267683 - Discover Firefox tour

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(www.mozilla.org :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Daniel Wang]

bug 267108 wasn't going the way I want. As I have said elsewhere, we need an
effective landing page for sfx button campaigns. The page (as with all our other
marketing materials) should talk about the advantages of Firefox (not feature).
THis bug tracks that effort.

Comment 1

[Daniel Wang]

Attachment: Discover Firefox splash page (PNG, concept only)

A concept of what the landing page could look like.

Comment 2

[Daniel Wang]

Attachment: draft - More Efficient Browsing

To start things off hot, here's what I'm talking about...

question: can I replace "Tabbed browsing make surfing easy." with "Firefox make
surfing easy." ? I don't like using any kind of feature jargons.

Comment 3

[Daniel Wang]

Attachment: draft - Switching is Easy (last page)

(last page) Switching is Easy

Never leave the user with an excuse not to switch. Talk about the import
feature and re-emphasize that it's small and free.

Comment 4

[Ivan Ičin]

Now that I see second attachment, I must say that you succeeded in making me
feel confused again. I can comment only first attachment, because I guess the
relation between first and second, but I am still unsure of that.

I thought whether to write this, but I must be honest, my first impression about
attachment 1 [details] [diff] [review] (splash screen) was: "You have stucked here from somewhere, but you
shouldn't worry too much as this site contains more pages, and you can still
have fun just like you are having it now".

Of course, I can say that with easyer words: proposition has several big problems.

First, it is generally accepted that pages without any functional content (they
are usually flash pages with skip link) should be avoided.

If you want visitors of this page to see Discover Firefox tour, then you should
show it to them on this page, perhaps with one paragraph introduction.

If you think that on first page features should be hidden (and that was my
opinion from the beginning, then offer some other content on that page. I think
that my 5 reasons text (http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=node/view/4617) is
really suitable in that occassion, and I can tweak it and add some additional
paragraphs for this page. Of course, on the end you can say: 'Wanna see how
Firefox does this? Take 5 minute tour'. The alternative is to offer more reading
for every of the five reasons, but I guess that we have gone to far from that
already.

Second big problem is saying that visitors 'probably came here...', as they know
where they came from and putting it on the top looks just like you have nothing
to say about Firefox, but 'do you trust to the one that reccommended it to
you?', or in the worse case it sounds like 'why did you come here at all?'.
Also, it has even negative 'big brother' effect.

There are also some minor issues: I think that there should be third column with
content 'press about Firefox', download section should have link to non-english
versions, maybe download link should be prominent on top and small link on
bottom (if there is more content on this page and it requires scrolling).

Comment 5

[Lachlan Hunt]

Can you explain a little better, about how this differs from the pages we
created in bug 267683?  Also, what do you mean by "landing page for sfx button
campaigns"?

> question: can I replace "Tabbed browsing make surfing easy." with "Firefox
> make surfing easy." ? I don't like using any kind of feature jargons.

I think you can say Tabbed browsing provided that it has been clearly defined
earlier in the page.  However, since many people seem to want to avoid jargon
all together, it may be better to say "Firefox makes surfing easy...".  But by
saying Firefox instead of Tabbed Browsing,, it makes it harder to define *how*
without also describing the specific feature.  I'll think about it a bit more,
and write something for it.

I also think the following, or at least a slightly modified version, should be
incorporated into it somewhere, since it clearly and concisely mentions the main
benefit of tabbed browsing.

  Managing multiple web pages within a single window helps to keep your desktop
  and taskbar free from clutter; and allows you to keep reading while other
  pages load in the background.

Comment 6

[Thomas K. (:tom)]

Hey, if we choose this over 267108, we're blocking it.

Comment 7

[Daniel Wang]

> Can you explain a little better, about how this differs from the pages we
> created in [bug 267108]?  Also, what do you mean by "landing page for sfx button
> campaigns"?

Currently, all buttons lead to getfirefox.com which lead to
m.o/products/firefox/. But as andkon has pointed out, m.o/products/firefox/ is
failing to convert users. One reason is that people "land" on
m.o/products/firefox/ out of context (e.g. someone has recommanded the link but
does not explain what Firefox is). The landing page provides such context.

One big difference between Discover Firefox and Bug 267108 is that we don't talk
about features (how to use them, what they do), rather, we talk about Firefox
advantages.

This bug is my original plann. Bug 267108 is for building on top of what the
wordsmith team has done. I sidetracked because I don't see how it's possible to
convince the Foundation to take down a wordsmith work.

Now that someone at sfx has actually created a landing page based on my nov9
proposal, this bug is becoming much more pressing. (Unfortunately, bart and asa
seems to have opt out of bugmail, hopefully Rafael Ebron will inform them about
this)

Comment 8

[Daniel Wang]

Attachment: draft - Your Security First

now, taking on the thorny issue of security. I concentrate here on Firefox
automatically blocking software installation. I leave out IE flaws and ActiveX
because I'm not a security expert and am uncomfortable about talking about
security.

hey, raiph, I found a use for your sfx press blog! Thx for the good quote :-)

Comment 9

[Daniel Wang]

I retracted what I said about Asa and Bart. They are only ignoring bugmail on
attachments, not normal comments. sorry.

Comment 10

[Ivan Ičin]

(In reply to comment #7)
> Currently, all buttons lead to getfirefox.com which lead to
> m.o/products/firefox/. But as andkon has pointed out, m.o/products/firefox/ is
> failing to convert users. One reason is that people "land" on
> m.o/products/firefox/ out of context (e.g. someone has recommanded the link but
> does not explain what Firefox is). The landing page provides such context.

My logic processor beeps with error when processing this quote. If someone comes
to page, then he is registred visitor. If he is not interested in browsers at
all, he leaves the page. Conversion rate is the same. Of course, next Disover
Firefox page will have much higher conversion rate, but that is telling you
exactly what should be done to improve conversion rate radically.

To do that, you must change banners. Most of them should contain messages like
'Surf faster!' 'Surf better!' 'Surf safer!', while messages like 'Take back the
web' or just 'Get Firefox' should be avodied in every situation when banner size
allows. But in that case less people will visit getfirefox.com (though clear
messages on buttons may attract people so final result may be more visitors),
much higher conversion ratio will be achieved, number of downloads will grow,
but it is hard to estimate how much.

Points: you can't make huge conversion rate just by tweaking site, but changing
site will improve conversion rate to some extent (it is obvious that current is
far from user friendly) and will improve image of Firefox, so it is worth a try.

> One big difference between Discover Firefox and Bug 267108 is that we don't talk
> about features (how to use them, what they do), rather, we talk about Firefox
> advantages.
I had intuition that it is like that from the beginning, but now the things are
finally clear.

Comment 11

[Thomas K. (:tom)]

Attachment: Screenshot - Firefox at apple.com movie trailer central with plugin problem

This was made to fulfill a line in attachment 164575 [details]:

[Screenshot of Firefox showing information bar about QuickTime plug-in at
apple.com movie trailer central]

I deleted all the quicktime plugins to achieve this.  (either way, this is a
bad idea, it doesn't properly install quicktime plugins through this method,
I'd have reccomended flash/shockwave installation as that does work)

Comment 12

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Daniel:

I wrote about something similar (though not the same) here:
http://robert.accettura.com/archives/000540.shtml

Perhaps some of your work could be leveraged in such a 'first run tutorial' sort
of feature?

Comment 13

[Ignacio Martínez]

on atachment 1 the text...

---
Discover firefox...
  (5 minutes tour)

Free Download...
   4Mb....
---

What's the free download? 
the 5 minutes tour?

IMO these do work on their own but no one next to the other.
I think the download link should be upfront before the first paragraph,
and then for those who wanna know more there is the tour.

Comment 14

[Tal Tamir]

Switching is easy is LESS important then SWITCHING BACK.
It is really important to note that firefox can export things such as favorites,
which can be then reinserted into IE... Thus you are not actually RISKING
anything by making the switch. Firefox seems to have a much more robust ability
to export settings back to IE, which was lacking in the original mozilla. It was
the only reason why I actually made the switch (I have hundreds of sites I visit
on an almost daily basis, and I change my favorites every day to modify those
lists, with old mozilla I used it occasionaly, but IE was the prime one since I
didnt find the export to IE setting anywhere).
.... actually I just tested it and it doesn't work, a shame.

I would like to also mention that it is IMPERATIVE that you mention that mozilla
suit is NOT firefox + tunderbird, I only disovered that by mistake when I
noticed firebird's screenshots have different graphics than the mail client that
came with mozilla suit which I used... only than did I actually bother READING
about firefox and thunderbird so that I could see the differences (I never got a
link to mozilla, instead of was told by people to get "mozilla firefox.. so I
searched for mozilla, found mozilla.org on google, and downloaded the suit so
that I may test "all" of it...)

Comment 15

[Tal Tamir]

Switching is easy is LESS important then SWITCHING BACK.
It is really important to note that firefox can export things such as favorites,
which can be then reinserted into IE... Thus you are not actually RISKING
anything by making the switch. Firefox seems to have a much more robust ability
to export settings back to IE, which was lacking in the original mozilla. It was
the only reason why I actually made the switch (I have hundreds of sites I visit
on an almost daily basis, and I change my favorites every day to modify those
lists, with old mozilla I used it occasionaly, but IE was the prime one since I
didnt find the export to IE setting anywhere).
.... actually I just tested it and it doesn't work, a shame.

I would like to also mention that it is IMPERATIVE that you mention that mozilla
suit is NOT firefox + tunderbird, I only disovered that by mistake when I
noticed firebird's screenshots have different graphics than the mail client that
came with mozilla suit which I used... only than did I actually bother READING
about firefox and thunderbird so that I could see the differences (I never got a
link to mozilla, instead of was told by people to get "mozilla firefox.. so I
searched for mozilla, found mozilla.org on google, and downloaded the suit so
that I may test "all" of it...)

Comment 16

[Lachlan Hunt]

(In reply to comment #15)
> Switching is easy is LESS important then SWITCHING BACK.

Why would we want to tell people to swtich back, and why would switching back be
more important?  It may be important for the few users that aren't happy with
Firefox for some reason, and that is their choice, but we don't want to give the
impression that IE is better for anything.  It may be worth mentioning that it
is possible to continue using other browsers, or that it is possible to switch
back if their not happy, but it's certainly not more important.

> I would like to also mention that it is IMPERATIVE that you mention that
> mozilla suite is NOT firefox + thunderbird

Yes, that has been mentioned many times by other people, but does it belong in
this document?  A quick search only reveals one existing document that describes
the difference [1], and it's not very clear.  I think it may be worth making a
seperate document that clearly shows with screenshots, and describes the
differences and explains why they are different, but I don't think it should be
part of this.  However, if there was such a document, then it would be worth
linking to from this.

[1] http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/faq#q1.3

Comment 17

[B.J. Herbison]

For the last page, consider some word other than "switch".

When I hear the word switch I think of dropping what I have and using something
else.  It's scary -- especially if what I have works and I don't what I will
lose or how long it will take to get used to the change.

I think it would be less scary to say something like:  It's easy to try Firefox,
with all of your bookmarks imported from IE or N when you first start FF.  Join
the six million people who tried FF and then switched to it.

B.J.

Comment 18

[Daniel Wang]

re: Comment #4
> I thought whether to write this, but I must be honest, my first impression about
> attachment 1 [details] [diff] [review] (splash screen) was: "You have stucked here from somewhere, but you
> shouldn't worry too much as this site contains more pages, and you can still
> have fun just like you are having it now".

No sweat. Actually, I love this criticism :-)

I appreciate all the feedbacks I have got, and I apologize if I cannot answer
them all. This ought to be a community effort, so please feel free to
write/change something and post it here.

Comment 19

[Lachlan Hunt]

I've revised the More efficient Browsing text.

----

More Efficient Browsing
Firefox makes surfing the web faster and more efficient by allowing you to open
multiple web pages within a single window, helping to keep your desktop and
taskbar free from clutter; and allowing you to keep reading while other pages
load in the background.

You may be reading a long article that contains many interesting links that you
wish to view, but would like to wait until you have finished with the current
page first.  Or you may have performed a search and wish to view many of the
results.  Firefox allows you open all of these links, as many as you like, in
the background by creating new tabs.  The pages will load and be ready for you
view when you are ready to see them.  More information about _tabbed browsing_
[link to: <http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/tabbed-browsing>].

[Screenshot of a long article and a tab loading in the background
alt="Continue reading the current page while others load in the background."]

(Depending on the actual screenshot, that's the best guess I can think of for
now.  It may need some improving)

----

I think the following categories of pages should be added to this tour.  I've
come up with some ideas for the titles, but some need improvement.

Feature                   | User Friendly Title
-------------------------------------------------------------
Tabbed Browsing           | More Efficient Browsing
Themes & Extensions       | Customise for the Way You Like It
Search & Find as You Type | Smarter Search
Popup Blocker             | Stop Annoying Popups
Live Bookmarks            | Keep up with the Latest Headlines
History/Bookmarks         | Keep Track of Where You've Been
Accessibility             | Tailor Firefox for Your Needs
Privacy & Security        | Safe and Secure
Switching/Installation    | Getting Started

Comment 20

[Lachlan Hunt]

(In reply to comment #19)
> You may be reading a long article that contains many interesting links that you
> wish to view, but would like to wait until you have finished with the current
> page first.  Or you may have performed a search and wish to view many of the
> results.  Firefox allows you open all of these links, as many as you like, in
> the background by creating new tabs.  The pages will load and be ready for you
> view when you are ready to see them.  More information about _tabbed browsing_

I think that's actually a bit long (especially the first sentence), and I just
found some mistakes.  I think this is probably better, leaving the rest the same:

You may be reading a long article containing many interesting links, or have
performed a search and wish to look at several results.  Firefox lets you open
all of these links (as many as you like) in the background by creating new tabs.
 The pages will load, and be ready for you, when you are ready to see them. 
More information about _tabbed browsing_ is available.

Comment 21

[Tal Tamir]

Switching back = reversability.

Its easy to import all the settings and the like to firefox...
But what if you don't like it (I don't think that will happen, but a PERSON can
and WILL say that, ESPECIALLY people who use their computer for work, or older
people, like MY PARENTS).

If you tell them, well its easy to go from IE to this and import all settings,
but if you want to import the changes you made back, well, you are screwed...
they will NEVER make the switch, they just wouldnt want to risk getting stuck
with what might turn out to be inferior software. This is the kind of draconic
thing I'd expect from microsoft, not from the open source community. A proper
export to IE feature would mean a TON more people will try this, and I expect
over 99% of them will stick with firefox.

Also, it gives the false impression that the reason why you can import from ie,
but not to ie, is because IE is more open and standardised and friendly towards
other software, while firefox isn't. This is just not true, but this is the
impression that is given. That is why it is important to tell people that it is
completely reversable.

I like the idea of saying "try" instead of switch, cause thats exactly what they
should do.
EX:
"
Feature list:
*Safe to try:
Try mozilla firefox today, it can COPY all your settings from IE, and  can be
used concurrently for you to try. If you don't like it you can Copy the changes
you made to your favorites and settings back and forget about it, if you do, we
welcome you join all those who have made the choice to use a better browser.
Remember, we are not trying to be a monopoly, so firefox does not require you to
remove your previous browser.
"

Or something to this regard.

Comment 22

[raiph]

Kudos to all for driving several critical issues forward. Sorry this is so long
but I think it's all necessary.

Response to <a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=node/view/5225">Daniel's
outline post on SFx</a>:


> 1. Currently, all get-firefox buttons lead to...

A page on a different web site from the button.

Web usability gurus such as George Landow, Jakob Nielsen and others have talked
about the importance of orientation: "Where am I? Where have I been? Where can I
go?".

You can easily and unnecessarily lose a huge percentage of your visitors at a
landing page if you get the "rhetoric of arrival" on the landing page wrong.

I believe this issue should be your focus. Get this right, orient visitors, and
the rest will fall into place. Get it wrong and the rest, eg a tour, won't matter.


> 1. Currently, all get-firefox buttons lead to...

The same page.

Afaik, links from press articles, blog recommendations, and other sources all
lead to the same landing page, right? And among buttons, you have almost
diametrically opposed messages that link to the same page: "the browser you can
trust" and "rediscover the web" are very different messages that establish very
different contexts and visitor expectations.

This makes the task of the arrival page vastly harder, because it has to cater
to these widely varying "rhetorics of departure". (Of course, if we could pick
the landing page based on something about the referrer, we'd be in a much
stronger position, but I don't think that's realistic, at least not in the short
term.)

This is the problem of answering the "Where have I been?" question.

Daniel tried to address this by saying something like "You've probably just
clicked on..." I don't think this is a good solution. Perhaps an *appropriate*
*reflection* of the potential departures would help orient arrivals. For
example, the press quote instantly provides an attention magnet for someone
who's just clicked on a link in a press article and orients them in relation to
"Where have I been?". Similarly, you could perhaps include copies of the
buttons, or something that echoes them, even if just the tag lines. Even the
line "Get Firefox" provides an orienting anchor for those who've clicked on a
button that says "Firefox" or "Get Firefox".

What about the "Where am I?" question?

To a degree this should be obvious because the site will look different to the
departure, it'll have mozilla.org or getfirefox.com as the url, and there'll be
a "mozilla" at the top left. Beyond that, the page needs to make it obvious
you're at a welcome sort of page. Daniel's "splash" page, while arguably a
problem because it was too much splash and not enough else, did effectively
convey a nice welcome, imo.

What about the "Where can I go?" question?

The problem I see here is that we have to deal with multiple very different
market segments. These loosely correspond to distinct rhetorics of departure:
the "browser you can trust" message attracts consumers seeking safety and
simplicity (SSSs?) and "rediscover the web" attracts power users (PUs?). These
are almost diametrically opposed messages.

I suggest that instead of responding with, in effect, "on a tour designed for
SSSs, like it or lump it", we provide multiple options corresponding to the
various market segments and rhetorics of departure. To a large degree we can
conflate these (segments and departures). This would solve lots of problems in
one swell foop:

For example we could say something like "Welcome to Mozilla. ... Please pick a
Visitor Center:" and then list something like "For consumers seeking safety and
simplicity" near (a variant of) the "browser you can trust" button/message and
"For power users" near the "rediscover the web" button/message. (Later we could
add "For journalists", "For IT staff", and so on.) I mean this stuff
conceptually rather than literally so play with the words as you see fit. My
point is to direct users based on segmentation, and to tie that up more or less
with rhetorics of departure because these can reinforce each other and their
orienting effect.

Obviously, we have next to no time to do this, but I think you'll find that this
can happen very quickly. I'm willing to help with creating market segment
specific visitor center pages. They'd all be based on a general template anyway.
I'm confident that, once a template is done, drafts of specific variants could
be knocked out in an hour or two and then we can polish as much as we have time
for from there. (And later on we could enable people to link some of their
buttons or whatever directly to most appropriate visitor center pages rather
than the generic landing page this bug is about.)


> The aim of the tour is to provide such context.

A good tour (or three) is a good thing but I think it should be done as a
project that's distinct from the landing page. If the intro integrates with the
landing page, so be it, but the landing page and tour should be able to progress
independently until the last day.

Part of my reason for emphasizing the distinction between landing page and tour
is that I think unnecessarily attempting to immediately guide visitors to a tour
could be a big mistake.

I believe a huge percentage of non-technical users (and possibly a goodly
percentage of visitors, depending on what sort of visitors we get) don't want to
hear about tours. They just want a drop in replacement for IE that's safer. In
many cases they don't even want to hear about the safer aspect other than a
single use of the reassuring word "safer"; once they've got that reassurance
they just want to download it and be done. For users that are loathe to learn
about a new product anyway, and only visited because they're sick of popups or
spyware, a tour makes it sound like this Firefox thing is probably going to be
more hassle than it's worth. I'm exaggerating this a little; a suitable mention
of a tour will be a good thing. But it needs to be a *suitable* mention, not
something that's in-your-face.

So, by all means write a tour as well as sorting out the landing page, but
please understand that these are largely separate problems. Perhaps there should
be multiple bugs. One for a landing page (presumably this bug). Another one for
visitors centers (a template plus one visitor center for each market segment,
with "consumer looking for safety and simplicity" and "power user" being the
only two that seem especially urgent to me, although the "IT staff" etc. ones
would be good too). And another one for tours (one per market segment, with the
consumer looking for safety and simplicity being the only one that seems urgent
to me). But maybe not. Especially if you don't agree with where I've headed in
this, er, essay.


> 2. Content on mozilla.org has suffered from attempt to target multiple audience

Yes!

Although you point out the problem, I don't see clarity on who *you* are
targetting. It seems evident from other things you've said that you're
targetting less technical users than the current stuff, but trying to make stuff
work for technical users too. If so, you're making the same mistake as others
seem to have made before, only with a different bias.

I do not think you can pick one segment. I very strongly believe that the
landing page should try to segment users, and that we need to serve at least two
segments right away: consumers seeking safety and simplicity, and power users.


> We currently don't have any good page describing what mozilla.org really is

I don't think we need to say too much about mozilla.org on the landing page.
Each visitor center could say something appropos to its market segment.


> or why people should switch.

As I've been saying for years, I hate the words "switch", "transition", and so
forth! The majority of users for whom Firefox could be relevant are put off by
the very concept. They don't want to change anything. They just want to be safe,
or at most, try out a different web browser. As someone else said, it's almost
more important that we emphasize that IE *remains available* and that one can
easily flip back to it.


> This project attempt to get away from that, by starting out with a specific
group of audience.

Ok, so the wordsmithed pages were targetted at users that have been on the web
at least a year, are comfortable with doing downloads, and are slightly techie.
(I didn't pick that target or agree with it, but we weren't allowed to disagree
and that's what it was.) What's your defined audience(s)?


> We should not talk about features. Instead, we need to talk about the advantages

Right, benefits vs features. But this gets very fuzzy if you don't segment. One
man's feature is another man's benefit. It really isn't as cut and dried as you
might think. But it is critical to have material that's encountered early on by
a vistior focus on benefits, not features. So you have to segment.


> we should also get away from terminologies such as "tabbed browser"

On the feature overview page for tabbed browsing that I helped write, use of the
term "tabbed browsing" is ok, imo. But I agree that it's wrong and unnecessary
to expose your average joe to such complexity, especially in introductory material.


> Our switch material should provide relevant, self-explanatory examples

Yes. And we should always think about graphics and simple IE/FF/etc. comparison
tables. Narrative is the least effective.


> Consistancy. We need a consistant set of marketing materials.

Well yes, but what you're doing here is yet another approach on top of the many
others I've seen around mozilla.org, so you're actually violating this principle
merely by doing this project.

But I think you're doing the right thing. I think trying to get the rhetoric of
arrival on the landing page right (and later getting the rhetoric of departure
on the buttons etc. right) matters more than consistency for now. "A foolish
consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson.


> As with logo, we ought to use one slogan only. "Rediscover the Web" is chosen
here for many reasons.

I'd say that's a fair pick for techie users, for those who embrace change, for
those want to hear more than "it's safer, download here", for those who want to
go on a tour and hear why they should "switch". For those who came here to stop
spyware plaguing their PC, it's the wrong thing. So a tour for PUs (power users)
should use it, yes, but the arrival page and a tour for SSSs (consumers seeking
safety and simplicity) should not, imo. "The browser you can trust" works for
everyone I'd say, so perhaps it's the right slogan for the arrival page and a
tour for SSSs.


================

Phew. So that's the SFx post responded to. I think I'll leave it a day before
responding to comments in this bug!

love raiph

Comment 23

[Daniel Wang]

Attachment: Firefox product page/splash page ?

A concept design based on raiph's suggestion. Some people think that we
shouldn't have another "why-switch" page. So this is a reversal of my original
proposal. Instead of creating a (useless, non-functional) landing page, we can
redesign the product page as a "portal" where regular users, power users, and
journalists can choose their destination.

Assuming that everyone can agree with this, we need:
* a real graphic designer / team
* a web designer who can make the magic work
* a good summary/introduction
* more quotes that we can use
* a media kit (button/banners/flyers/etc) based on the two slogans that most of
us seem to agree on.
* finish the tour

I'm not sure how much information (the main text after the intro block) we
should put on the page. What do you think?

Comment 24

[rstones12]

One thing that is the "MISSING" on the landing page
(mozilla.org/products/firefox/) is the word "browser", it is only mentioned (4)
times throughout the page.  One of the references is in a quote from USA Today.
 It doesn't matter how many bells and whistles you have, if users don't know
what it is, why should they bother to download it.  

I'm not saying that most users don't already know what it is, what I am saying
is that if you market a product you have to tell people what it is.  Firefox is
a browser, slam that point home.

Comment 25

[raiph]

A final big post focused on the landing page rather than the tour. Then I'll
switch my focus to trying to get a set of new landing related pages done. Maybe
we should break out a new bug?

This post is a critique of the existing landing page:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
with a view to having bad bits eliminated and good bits blended with Daniel's
latest mockup:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=164809&action=view

===============

I somewhat like the top half of the existing landing page.

I like the fairly immediate emphasis on Free Download. If users are looking to
download, and want to avoid reading bumph, they just about can.

I like the pale blue block, with screenshot, product name, and text on the left,
and little green and darker blue blocks on the right. Has anyone complained
about that? Why can't we reuse that?

Screenshot good. Of car, bad. Much prefer the shot in Daniel's mockup.

Because this page is meant to welcome all market segments, "rediscover the web"
or "discover firefox" are the wrong slogans. Instead, use either no slogan
(defer slogans to the market segment specific visitor centers), or use "the web
browser you can trust" which works ok for all segments and pretty much solves
the tell-em-it's-a-web-browser issue as a bonus.

I don't like most of the gray text next to the screenshot. I don't like that
it's gray. It seems too long. It uses promotional language (read
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html and "promotional language"). It talks
about a complicated "switch" (see my comment about that word above) involving
importing etc.

Suggested text:
Firefox
The web browser you can trust
7 million users agree: Firefox is <a href="faster.htm">faster</a> <b>and</b> <a
href="safer.htm">safer</a>. Use the links on the right to get the latest
official version now.

faster.htm would cover all forms of efficiency, popup blocking, search, tabbed
browsing, etc. safer.htm would cover all things that make ff safer, including
being multi-platform so you're not tied to windows.

The download and CD blocks seem wrong in a variety of ways. The Free Download
link doesn't say you're getting a full product. The CD block seems almost as
important as the download link. This all smells wrong -- sorta
bait-and-switchish. The suggested text above should offset that.

The links are a bit complicated. I think System Requirements and Release Notes
could be smaller text. The Spread the word link shouldn't be with these links.

The Why Use Firefox? section starts off well enough, with two good quotes
matching up more or less with the two main marketing messages. But the rest of
it goes downhill. It targets one market segment at the cost of others, including
perhaps the biggest, the consumers seeking safety and simplicity. It's way too
long and complicated for SSSs, completely fails to mention killer features for
certain segments (eg text resizing for those with failing eyesight -- over 25%
of the market!), is arguably not enough for savvy users, and makes an almost
throwaway stab at selling to web developers. This is the stuff that needs to be
replaced by a segmented approach.

The Support our work section really does not belong on this page. It belongs on
the Firefox central page.

The Resources section doesn't belong either. I can see replacing it with a
Mozilla Community section that provides a taste of the community; I believe that
the community is an important selling point. Spread Firefox would fit in such a
section.

The New in release X section is also fine; even consumers seeking safety and
simplicity won't have a problem with all sorts of weird and complicated sounding
features in a new section because they'll know by definition they don't need to
worry about them.

Comment 26

[Ivan Ičin]

Attachment: Text content for landing page

As Daniel encouraged to come with new proposals, I created a bit modified
concept of landing page.

It should be made of three columns, the left column should contain Free
download on top, get CD after that and several screenshots )one bigger and
several smaller, but with links to larger ones.

Middle column should be central place for text. There should be 'Get Firefox'
and slogan below - raiph proposed 'The browser you can trust'. After that
follows the text that is end-user oriented (see in attachment). Depending on
layout, there may be download link on the end, if otherwise it would be
necessary to scroll.

Right column should be 'Press about Firefox'. I am leaving to raiph to chose
quotes.

Idea is to make content oriented so that it fits most users - those that want
simple things, I wouldn't ristrict it to security only. This text is still of
some use for everyone as it shows what they can expect from Firefox.

Those that want more can take tour of Firefox.

Comment 27

[Daniel Wang]

let's revive this project:
http://wangrepublic.org/daniel/firefox/discover/discover (work-in-progress, done
using Eric Meyer's S5 system)

CSS/graphic designers needed

Comment 28

[Lachlan Hunt]

Since this is done in S5, just as the Firefox S5 project [1] is, you should be
able to make use of one of the many designs being created for that.  I'll let
you know when I get them and make them available for use.

Also, because both of these are slide show projects, it's important to
distinguish the differences with their intended usage.  I added a brief
description of each to the Slide Show page [2] in the unofficial mozilla
community wiki.

Is this intended to be a self explanitory, self guided tour for a user to step
through at their own pace on their own computer after visiting GetFirefox.com? 
That's the impression I get from it being called a "landing page".  If so, then
the two projects are actually complimentary, not competing, since Firefox S5 is
intended to be presented to an audience by a presenter, thus it doesn't need to
be as verbose, nor as self explanitory as this tour.

[1] http://mozilla.wikicities.com/wiki/Firefox_S5
[2] http://mozilla.wikicities.com/wiki/Slide_Show

Comment 29

[Thomas K. (:tom)]

I'm dumping this [1] into Dead SFX Projects, if it becomes alive again then feel
free to set it back up.  Right now it's taking too much space and may confuse
people.

1: http://mozilla.wikicities.com/wiki/Discover_Firefox_tour

Comment 30

[Daniel Wang]

Attachment: design concept (PNG)

Finally, a design I can live with.
Anyone still interested in this project?

Comment 31

[Grey Nicholson (they/them)]

(In reply to comment #30)
> Created an attachment (id=182230) [edit]
> design concept (PNG)

I'd like to veto the solar system theme on the grounds that Firefox isn't a
spaceship.

Comment 32

[Daniel Steinbrook]

I'm not sure how many of you have seen it, but the new CaminoBrowser.org is a
great marketing tool for Mozilla.  It's inviting, explanatory, up-to-date, and
is wonderfully styled.  A site like this that combines, say, the Firefox Central
and Firefox Download pages (among other new ones) would be an excellent and
informative guide to Firefox.

Comment 33

[Daniel Wang]

> I'd like to veto the solar system theme on the grounds that Firefox isn't
> a spaceship.

Indeed. "La perfection est atteinte non quand il ne reste rien à ajouter, mais
quand il ne reste rien à enlever."
<http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=node/view/4661> The design works fine without
the space thingy. One thing I like to repeat is that the logo should be repeated
in its entirely (no half-logos) as often as possible. Looks that I violate that
rule also.

Anyway, need to work on the content sometime too.

Comment 34

[Reed Loden [:reed]]

--> Websites :: www.mozilla.com

This page seems missing.

Comment 35

[Paul Kim]

I did a quick scan of this bug. If this is still relevant, get in touch with me directly to discuss incorporating discussion here into new content for end users. Closing out otherwise. Email pkim at mozilla dot com for follow up.