Thoughts on the experimental start

page of Opera 25
+ possible solutions + mockup
Consistency
The rst problem (which has been mentioned before in the discussions on Desktop Team Blog) is
that going to the Bookmarks Manager means you are leaving the default start page UI, which
means you cant choose to go to Discover or Speed Dial without pressing the back button.



Then you implemented these beautiful previews of
bookmarks that really help to distinguish whats
been bookmarked, but the Coast-like Icons on
Speed Dial dont at all. In fact, some sites dont have
these types of icons, others just have plain ugly
ones. But the biggest deal-breaker is that once you
put two sections from the same website in Speed
Dial, you wont be able to tell which one is the one
youre looking for.
Which is Apple News@The Verge, which is Microsoft News@The Verge and which is The Verges start page?
The next problem is search, which has been around since Opera 15. There is no such thing as a
global search for your content in Opera, instead, each layer of bookmarks (Speed Dial, Stash) has
its own index. Since Stash is gone now, searching in the Bookmarks Manager only o"ers results
in Bookmarks Manager, which seems like a clear concept, but the question is:
Why is there such a strong separation between Speed Dials and bookmarks since they now share
much of the same DNA (thinking of the big preview images you implemented in Opera 25)?

I got the minimally
Minimal start page on
my Speed Dial, yet all
I g e t i s t h e
Bookmarks from the
same page.
Folders
Folders on Speed Dial arent manageable in Bookmarks Manager. Folders in Bookmarks Manager
cant be pinned to Speed Dial, individual pages can. Folders in Bookmarks Manager can be
nestled, folders in Speed Dial cant.
Usability
Big Speed Dial icons
What is a very good idea on iPad or Android is a bad idea on desktop. The icons are displayed
way too big and they o"er no context, leaving me puzzled if this page is the one Im really looking
for. I know that Speed Dial is meant to contain about a dozen favourite pages which you can
easily tell apart, but I dont think people use it that way.
Bookmarks Manager
So Folders can be nestled. The sidebar shows that I have selected the folder Other which
contains Reading List. Once I enter Reading List, the sidebar no longer shows me which
folder is selected. Instead, theres a second layer of navigation on top (breadcrumb), adding
unnecessary amounts of complexity. Why is the subfolder not displayed in the sidebar?
The biggest issue: Interaction
Speed Dial and Bookmarks Manager share the same DNA: Previewing content, organising items
in folders. But the way they handle it is di"erent in a way that doesnt add anything to the
experience since the borders have vanished. If youre building a bookmarks manager that is a s
modern as the one you have in 25 (which is displayed within a tab), theres no need to tear them
apart.
Bookmarks bar is just a folder within Bookmarks Manager with no connection to content in Speed
Dial or Reading List, adding a third layer of bookmarking which doesnt help in reducing
complexity. I bet most people would want the items in Speed Dial in their bookmarks bar.
Then there has been Stash, which was meant to be a visual reading list. And Discover for nding
new content. Now theres a folder Reading list in the Bookmarks Manager that has no
functionality (which I guess is because it hasnt been implemented yet). If there is such a thing as
a reading list, Id want to access it from my bookmarks bar and Speed Dial page at a glance.
There should be a way to check that I have read an article so that it disappears.
What I mean is that we have three di"erent layers that cant be managed in a consistent way
and they dont share any of my content. Some of my content can be shared between them
manually (single items), others cant (folders). You have implemented a new way to share
bookmarks, yet I cant nd that button.
You also have Discover, which again doesnt interact with my content. Its just a lame
reminiscence of feedly that is not customisable and that doesnt know what I like, except the
categories you o"er. It doesnt add to the experience, its just content out of context.
Possible Solution
Im gonna send in the Mockup below in full resolution separately
I like the Mailbox.app UI on OS X (still in beta).
Combine Speed Dial and Bookmarks Manager with a modern reading list
and RSS/ Atom feeds.
Speed Dial and Bookmarks that you have subscribed to now display the number of new content
on that page at a glance. You can manage all the content that matters in the browser without
having to rely on cloud services. You wont have to check every website for news that way and
you can drag and drop any way you want it.
If you want to, the Opera servers could do the RSS/ Atom stu" and sync your reading list and
subscriptions to your Coast browser or Opera for Android.
Youll not have to switch between di"erent UIs and worry about duplicates. The main idea here is
drag and drop
Drag a page from a folder to another, drag a page from a folder onto Speed Dial, drag a folder
from the :zipped Bookmarks to the unzipped ones. Add a page from Reading list to Speed Dial,
mark articles and pages as read. You can choose between Grid view, list view and feed view.
In this case, the former Speed Dial is the unzipped area. A simple le manager below speed dial
enables traditional bookmarking. Press the global share button to select which pages you want to
share with Operas new sharing feature.
Bookmarks Bar
in this case displays all unzipped items and the folder :zipped, which then contains all the
unimportant stu".
The url/search eld would
browse all your content
and o"er previews it
would act as a universal
search eld.
Like in Safari on OS X
Yosemite, the Speed Dial
pages could be displayed
as Appl e-Touch-I cons
(coast-l i ke) wi thi n the
URL-bar as soon as you
start typing:
Power users
For Power users, Bookmarks tagging would o"er a real benet (sorting hundreds of bookmarks).
By using tags, you can also quickly create new folders or collections to share with others via
push or via cloud.
The ability to use a custom background image would still be there (though not recommended) and
could change the color scheme like the new iTunes 11/12 and iOS7/8 do.