> we were excited to find that people used New Tab more when this feature was enabled.
They say it like it's necessarily a good thing. When you add functionality to the page, it will most likely increase engagement time, but that does not mean that new feature is good(or bad), all it means that users spend more time on that page.
Absolutely! And more, it may be that the users are getting more distracted and less productive, although it seems they don't recognize this possibility.
I have tried to use the new tab with everything integrated (another search bar? most visited/pin without reordering, pocket articles) and Mozilla snarks and tips (which I like and find elegant) the feeling each time I open a new tab is the same as when I open my phone with the intent of doing something and, after being bombarded with icons and notifications, completely forget what I wanted to solve in the first place.
It is horrible UX to me. At least I can disable it as I did and I love my empty new tab without any suggestions whatsoever.
Just to dig a bit deeper, I believe browsers chrome should be removed (or greatly reduced) and we should try something new. I don't want to see an endless list of open tabs or your shiny buttons, I want to absorb content. Using Vimperator/Pentadactyl/qutebrowser,etc in the past without system borders opened my eyes to how websites can be beautiful when they are not in a cage and I can't unsee the bloat.
The best Mozilla product of the past couple years, to me, wasn't FF Quantum, but Firefox Focus. I want Focus for the desktop. Amnesic, secure, fast, unbloatable.
They say it like it's necessarily a good thing. When you add functionality to the page, it will most likely increase engagement time, but that does not mean that new feature is good(or bad), all it means that users spend more time on that page.