{"id":4133,"date":"2019-03-20T14:45:23","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T18:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/ux\/?p=4133"},"modified":"2019-03-20T14:55:22","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T18:55:22","slug":"look-over-here-results-from-a-firefox-user-research-study-about-interruptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/ux\/2019\/03\/look-over-here-results-from-a-firefox-user-research-study-about-interruptions\/","title":{"rendered":"Look over here! Results from a Firefox user research study about interruptions."},"content":{"rendered":"

The<\/a> Attention<\/a> War<\/a>. There have been many headlines related to it in the past decade. This is the idea that apps and companies are stealing attention. It\u2019s the idea that technologists throw up ads on websites in a feeble attempt to get the attention of the people who visit the website.<\/p>\n

In tech, or any<\/em> industry really, people often say something to the effect of, \u201cwell if the person using this product or service only read the instructions, or clicked on the message, or read our email, they\u2019d understand and wouldn\u2019t have any problems\u201d. We need people\u2019s attention to provide a product experience or service. We\u2019re all in the \u201cattention war\u201d, product designers and users alike.<\/p>\n

And what\u2019s a sure-fire way to grab someone\u2019s attention? Interruptions. Regardless if they\u2019re good, bad, or neutral. Interruptions are not necessarily a \u201cbad\u201d thing, they can also lead to good behavior, actions, or knowledge.<\/p>\n

\n

\"The

Even on a webpage that has a playlist of talks about \u201cThe race for your attention\u201d, there\u2019s a giant banner in attempt to get your attention to sign up for a recommendation service.<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here are a couple questions the Firefox Team had about interruptions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u201cHow do participants feel about interruptions?\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. \u201cCan participants distinguish between the sources of interruptions? (i.e. Can they tell if the interruption is from Firefox, a website, or the operating system?)\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    To answer the questions, I ran a user research study about the interruptions people receive while using Firefox. Eight participants were in a week-long study. Each participant used Firefox as their main browser on their laptop. Four participants agreed to record their browsing sessions over the course of the week, and six participants agreed to share their browsing analytics with us. I logged interruptions that came from the operating system, desktop software, Firefox, and websites. All participants were interviewed on the first day and last day. On the last day, I asked each participant to complete five tasks that would trigger interruptions to gauge understanding, behavior, and attitudes towards interruptions.<\/p>\n

    Before I answer the two questions from above, I\u2019ll describe how I categorized interruptions.<\/p>\n

    Stopping Power<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    To analyze the data, I coded each interruption in terms of its stopping power. Mehrotra et al. coded interruptions as \u201clow priority\u201d and \u201chigh priority\u201d depending on if the interruption stopped a person from completing their task [1]. Similarly, I coded each interruption as \u201clow stopping power\u201d, \u201cmedium stopping power\u201d, and \u201chigh stopping power\u201d (examples in the figures below). I defined stopping power as how much the design & implementation of an interruption makes it so that the user must interact with it to continue using the system.<\/em> From the recorded interviews and browsing sessions (excluding the five tasks that triggered interruptions), I logged 83 low stopping power interruptions, 37 medium, and 15 high.<\/p>\n

    \n

    \"Screenshot

    An example of a \u201clow stopping power\u201d interruption: Screenshot that shows badged icons on the browser toolbar.<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

    \n

    \"The

    An example of a \u201cmedium stopping power\u201d interruption: Screenshot from a participant\u2019s screen. Location permission doorhanger.<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

    \n

    \"A

    An example of a \u201chigh stopping power\u201d interruption: Screenshot of a website modal asking for you to sign up.<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

    Now I\u2019ll move on to answer our two research questions.<\/p>\n

    1. How did participants feel about interruptions?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    <\/h3>\n

    Participants care about their safety and saving time<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    When I asked participants how they felt about the 5 interruptions they experienced during the post interview, a clear theme was safety. One task was for participants to visit a \u201cBad SSL*\u201d page. This happens when a website has a malformed or outdated security certificate. An error will appear and you\u2019ll see a message like the screenshot below: \u201cYour connection is not secure\u201d.<\/p>\n

    \n

    \"A

    Screenshot of an error page that appears when the website\u2019s security certificate is out of date.<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

    A couple participants were frustrated at first with the idea of encountering this page, because they would not be able to get to the website they wanted to get to, but then participants expressed an appreciation for it saying, like one participant: \u201cnow that I\u2019ve read it, I suppose it\u2019s trying to help\u201d and another saying \u201cI like that it\u2019s protecting me\u201d.<\/p>\n

    *SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and is a security protocol where websites share a certificate to verify their identity. Without a certificate to verify their identity, Firefox can\u2019t be sure that the website is who it says it is.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Some participants were annoyed by interruptions, others could care less.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
    \n

    \"Two

    A visual scale of: \u201cHow annoyed were participants about interruptions they received while using Firefox?\u201d Each emoji is one participant. The subscript is the browser they use the most outside of the research study. I did not ask participants to measure their own annoyance, but rather came up with this scale during analysis of interview responses.<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

    Participants reacted to interruptions differently, as shown by the scale above. This study was not able to determine the factors that impacted their level of annoyance\u200a\u2014\u200awe would need to gather more data to determine that. However, it\u2019s important to note that not everyone will react the same to interruptions. Some will make comments like one of the participants that it \u201cfeels like a gun shooting range\u201d (where interruptions appear all over the place), and others will barely notice interruptions at all.<\/p>\n

    2. \u201cCan participants distinguish between the sources interruptions? Can they tell if the interruption is from Firefox, a website, or the operating system?\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    <\/h3>\n

    Most participants could not tell you the source of the interruption.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Only two of the eight participants could differentiate between all sources. They confidently knew if an interruption was from the operating system, website, or browser.<\/p>\n

    Four of the eight participants could differentiate between an operating system and a browser\/website notification but NOT between a browser and a website notification. For example, a participant could tell that operating system was asking to perform an update. However, a participant could not tell if the website or browser was asking to save their credit card information.<\/p>\n

    One of the eight participants could not tell the difference between any of them. They thought that a notification from desktop email software was coming from Firefox, and wondered why other browsers did not do that.<\/p>\n

    Why is this important?<\/em><\/p>\n

    Do people really need to know the source of an interruption, if it does not hinder them from completing their task? Yes. An understanding of the source of the interruption is important for safety (i.e. people know where their data is and who it\u2019s being shared with), and for mitigating potential annoyance with Firefox for things that Firefox is not responsible for.<\/p>\n

    Are you a designer or product\u00a0manager?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Every time your product or service is considering interrupting someone, ask:<\/p>\n