[tor-talk] TB download improvement

[Greg Norcie]

Hi,

I did a Tor usability study recently, though admittedly with
participants who were English speakers (though a large chunk were not US
citizens and did not speak English as a first language). We termed a
failure to DL the TBB as "download clarity", and found it was the one of
the least cited usability issues.

I think the current UI is well tested and conveys information well.

However, off the top of my head, two small tweaks could solve the OP's
issues:

1.) Include small windows, apple, and tux logos on the download link on
the main tor page... these could serve as a symbolic cue that it is a
download link.

2.) Once on the download page, in the drop down list of languages that
is defaulted to "English" include a US and UK flag. Include flags from
representative countries in each language[1]. This is a common design
pattern on sites being accesed by many people speaking many languages
(eg: transit sites based in Europe)

Personally, I wouldn't go beyond very minor tweaks to the current
interface without a lab study showing that a statistically significant
number of non-English speakers had trouble DLing Tor.

--
Greg Norcie (greg at norcie.com)
GPG key: 0x1B873635


[1] Admittedly this could get harder for say, Arabic - how do you pick
one country? This would probably want to be debated as to minimize
offense to nations not featured.


On 10/15/12 3:20 PM, Andrew Lewman wrote:
> On Sun, 14 Oct 2012 21:33:01 +0200 (CEST)
> Outlaw <outlaw at omail.pro> wrote:
> 
>> Hey there, Tor devs :) IMHO present torproject.org is very difficult
>> for average internet user. For those who don`t know english well, it
>> is almost impossible to find proper link.  
> 
> Hmm, the large purple and orange 'Download tor' button on the index page
> was missed?
> 
> We spent three months testing website designs based on real user
> feedback and usability testing. The green box and purple download
> button were designed to catch your eye first, and testing proves it
> works. The testing included barely English-speaking users by design.
> 
>> I think it is the question of resources - to provide multilingual
>> website up to date, which Tor team just doesn`t have. So I have two
>> suggestions that require minimal effort:
> 
> We had one, and it was mostly out of date and giving incorrect advice
> in many languages. See
> https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/6851 for the current
> discussion about re-enabling website translations.
> 
>> 1. Easy one. Make a static link like
>> "https://torproject.org/download/torbrowser-win-latest.exe"
> 
> No. This is a bad idea because then everyone thinks they have the
> latest tor, all the time. When people ask for support, they explain
> they have the latest tor, when really their version is 3 years out of
> date. 
> 
> Our answer to this is a secure updater, codenamed thandy. See
> https://gitweb.torproject.org/thandy.git/blob/HEAD:/specs/thandy-spec.txt
> for the details. We just received some funding to implement this over
> the next year.
> 
>> 2. A bit harder. Make a page for each language and OS with script that
>> starts downloading latest release:
>> "http://torproject.org/download/win/de" for example. Advantage of this
>> method will be that you can provide some message, like version or
>> other important stuff.
> 
> We have this already. When you click the big download button on the
> homepage, you are sent to
> https://www.torproject.org/download/download-easy.html.en. There are
> language drop-downs for the 13 TBB translations.
> 
>> People like one big red button DOWNLOAD and nothing else,
> 
> Consider Tor as a sophisticated as a formula 1 race car. Just because
> you have a drivers license and can drive a nice sedan on the street
> doesn't mean you can hop into a formula 1 car and even get out of the
> pit lane without killing yourself. 
> 
> People who don't want to read the warnings, and just want to
> download and run, are dangerous. They will de-anonymize themselves. At
> best, they disclose they wanted privacy, at worst, they get arrested,
> tortured, and killed while their family is blacklisted for life.
> 
> We are working on improving the usability of Tor to help users make
> smart decisions. Research takes time and thought. The same process goes
> for the website. 
> 
> Our website is free software, with the repository located at
> https://svn.torproject.org/svn/website/trunk/. Feel free to submit
> patches of your ideas to improve the usability of the site.
> 
> Thanks for the feedback.
>