[tor-bugs] #19251 [Applications/Tor Browser]: TorBrowser might want to have an error page specific to when .onion links fail

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#19251: TorBrowser might want to have an error page specific to when .onion links
fail
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 Reporter:  cypherpunks               |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  enhancement               |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Low                       |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                    |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  ux-team                   |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:  #30025                    |         Points:
 Reviewer:                            |        Sponsor:  Sponsor27-must
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Comment (by antonela):

 We want to improve the way we communicate with users that there is an
 error trying to visiting an onion service. We have a good opportunity for
 sharing educational points and for being more transparent with users,
 offering them information about the kind of error they are experiencing.

 We can provide more informative error messages indicating better whether
 the issue was on the service-side, on the client-side, or the network-
 side. We can do it without being overwhelming or patronizing but clear
 about the information we are spreading.

 [https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-
 dev/2019-September/014046.html, As asn mentioned], errors could happen in
 different layers:

 - Client Errors
 - Network Errors
 - Service Errors

 To illustrate this complexity, we can use a diagram of the connection and
 show where the error happened. I thought about
 [https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/attachment/ticket/23486
 /progress-bar-icons.png, isabela's idea] in #23486 and I think we can have
 a kind of step-by-step graph here as well.

 [[Image(https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/raw-
 attachment/ticket/19251/O2A4.jpg, 700px)]]

 So I came up with this concept. This layout is flexible enough to cover
 all the error scenarios we currently have in #30090.

 [[Image(https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/raw-
 attachment/ticket/19251/1-errorpage.jpg, 700px)]]

 What do you think? Is the graph accurate? Could it work for each scenario?
 Is it too complicated to have custom error pages for each scenario? I see
 it feasible with just CSS, but is it doable on the browser side?

 ----

 TODO
 - UI: Make the UI for each error scenario.
 - Content: Define the content for each page. This information also needs
 to have an entry at support.tpo.org and tb-manual? Onion services
 documentation?. We will need to l10nize it.
 - User Testing: Once this reaches a nightly, I'd like to share with our
 testing pool of users for feedback.

 ----

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/19251#comment:6>
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