrefox menu bar registered more than 9,000 clicks. The bottom half of the bookmarks menu was well over 70,000 and copy posted about half that many.The sample Faaborg put on display is limited to Windows users, but I'd be willing to bet menu interactions follow pretty much the same pattern on other platforms as well.
Mozilla is now in the process of using the Test Pilot data to revamp Firefox's menu structure on Windows. Faaborg's post include a mockup of one early idea the Mozilla UX team is kicking around. It looks good, but between the right-click context menus and my bookmarks drop-down, I'll probably never click anything on the updated menu either...
Comments
7
Subscribe to commentsjeremiah89Mar 31st 2010 12:57PM
What about the tools menu? I use that a bunch in Firefox, mostly for options and addons.
MedlirMar 31st 2010 7:57PM
It's kind of sad that so many people still use the menu for copy/paste, presumably because they don't know the standard shortcut keys. Reminds me of when someone tried sharing a hot tip with me... that you could use Ctrl+F to find something ON ANY PAGE!!! I'm kind of surprised Find doesn't have higher numbers for that reason, but I wonder if it's because a lot of people don't even realize it's there, or because they use Find As You Type.
AlasdairGFMar 31st 2010 1:25PM
yeah - I don't think I've ever used those menu commands! I use "recently closed tabs", "options" and "add-ons", just about exclusively. Everything else is shortcut keys or bookmarks off my bookmarks toolbar.
SilverWaveApr 1st 2010 1:43AM
I use a button for Extensions Manager, Options, Zoom In, Zoom Out.
Right click to close tab. I have bookmarks in the Toobar but mainly use the awesome bar.
hmm interesting.
SilverWaveApr 1st 2010 1:44AM
^ Opps forgot link.
Toolbar Buttons 0.6.0.8
2late2dieApr 1st 2010 8:56PM
I really don't understand the copy/paste items. I mean I get that some people are not very computer savvy but Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V have been the same ever since I remember using a computer, that's pushing two decades now! I mean seriously, if "LOL" is now a word in a dictionary (is it? maybe not, but it's damn close) how is that people still don't know those shortcuts?
First thing I do when I install menu-customizing addon is remove the edit menu because I never use it. At this point I pretty much removed the entire menu bar. Only time I need it is for options and add-on and I have those set up in a custom menu.
I hope these results don't cause Mozilla devs to create dedicated copy/paste buttons... on second thought I don't really care, they're gonna get removed first thing anyway.
2late2dieApr 1st 2010 9:04PM
Just took a closer look at the heat map - who the heck uses the history menu to click the back button?!?! It's right there, as a big button, right beside the URL bar! Why would you do more work by doing more clicks and aiming at smaller items?? Aren't Firefox users suppose to be a bit more computer literate on average? I'm really surprised by these results.