{"id":4485,"date":"2024-06-14T09:50:41","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T13:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/ux\/?p=4485"},"modified":"2024-06-17T09:54:45","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T13:54:45","slug":"coming-back-to-firefox-as-a-user-researcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/ux\/2024\/06\/coming-back-to-firefox-as-a-user-researcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming Back to Firefox as a User Researcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reflecting on two years of working on the browser that first showed me the internet<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Firefox illustration by UX designer\u00a0Gabrielle Lussier<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Last week marked two years of working on Firefox. For me, this was a return to the browser I fervently used in my early internet days (circa 2004\u20132011). I don\u2019t recall exactly when I left, and whether it was abrupt or gradual, but at some point Firefox was out and Chrome was the browser on my screen. Looking back, I\u2019m pretty sure it was notifications telling me Gmail would work better on Chrome that led me there. Oof.<\/p>\n

I certainly wasn\u2019t alone. The storied history of browsers (including not one, but two\u00a0browser wars<\/a>) is marked by intense competition and shifting landscapes. Starting around 2010\u20132011<\/a>, as Chrome\u2019s market share went up, Firefox\u2019s went down.<\/p>\n

A doorway to the internet<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I started working on Firefox, a colleague likened a browser to a doorway \u2014 you walk through several a day, but don\u2019t think much about them. It\u2019s a window to the internet, but it\u2019s not the internet. It helps you search the web, but it\u2019s not a search engine. It\u2019s a universal product, but many struggle to describe it.<\/p>\n

So what is it, then, and why am I so happy I get to spend my days thinking about it?<\/p>\n

A browser is an enabler, facilitating online exploration, learning, work, communication, entertainment, shopping, and more. More technically, it renders web pages, uses code to display content, and provides navigation and organization tools that allow people to explore, interact with, and retrieve information on the web.<\/p>\n

With use cases galore, there are challenges. It\u2019s a product that needs to be good at many things.<\/p>\n

To help our design, product and engineering stakeholders meet these challenges, the Firefox User Research team tackles topics including managing information in the browser (what\u2019s your relationship to tabs?), privacy in the browser, when and how people choose browsers (if they\u00a0choose at all<\/a>), and why they stay or leave. Fascinating research topics feel endless in the browser world.<\/p>\n

My introduction to browser users<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For my first project at Mozilla, I conducted 17, hour-long, in-depth interviews with browser users. A formative introduction to how people think about and use browsers. When I look back on that study, I recall how much I learned about a product that I previously hadn\u2019t given much thought to. Here I summarize some of those initial learnings.<\/p>\n

Browser adoption on desktop vs mobile<\/em><\/strong>: Firefox is a browser that people opt-in to. Unlike other mainstream browsers, it doesn\u2019t come pre-installed on devices. This means that users must actively choose Firefox, bypassing the default. While many people do this \u2014 close to 200 million<\/a>\u00a0monthly on Firefox \u2014 using the default is common, and even more so on mobile. When talking to users of various browsers, the sentiment that \u201cI just use what came on the device<\/em>\u201d is particularly prevalent for mobile.<\/p>\n

Why is this so? For one, people have different needs on their desktop and mobile browsers (e.g. conducting complex work vs quick searches), leading to different behaviors. The presence of stand-alone apps on mobile that help people accomplish some of the tasks they might have otherwise done in their browser (e.g. email, shopping) also differentiate the experience.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the whole story, though. Gatekeeping practices by large tech companies, such as self-preferencing and interoperability, play a role. These practices, which Europe\u2019s Digital Markets Act<\/a>\u00a0and related remedies like\u00a0browser choice screens<\/a>\u00a0aim to address, limit consumer choice and are especially potent on mobile. In my in-depth interviews, for example, I spoke with a devoted Firefox desktop user. When explaining to me why she used the default browser on her mobile phone, she held up her phone, pointing to the dock at the bottom of her home screen. She wanted quick access to her browser through this dock, and didn\u2019t realize she could replace the default browser that came there with one of her choosing.<\/p>\n

Online privacy dilemmas<\/em><\/strong>:\u00a0<\/em>Having worked on privacy and the protection of personal information in the past, I was keen to learn about users\u2019 attitudes and behaviors towards online privacy. What were their stances? How did they protect themselves? My in-depth interviews revealed that attitudes and feelings range vastly: protective, indifferent, disempowered, resigned. And often, attitudes and values towards privacy don\u2019t align with behaviors. In today\u2019s online world, acting on your values can be hard.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0intention-action gap<\/a> speaks to the many cases when our attitudes, values or goals are at odds with our behavior. While the draw of convenience and other tradeoffs are certainly at play in the online privacy gap, so too are deceptive digital designs<\/a>\u00a0that make it all too difficult to use the internet on your own terms. These include buried privacy settings, complex opt-out processes, and deceptive cookie banners.<\/p>\n

Navigating online privacy risks can feel daunting and confusing \u2014 and for good reason. One participant in the interviews described it as something that she didn\u2019t have the time or esoteric knowledge for, even though she cared about it:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so big and complicated for a user like me, you really have to put in the time to figure it out, to understand it. And I don\u2019t have the time for that, I honestly don\u2019t. But that doesn\u2019t stop me from doing things online, because, how, if being online is such an important part of my day?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On the browser side, the technical aspects of online privacy present a perennial challenge for communicating our protective measures to users. How do we communicate the safeguards we offer users in ways that are accessible and effective?<\/p>\n

Browser recommendations:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>For a product that isn\u2019t top of mind for most people, many are steered to their browsers by word of mouth and other types of recommendations. In fact, we consistently find that around one-third of our users report having recommended Firefox in the past month. That\u2019s more people talking about browsers than I would have imagined.<\/p>\n

The people I interviewed spoke about recommendations from family members (\u201cMom, you need to step up your browser game!<\/em>\u201d one participant recalled her son saying as he guided her to a new browser), tech-oriented friends, IT departments at work, computer repair shops, and online forums and other communities.<\/p>\n

One factor behind personal recommendations is likely that most people are satisfied with their browser. Our quantitative user research team finds high levels of browser satisfaction among not only Firefox users, but the users of other popular browsers examined in their work.<\/p>\n

Wrapping up<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Coming back to Firefox involved a process of piecing together what had happened to the browser with the little fox. In doing so, I\u2019ve learned a lot about what brings people to browsers, and away from them, and the constrained digital landscape in which these dynamics occur. The web has changed a great deal since Firefox 1.0 was released in 2004, but Mozilla\u2019s goal of fostering an open and accessible internet remains constant.<\/p>\n

Thank you for reviewing a draft of this post, Laura Lopez and Rosanne Scholl.<\/em><\/p>\n

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