While this alerts the user to the new download, the window usually appears on top of useful content (with a similar annoyance factor to that of a popup advert) and has to be minimised.

The current download manager window pops up in front of the page the user is viewing. This could serve asĪ basis for the above 'simplified' edition for the 'Mum&DadM' case. this icon could either disappear when the download manager isn't needed or it could be always there and change it's icon/appearence when a download is running.Ĭheck out the 'Download Statusbar' extension. and if you close the download-manager, a special icon appears in the toolbar, that includes some kind of progress meter. My suggestion would be that the download manager should be opened in any case, no matter wether it's a short or big download. Switching to a tab would also allow for more information to be displayed. Additionally, it would be nice to see the download manager switch to an Opera-like style where it is a tab rather than a pop-up window (with an option to automatically open the download manager in the background, foreground, or not at all). I also like the idea of using the statusbar to display download status. Some people, I think, would like to close Firefox so it isn't taking up so much space and/or memory on their computer. I think that in the new Firefox, instead of the Download Manager being dependent on Firefox, you should be able to close Firefox and leave the download manager open. I could not find a section to add comments so I am just doing it manually.

Therefore it is easy to keep an eye on downloads, beginners don't suffer 'Where'd it go!?' syndrome and the whole thing is easier to manage. If the user clicks on the status bar block, the download manager maximizes out of the status bar. If you minimise or close the download manager, it could 'minimize' into a statusbar block on the bottom right of the status bar that would contain the download icon and the text '15% of 3 Files.'. I would like to suggest a feasible idea for removing these issues. The biggest issue however is 'Mum & Dad' users who think they've cancelled their download when closing the download manager, and do not know how to get back to it other than clicking the link again (because there is no Dropbox button on the toolbar by default, and the menu is well hidden to the basic computer user). When you begin a download and close the download manager, you can no longer track the progress of the downloads without having the window open and taking up space on the task bar.

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