Re: [Tails-dev] Results from usability tests of the new Pers…

Delete this message

Reply to this message
Author: segfault
Date:  
To: tails-dev
Subject: Re: [Tails-dev] Results from usability tests of the new Persistent Storage in Ecuador
Hi,

sajolida:
> In March, emmapeel traveled to Ecuador and conducted moderated in-person
> usability tests of the new Persistent Storage.
>
> https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/18648
>
> She recruited 4 women from feminist groups who had an interest in
> privacy technologies but never used Tails before.
>
> I prepared the tasks and testing image beforehand and trained her on
> doing usability tests, as I couldn't travel myself this time. That's why
> the tests were shorter and the tasks more basic.
>
> We asked them to:
>
> - Save an image to the USB stick in a way that protects it if their USB
>     stick gets stolen.
> - Configure Tails to connect to a Wi-Fi network automatically.

>
> See the stepped tasks here:
>
> https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/ux/-/raw/master/persistent%20storage/tasks-software-2023.odt?inline=false
>
> I already tested similar tasks in Brazil in August and in other
> occasions in the past.
>
> The results were very good and emmapeel did a great job on her first
> facilitation :)


Great stuff, thanks a lot both of you! I'm very happy to see that our
work has actually led to a better user experience :)

> - Saving an image from Tor Browser is still a nightmare.
>
>     Nobody made it. That's #15678 and related issues. I'm worried to see
>     that the situation hasn't improved for our users since 2018 and will
>     push for more action on this front in 2023.


That's more motivation for me to tackle #19408 ("Use desktop portals in
Tor Browser") in the next few weeks.

> - The concept of the Persistent folder, as part of the Persistent
>     Storage, was not always super clear. All the new issues identified had
>     to do with this:

>
>     * #19642: Implement missing descriptions of PS features
>     * #19645: Add a placeholder file in the Persistent folder
>     * #19646: Persistent folder should not appear as an external device


Thanks for identifying those issues! Maybe we should rethink the concept
of the Persistent Folder and how we present it to the user. I would be
open for a brainstorming session on that. A random thought: Maybe it
would improve UX to support making the user directories (Documents,
Pictures, Downloads, ...) persistent instead of a separate Persistent
Folder (related issues I could find: #19255, #15028, #10790).

Cheers