As many of you probably know, I’ve been a big proponent of adding a private browsing mode to Firefox ever since I joined Mozilla (technically I was even advocating for the feature while in the process of interviewing here). So after two years, you can’t imagine how pleased I am to finally be doing some design work as we prepare to ship the feature. We all owe a tremendous thanks to Ehsan for his awesome work and consistent determination to get the feature implemented.
Over the last two years I’ve also humorously found myself in a few of the actual stereotypical examples that we normally use to explain the broad and diverse range of use cases for private browsing:
-I had to load up Safari to research engagement rings
-I literally had a birthday present ruined for me thanks to seeing someone else’s browsing history
Thankfully I haven’t had to research a super embarrassing medical condition yet, but at this rate that’s probably up next.
Private browsing mode is actually just one of a number of privacy improvements that we are hoping to get into Shiretoko. Some of the other changes include:
-A “Clear Recent History” dialog, which is kind of like private browsing mode, but it works in reverse (all good interfaces support undo!)
-A refreshed Privacy preference pane that allows you to control what types of information appear in the location bar’s search results, and place Firefox into a permanent state of private browsing. The redesign also addresses some of the quirky things about the previous interface.
I should note that as always, nothing is ever guaranteed to make it into the next release, and shedules and feature sets are often in a state of flux. So with that said, here is the current set of mockups:
Privacy Features in Shiretoko (or a later release)
A New Metaphor for Privacy
Since we are hoping to roll out so many features related to privacy in one release, we felt it was a good time to update the metaphor we are using to represent the concept of privacy in Firefox. The new metaphor is a masquerade mask:
I think this makes a great icon, since it captures the concept while at the same time being recognizable, colorful, and fun. Credit for the inspired idea goes to mcdavis in a post back in May 2007 to dev.apps.firefox when we were still considering private browsing mode for Firefox 3.
Next Up: an Ambient Visual Cue
You might have noticed that there isn’t much of an indicator in the current iteration of the mockup to tell you that you are in private browsing mode. I’ll cover how we hope to provide an ambient cue (possibly in 3.2) in my next post.
When I go into an Apple Store to use their free Internet terminals, I always turn on Safari Private Browsing. I’m surprised more is not made of this use case.
Are you worried that items like the mask icon will give the user a false sense of security? I don’t see any warnings along those lines…
Really interesting, as are all your posts on the thought process behind the UX design of Firefox. Please keep them coming.
This is sadly amusing, because no one will ever bring up the elephant in the living room: porn browsing.
Why not just be honest about it and call it “porn mode”?
(I say that with sadness because I think porn isn’t some harmless private problem, but a massive society pandemic.)
I cannot help noticing how complex all this is. Even worse, it’s all very modal—both the private browsing mode and every one of the myriad of preferences in the options dialogue. I can think of a couple of ideas to make this all more inviting:
• Make the mode tab-based, or, at least, window-based, as you suggest. That way, one can continue browsing normally in other tabs/windows.
• The use case of not wanting to expose private information in the location bar to onlookers can also be solved without much effort for the user: add a special keyword for disabling the suggestions. So, just like
^,*, and+restrict location bar suggestions, typing another character (say!) could restrict the suggestions to none.Also, I think the ‘undo’ is a great idea. I’m not sure, however, but perhaps it would be logical to clear the whole previous session (all the history since the browser was last launched).
I’d like to kibitz a little on one aspect of the privacy preferences pane: the way the various cookie-related buttons are organized makes it look like “keep until:” and “show cookies” might only apply to third party cookies. Can I suggest that you exchange the positions of “keep until” and “accept third party cookies” (so “keep until” is now directly underneath “accept cookies”, and “accept third party cookies” is below that), and also move the “show cookies” button onto the row with “accept cookies” and the “exceptions…” button? This makes it clearer that “show cookies” reveals everything and “keep until” applies to everything. It also gives you more room on the “accept third party cookies” row, which you could use for a longer, more descriptive phrase than “third party”. I’m honestly not sure how we define that, and I doubt other users will get it either.
Chris Ryland @4: you may be interested in this Slate article which reports a study suggesting that increased general access to porn reduces the frequency of rape.
http://www.slate.com/id/2152487/
Even more complicated than showing when you’re in private browsing mode is how to prevent someone else from seeing you’re in private browsing mode. I wouldn’t want my girlfriend looking over my shoulder and seeing a ‘visual cue’ that would give the game away.
I frequently hit the ‘home’ button when she walks in the room if I’m looking at porn etc.., but the last thing I’d want is for her to see that icon on the browser chrome- that would give the game away and she’ll know I’m up to something.
I’m really interested to see how this will work in the next post.
I don’t like how the “Firefox should:” option at the top affects the other options. I think the whole idea is confusing and limiting, but I also have some specific complaints. First, the floating italicized “Until I close Firefox” text looks hard to localize. Second, only the cookies options lets you select “until I close Firefox” separately from the other items.
Please don’t move the “Developer” tools off of the main Tools menu. For non-developers, it’s a two-item submenu, which looks silly — and both of the menu items are things non-developers need to use occasionally. For developers, it means going through a submenu to reach commonly used features.
“I had to load up Safari to research engagement rings” — being in the same situation just recently, I must confess: I used Safari as well for engagement ring shopping, to make sure the awesomebar doesn’t not so awesomely break the news to my now-fiancée before I do.
I simply love all of this privacy work. Things would be perfect like this.
@Chris (#4): I think you are missing something. By calling it “porn mode”, you’d put “privacy mode” in a corner that it doesn’t belong in. There are many reasons for this feature that are not related to internet pornography, and that can and will legitimately be used by people who have no intention to use the internet for the reasons you suspect. By focusing on only one of these use cases, you lose track of the big picture. Please take a big step back and look again.
Just an idea — as a laptop user I often just suspend/hibernate, it’s rare for me to (willingly) close Firefox.
I know about:config supports it, so why not consider a date-based option for cookie control in the UI? That is, “Keep Cookies for X Days” at most.
All Mozilla browsers have effectively had a “private” browsing mode all along. Simply create a new profile, browse, then delete when you’re done. I say “simply”; obviously this is easier in the suites as you can access the profile manager from inside the application.
I think whatever the interface it has to make it clear to the user that it is not about anonimity just privacy, and the mask suggests the former: “while in this mode nobody knows who I am.”
The message should be: “while I am in this mode nobody will know what I did because I won’t live tracks or fingerprints.” So maybe a pair of gloves or a crossed over fingerprint would make a better representation.
Other message could be “while in this mode nobody will see me, I’m stealth”. Like an F117 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-117_Nighthawk, not that recognizable I guess), or a ninja.
For something less dramatic we could use the obvious windows blinds or a door, perhaps the most universally objects associated with privacy (as in nobody will see me).
In any case I don’t think the mask delivers the appropriate message. But if you decide to go with it, could it at least be a cool superhero mask (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jordan_pacheco.jpg)? ;)
I doubt adding (private browsing) to the title will be enough. Maybe adding the mask as a badge to favicons?
I really like the separation between user generated and app generated data (tracks)!
I really like everything!
congrats, faaborg
I agree with Mr. Cabello (#15):
The new symbol does not effectively represent privacy.
I personally think the old symbol (the “do not disturb” sign) would have been fine if a do not enter symbol were added to the face of the sign, as in the Linux version of the symbol (http://people.mozilla.com/~faaborg/files/20080514-firefox3Themes/source/options_linux.png). The current mask is so colourful that it seems to draws attention to itself, which suggests attention more than privacy. If you’re going to use it, make it a neutral colour (gray, for example).
This is all too complicated, in my view, especially when a perfectly functional solution already exists for Firefox – the Distrust extension (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1559)
It’s well known that money makes us free. But how to act if somebody doesn’t have cash? The only one way is to try to get the loans and short term loan.