[tor-project] sajolida's report, September 2024

[sajolida]

Hi,

September was again more busy than average to respect the timeline of 
Project 101 (Tor VPN) and Tails releases.

Tor VPN
=======

- I analyzed the usability test of Tor VPN 0.6.2 that I did in August.

   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/ux/research/-/issues/69

   In short, the usability of Tor VPN 0.6.2 is decent when people don't
   need to use a bridge, but very bad when Tor is blocked. None of the
   participant managed to use a bridge on their own.

   The main issues are unclear system status and confusing network model.

   Quotes:

   “Tor is like a bridge.“ — P5

   “I'm looking for bridges that make it like if I were in
   Switzerland.“ — P4

   “It should say: You are being blocked! With Tor you can bypass
   this censorship using a bridge.“ ­— P6

   Summary of findings:

 
https://gitlab.torproject.org/-/project/92/uploads/1fba8220a110622d852bf4486c139538/P101_Usability_testing_of_Tor_VPN_0.6.2.pdf

   List of all issues:

   https://nc.torproject.net/s/fXbRYw76pTXJZym

   Video clips:

   https://nc.torproject.net/f/645757

- I created GitLab issues to document the most severe issues:

   Improve feedback while "Connecting"
   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/181

   Clarify connection status on all screens
   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/182

   Allow changing exit location from Configure menu
   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/185

   Improve discoverability of the list of countries
   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/186

   Clarify what can be tapped in the Bridges screen
   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/187

   Remove the need to press Enter when entering a bridge line
   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/188

   Clarify which bridge is being used (eg. after Bridge Bot)
   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/189

   Improve discoverability of the circuit view
   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/190

   Allow configuring only a single bridge
   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/193

   Rethink how the different relays are named
   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/194

   Clarify just enough about the network model
   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/195

   Don't allow changing exit location unless already connected
   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/196

   Report loss of connectivity to the Tor network
   https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/onionmasq/-/issues/110

- I started brainstorming solutions to all of these issues with Duncan
   and the rest of the UX team.

Tails
=====

I wrote some documentation to help users with recent issues:

- Shim SBAT verification error (#20471)

   https://tails.net/news/version_6.7/#sbat

- Provide fsck from Welcome Screen when the file system of the
   Persistent Storage is corrupted (#15451)

   https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/merge_requests/1586

   This one was a LOT of work to figure out which data forensics path we
   should recommend to users and document the main ones step-by-step.

-- 
sajolida