Hello!
I'm a Firefox UX designer, new on the Search & Suggest team (these design changes were made before I joined the team).
The old version was removed as the default because it caused issues for accessibility. (i.e. problems for people who physically can’t use a mouse and have no choice but to use an alternative navigation method).
I'm keen to learn what could be improved about the new design that could make it as good as – or even better – than the old version for everybody.
In the new version, you can press alt-downarrow to open the list of search engines, and type the first letter of a search engine to select it.
Could you go into more detail about anything else that made the old version better for you, and how you would use it?
What is it that you'd miss? The icons being visible by default? The icons not having labels? The icons being shown in a grid? The keyboard shortcuts? How many search engines do you have listed?
If the new menu could show a grid of icons instead of a list, and somehow be pinned open by default (not in its current position of course) then would that help?
I’m here to listen to your feedback and take it back to the team to advocate for your needs. I can’t get it reverted, but I can make other changes.
And again, I wasn’t on the team when this was designed so I’d appreciate your help to make this work better for you.
Thanks!
