This is an improvement suggestion: It is utterly irritating when Hyperlink targets hide current download information in the status bar. I'm very often baffled why Firefox is trying to follow a particular Hyperlink, only to notice that I'm not monitoring download information but a random Hyperlink target information *after I catch and move the mouse around*. I'd like to suggest to update the status bar design so that the presented information becomes more clear to the user. Currently I - the user - get too much distracted from the actual website content by investigating what kind of IRI I'm looking currently at in the browser and by finding out what's currently going on and why. Suggestions: * Hyperlink target information should be clearly disassociated from current download information. * Hyperlink target information should not hide current download information. Just because the mouse pointer is hanging around somewhere uselessly doesn't imply that it's necessarily pointing to a Hyperlink about to be followed. Three Possible Implementation Scenarios: a) Create a 3-line status bar, showing ... - download status always in the lowest line, - Hyperlink target information in the second line from below, - additional information (set by JavaScript) in the uppermost line (optionally). b) Put Hyperlink target information somewhere outside the status bar. c) Create distinguishable icons for each of the three types that precede any information so that it becomes clear what kind of IRI is displayed. I personally prefer the first suggestion (a).

*ping*

I did not understand your thinking, which download status? The Download window / panel?

Please find a screenshot above. I have added two arrows to the screenshot depicting the important parts. The fact that status messages like "Waiting for server to respond ..." or "Transferring data from server ..." appear at the same "out of sight" position in the browser window as hyperlink address information is what is irritating: When you click on a hyperlink but don't move the mouse pointer away from the hyperlink, you cannot see from the corner of the eye whether the click is actually loading the page. This is particularly confusing then a web server is taking a while to respond. I suggest to either write status messages to a position clearly distinguished from where hyperlink addresses are written in the status panel (e.g. a two line status panel layout where hyperlinks are written to line #1, whereas status messages are solely written to line #2) or to give another visual cue to be able to distinguish these two different types of information (status <> DOM information) from the corner of the eye (e.g. by applying different colors to each type of content).

You should be able to distinguish between pointing and loading progress by the prefixing of hyperlink / status text. (In reply to Axel from comment #3) > I suggest to either write status messages to a position clearly > distinguished from where hyperlink addresses are written in the status panel > (e.g. a two line status panel layout where hyperlinks are written to line > #1, whereas status messages are solely written to line #2) or to give > another visual cue to be able to distinguish these two different types of > information (status <> DOM information) from the corner of the eye (e.g. by > applying different colors to each type of content). It may be a groundbreaking design because there is no major browsers to use it. So, it more likely to be implemented through add-ons, although this may be restricted from WebExtensions.

Yes, it's an accessibility issue. Fact is that while reading it's uncommon and unwise to defocus from the text to read just to get status information. The fact taht other browsers don't implement it shouldn't stop FF from adding Accessibility competence to the GUI. It's a skill that that was quite common though the last decades until loads of uneducated programmers entered the world, not being aware of or not taking care of UX. Just to give an example: Why do you believe are a car's direction indicators green while the oil indicator is red? That's UX for giving information without requiring the user to defocus from where their attention is required.

Any new results? This issue still exists.