Helping People Upgrade to the Latest Version of Firefox

We discussed a couple more prominent issues at the time, but when we last analyzed why people cancel out of the Firefox installation process (the actual installer), we found one other significant group of people who could use some assistance – a cohort of existing Firefox users who were confused about what they were doing (in this case, a fresh install) and what they were optimally supposed to be doing (e.g., going to Help -> Check for Updates).

This insight brought me back in time.

When I first started talking with Mozilla folks a few years ago (before joining the org), one of the first things I wanted to do was make sure I was using the latest version of Firefox.  At the time, I went to mozilla.com and tried looking for information about how to do so.  I didn’t find anything and then searched on Google (again, unsuccessfully).  Eventually, I gave up and just did a fresh download and install, all the while not feeling totally sure I was doing the right thing.

Now, armed with our new insight, a couple changes are either on the way or have just been implemented:

  • The Firefox team is making one small UI change (mentioned in Rob Strong’s blog post)
  • The marketing team changed the main Firefox product page at www.mozilla.com, as seen by existing Firefox users.  Below are the two page variations, and I’ve highlighted the new additions to the pages.  These features point to this newly created FAQ page answering many key questions related to… how do I update/upgrade?  do I need to do a fresh install?  do I need to uninstall first?  what will happen to my bookmarks?  etc.

new_upgrade_page2

new_personal_page2

Thanks to Laura Mesa, John Slater, among many others, for their efforts.  It’s always nice to see our metrics activities come full circle – data -> insights -> actions/changes -> improved user experience!

1 response

  1. Lisa wrote on :

    This is a helpful entry. What I would like it to be able to easily find a place for Mozilla users to leave improvement suggestions (e.g.: I have 3.5.3, and regret it, because the drop-down window for bookmarking and adding tags is now so newly-made narrow, I can only see the first two tags I add, and I need to be able to add five or six tags).

    *sigh*

    Great product, though! 🙂