The Firefox 3 Product Requirements Document outlines a requirement (CON-004a) for a revised Download Manager UI as well as some closely related requirements (CON-005a through 007a).

There's additional related documentation:

• Download Manager ideas -- written up by dria, prioritized by beltzner
• Firefox 3 Download Manager feature planning page -- maintained by dmose

This page hosts the first round of UI mockups based on the use cases and goals in the above documentation.

Other Download Managers

• Download Managers in Firefox 2, Safari 2/3, Omniweb 5, Shiira 2, Opera 9, Maxthon 2, IE7

Iteration 1

Mockup and Specification

• the title bar lists the number of downloads & time remaining to completion
• each entry shows
  • the icon of the file being downloaded
  • the name of the file being downloaded (if too wide, the center of the filename should be replaced with an ellipsis, such as "Really really re...ng name.txt")
  • during a download ...
    • time remaining
    • amount transferred (always using the same units within each entry)
    • download speed
    • progress bar
    • show details button
    • pause button
  • for a paused download ...
    • "Paused"
    • amount remaining to be transferred
    • show details button
    • resume button
  • for a completed download ...
    • "Completed"
    • show details button
    • open/launch button
• toolbar at bottom of dialog contains a "Show: Today|Completed|All" drop-down filter control and a "Clear All" button
• Accel-F adds a Find Bar at the top of the dialog allowing someone to quickly find an entry in the list
• "Show Details" would launch the properties window as an overlay dialog (to be mocked up) that would show ...
  • original download location
  • destination file location
  • average speed and time taken for transfer
  • buttons for "download again", "show in explorer", "delete download" and "open"

Note that this design removes the "Remove" function from a download. That function would still be available on right-click, but the idea would be that management of large numbers of downloads would be made easier by the "Show" drop-down along the bottom, and the fact that backending to sqlite will be faster than RDF.

(feel free to modify using the [1] OmniGraffle files used to make this mockup)

Questions & Design Thoughts

The first version of this design was very basic, and done to give sdwilsh something to start on based on functionality required (search, resume) by the PRD. From there I tried adding a more standard looking find bar and eventually came to the above design.

There are several questions that I'd like feedback on, though:

• does the Find Bar metaphor work, or do we want a typeahead filter system more like what is mocked up in the original design?
• are we showing the right amount of information in each entry?
• are we offering the right set of functionality from the primary download manager window?

And a few things I'd like to add to the mockups and specifications:

• minimizing the dialog to the status bar instead of the task bar
• the "Show Details" information pane overlaying the download manager like a file inspector
• how download manager entries should show up in History searches, allowing richer search functionality