Where Mozilla.org and Firefox Intersect

written with Chris More and Jennifer Bertsch

Engagement’s Web Productions team has grown from a small team of technical project managers, to a multidisciplinary web development team that initiates projects, uses metrics and qualitative testing to learn from our users, and has an iterative approach to web development. We’ve had a chance to see the influence that this growth, paired with the collaboration of teams across Mozilla, has had on our work. We can be pre-emptive instead of reactionary, share our knowledge and tools, and facilitate design process and collaboration. We would like to reintroduce ourselves to Mozilla and the UX community, expose where our team intersects with the user experience of our products, and invite you to collaborate with us.

Not your typical web product
Mozilla.org does not solely exist for marketing our products. It is unique from most web sites in that to support our products and users when they need us, we must stay inline with the roadmaps and release cycles of our products. For example, there are many touch points with our users that take place on Mozilla.org, some of which are part of the onboarding process. Onboarding is more than just downloading our products as it extends to the first “unboxing” experience, updating Firefox, and sharing helpful information about new product features. This ultimately contributes to retention and an understanding of our Firefox and Mozilla brands.

In our user tests, we’ve found that users are more likely to respond positively when they have an expectation of both when and how a message is delivered. For Mozilla.org and our products, this expectation can be set by previewing an upcoming feature or new design on Mozilla.org for Firefox users. It can also be handled with a consistent pattern for how we present content updates, notifications, and new features across all of our products. The WebProd team doesn’t accomplish this alone and this is one example of how our users can benefit by our teams staying connected.

Staying connected: the intersection of our roles and roadmaps
What I’ve found at Mozilla is that separate teams are often working on similar challenges and share common goals. Collaborating across teams has been a great way to meet and learn from each other and is key to addressing our intersecting issues efficiently while ultimately creating a better end product. Most recently we have worked with SUMO to stay better aligned on presenting Firefox help messaging and we have also been collaborating on a cross-team effort to improve the First Run and Update experiences.

At Mozilla we are all part of the chain of reactions that results in what our users experience. The WebProd team has been keeping the following in mind to better support Firefox users:

  • Align our websites to product roadmaps so we can offer support to our end users
  • Optimize user onboarding flows
  • Work in parallel with Engagement and Product teams’ goals
  • Ensure website content is localized in many languages
  • Complete migration of all legacy pages to Bedrock and our Sandstone theme, which is responsive by nature.
  • Support users on any device or operating system
  • Evaluate > Test > Improve

A significant way we can all support our users is to recognize the intersections between our teams at Mozilla and the overlapping initiatives in our roadmaps. If the WebProd team can collaborate with you to create a better experience for our users, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

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