[tor-talk] Improving Usability of Tor Browser? A new TBB-simple?

[Fabio Pietrosanti (naif)]

Hi all,

Here some consideration to create a new simplified TBB version.

Something to provide the extreme simplicity a user may expect that may
work having two TBB.

Let's say that the basic need of this TBB-simple is just to "visit web
pages anonymous, no frills".

So something that works that way:
- the user can click on it
- a browser window open in front of his eyes
- the user insert an url
- the user visit a web page
- at the end of browsing session the user close the application

Nothing less than just web browsing anonymously ("Read-only", no cache,
no addons, nothing else).

One-click-Browse-anonymously-no-frills.exe

To reach that point i would see, thinking of TBB:

- Vidalia
It include vidalia, the unskilled user doesn't know what it is and what
is doing, will never user and and it's existence may create unneeded
anxiety.If the user doesn't know something, fear to touch it to broke
it, we are providing a bad user experience).

Let's remove Vidalia from this TBB-simple, because the "simple" user
doesn't need it.

- Installation/copy

For the installation the user must have an experience of a
self-contained software that doesn't need anything else to work.

This imply that no "installation" procedure have to be done by the user.

- OSX
For OSX the usability is already high
https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2011-October/021645.html .

DMG packaging provide another improvement to user experience, and is
undergoing https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/4261 .

- Windows
For Windows things are slightly more complicated.
A workflow ideas was here
https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2011-October/021639.html .

In that case we can just create a temporary directory with Tor+Firefox,
start both application, and when both application exit just delete the
temporary folder.

The user will perceive, in terms of user experience, a very simple
one-click application without any additional complexity to be considered.

- Browser options

Most browser options for a read-only and simpler TBB would need to be
disabled. No addons installation, no network configuration, nothing more
than a stripped-down firefox to browser the web.
The user must not even have options to deal with anything else that
could provide for him a complexity or a risk of breaking something.


Trying to fix the easiest way, the simpler basic need: browsing
anonymously (and nothing else).

-naif