sajolida wrote:
> To understand better the context of this discussion, see the archive of
> this tread on:
>
> https://lists.autistici.org/message/20191108.153500.fbbf3592.en.html
>
> I'm putting tails-ux in copy again once but please answer on
> tails-project@???.
>
> sajolida:
> > 3. Finish the usability testing on the new explanation of Tails.
> > This should happen in 2019Q1 but might depend on the milestones
> > agreed with Sponsor 1 (still in the pipe).
>
> On January 11 and 18 I did some usability tests of the wording
> "Persistence". I interviewed 7 people. People were Spanish and Catalan
> native speakers that I recruited through friends-of-friends and who
> didn't know what Tails was before the tests.
>
> I asked them to read the following text (or slightly modified version of
> it) as part of a more comprehensive explanation of Tails:
>
> *
> * *
>
> Encrypted Persistence
> =====================
>
> You can save some of your files and configuration in an encrypted
> Persistent Storage on the USB stick: your documents, your browser
> bookmarks, your emails, and even some additional software.
>
> The Persistent Storage is optional and you always decide what is
> persistent. Everything else is amnesic.
>
> *
> * *
>
> For them the terms "Persistence" or "Encrypted Persistence" were really
> not self-explanatory. Most people got it after reading the description
> of what it does. So basically, it could be named "Foo" or anything else
> and work as good :) I'm exaggerating a bit but not that much:
>
> - The root word "persistent" also meant other things for people, like
> the fact of trying over and over again, being very strong, etc.
>
> - Writing it "Persistence" felt to some people that it was the name of a
> tool, application or algorithm; in other words an agent, while it's
> actually an object or a place.
>
> Here are some notes I took from the people I interviewed:
>
> For P1, they could read the title and the description at once.
> For P4, P5, and P7, I only showed them the title and asked them to guess
> what it was about.
>
> P1: - "I don't understand this concept of "persistent encryption" (in
> Spanish)
> - (after reading the description) "You can save some of your stuff
> in a 'storage' (in English) or something like that"
> - Me: "So what does "Persistencia" mean to you?"
> - "I don't know." (even after he said that it's a kind of 'storage')
>
> P2: - (after reading the description) "I'm not sure what this means: is
> it a program? an online server? or saving stuff to the USB?"
> - (I already clarified in the text that it's on the USB stick)
>
> P3: - (after reading the description) "This is not clear to me."
> - "Persistence: I understand that it's a tool"
> - (When prompted, understand the relationship between Amnesia and
> Persistence)
>
> P4: - (computer scientist, only shown the title) "Everything you do will
> be saved encrypted"
> - "Persistence sounds to me like trying to encrypt over and over
> again"
>
> P5: - (only shown the title) "You need some kind of key to be able to
> use Tor and everything else"
> - "'Persistence' is something that stays, a data that sticks with
> time
> - (shown the description) "It's an algorithm for encryption with
> which you can save some of your stuff"
>
> P7: - (only shown the title) At first, thinks that everything is
> encrypted
> - "'Persistence' means 'during a lot of time' or 'very strong'"
> - Thinks that you can decide to encrypt the whole USB stick or not
> - "Sounds like a system of very strong passwords to make it even
> stronger to open your Tails"
> - "I would call it 'top security encryption'"
> - (shown 'Encrypted Persistent Storage' instead) "'storage' are
> things that you save. It's like a suitcase that stays forever"
>
> It felt to me that "Persistence" was missing a complementary word that
> made it clear that it was an object. Though it's a bit longer and wordy.
>
> Since P1 called it 'storage' spontaneously and since 'Persistent
> Storage' made immediate sense to P7, I'm now proposing to use
> "Persistent Storage" instead.
>
> I tried to rewrite our examples with "Persistent Storage" and it was
> pretty easy to do. See:
>
> https://tails.boum.org/contribute/how/documentation/style_guide/persistent_storage/
>
> For the record, it's also how we called it back in 2012 when we first
> wrote about it (1513e71cc4) before switching to "persistent volume" for
> English correctness (da75d22109). Our argument back then was that
> writing "a persistent storage" was incorrect as a noun.
>
> I checked this with Cody, the native English speaker in our Technical
> Writing team, and it also seemed the best option for him. The words
> themselves are descriptive while at the same time the capitalization
> suggests Persistent Storage is a feature and not just descriptive words.
>
> Based on muri's feedback, I understand that using "Persistent Storage"
> will also make it easier for German translators by adding a
> complementary word that makes it clear that it's an object:
> "Persistenzspeicher".
>
> We also considered "Persistent Memory", "Persistent Volume", "Persistent
> Drive", "Persistent Vault", and "Persistent Locker" but both Cody and I
> preferred "Persistent Storage".
>
> So yeah, I feel a bit silly to be back to square one after 8 years but
> back then we had no native English speaker in the team nor good
> user-centered practices.
>
> Any objection?
>
> --
> sajolida
sajolida,
As an english speaker, "Persistent Storage" sounds like a good candidate.
However I remain concerned that no one has brought up the fact that, "Persistent Storage" is limited to specific folders - folders that are not the default storage place for *any* Tails application. For example, Tor Browser defaults saving everything to the "Tor Browser" folder. Everything saved while using TB and *not* moved by the user to the "Tor Browser" or "Persistent/Tor Browser" folder, is lost at shutdown/reboot.
Both the Tails Greeter and the "Persistence Wizard - Persistent volume creation" dialog fail to inform the user on this point. Both accept a user password, but say nothing about where files/data *must be placed* in order be persistent.
The concept of persistence is really more complex that our discussion has made it. "Persistent Storage" is indeed a Tails feature, but it:
- is available only to data stored in one of two user visible two folders
- is dependent on the user manually moving data to these folders.
So perhaps we should be thinking in terms of a user option that creates "persistent folders". This is in fact what users experiences, as the "Persistent" and "Tor Browser (persistent) folders do not appear until Tails persistence is configured.
regards,
alienpup
