I have been using Firefox for years, in the early days it was easy to use. It has now become so complicated, so full of jargon, that I dread getting one your improved fe… (read more)
I have been using Firefox for years, in the early days it was easy to use. It has now become so complicated, so full of jargon, that I dread getting one your improved features notices. While the graphics are pretty, the explanations of features are so full of your jargon and/or so imbedded in other unexplained actions, that I get lost almost immediately. Even trying to get help is near impossible, you check boxes about help and it goes in circles. Look at this page, there is a box which has in it "Search questions, articles or top". I can not discern what is supposed to be entered here, am I searching for questions? Asking questions? Looking for articles (about what?), submitting an article, do I want to top something???? or what? I hovered over an initial in the upper right, which had a little red ball in the corner. Up comes a page full of symbols, without explanations, without explanation..My Questions? the number 1 in a red ball, an X below the letter in a circle with the red ball. The author must expect that everyone would understand this, but I do not.
I do not know how you user test features, but it seems like you must be using sophisticated users, who therefore are expected to be highly skilled in the current system and thus can appreciate new features. IT seems clear to me that beginners and more casual users are not the target.
Just look at this page, Above this box there are Bold and italic symbols, including one looking like a chain link, but it is not obvious. Then there are two sets of three lines, which when you hover over them they have definitions :number list and bulleted list. Now, I have no idea what is the intended use of these symbols, how to use them,so here I am on a help page that is already confusing.
I do not see an easy solution, as the evolution of Firefox has gone so far, there is no going back to simplicity, and clarity of language. One thing that might help would be a step through process, in which a user wants to do something and the program goes step by step, hand holding the whole way.