571584 - Soften the language of "know your rights" to avoid unintentional connotation

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

As a follow up to the ux-tone bug 571424, I've for awhile been concerned about how we phrase our first run notification bar.  Currently the action button has the text:

"Know your rights..."

The problem is that this semantically invokes the very similar phrase "you have the right to" which typically is stated twice during an arrest in the US, followed by "do you understand your rights..."

This is specifically an en-us issue (as a result of Miranda v Arizona), although it would appear a number of other nations have police forces that use similar statements.

On a higher level "know your rights..." doesn't convey the correct relationship between the user and Firefox.  It conveys that Firefox is powerful, and could potentially infringe on the user's rights, and the user is weak and needs to know that they have rights that were created to protect themselves.  Even outside of the specific similarity to the experience of being handcuffed in the US, it is in general a draconian and ominous way to say hello.

I recommend we use a more generic phrase like "learn more," "details," or "About Firefox."  For nearly ever other product, the (more stringent) terms are agreed to by the user opening a box or clicking install, without the user necessarily even mentally processing the text of the agreement.  My impression is that the current text is a response to us being interested in avoiding the word "terms" which obviously doesn't play well in open source communities (and isn't accurate to the situation either, since we don't have an end user license agreement).

Since we will be using a start page snipped instead of a notification bar for first run, we will have more room to craft the message.  For instance the hyperlink "about Firefox and user rights" puts Firefox more in the position of theoretically protecting the rights instead of theoretically infringing on the rights.

Comment 1

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

To clarify, obviously we had no intention of giving the user this impression, I'm just worried about an unintentional interpretation, and making sure the phrase effectively conveys what we want to communicate.

Comment 2

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

Attachment: Proposed change

This proposed change removes the button, and replaces it with a hyperlink that reads "Learn more about Firefox and user rights"

-The hyperlinks makes the notification seem informative instead of requiring mandatory action
-By making both entities third party (Firefox, and user) the statement is more detached, it does not feel like a direct statement from the product to the person reading the text

Comment 3

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

Requesting blocking on this since this is such a major part of our first run start up experience.  We'll of course need to check with legal to make sure the string is ok, filed legal bug 588285 for confirmation

Comment 4

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

>Since we will be using a start page snipped instead of a notification bar

Note that even if we get a home tab with snippet notifications, we'll still need to use a notification bar, so this bug covers changes to the existing notification bar (new string, hyperlink).

Comment 5

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

Would take a fix, but it's not a regression so holding the release for this, blocking-.

Comment 6

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Comment on attachment 466906 [details]
Proposed change

Looks good with one caveat; I'd drop the "Firefox" from the link, and just make it:

"Learn more about your rights as a user."

(I wonder if "rights" is the right word to be using here)

Comment 7

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Margaret - assuming we get the OK in bug 588285 (can someone cc me and margaret on that?) can you handle this as part of your work on bug 514817?

Comment 8

[:Margaret Leibovic]

Sure, I can make this change once we hear back from legal in bug 588285.

Comment 9

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

Thinking about this some more, I'm not sure we can call them a "user", since we move from one connotation to another. Perhaps:

"Learn more about protecting your rights online"

We can drop Firefox, but if we keep "rights" I think we need to be directly positive (like "protecting").

Comment 10

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

I like the tone, but about:rights has nothing to do with protecting the user's rights online. It is entirely about understanding what your rights, as a user, are with respect to the software you are about to use.

How about:

Firefox is free and open software provided by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation. You should know about _your rights to use this software_.

That's a little long, though. Maybe:

"You _have rights_ to use this software."?

Comment 11

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

>Sure, I can make this change once we hear back from legal

I'm waiting on feedback from Mitchell and engagement, the currently proposed text is:

"Firefox is open source software created by the independent and non-profit Mozilla community.  We believe in ensuring your rights and protecting your privacy."

overall we want to leave the user with a clear (and accurate) feeling of "the people who created this are good, they are on my side"

Comment 12

[:Margaret Leibovic]

Are we going to try to get this in for beta 6? It is simple to change the string, but it needs to happen before string freeze.

Comment 13

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

>Are we going to try to get this in for beta 6? 

Yes, I just want engagement to sign off on the text here and for the about window.

Comment 14

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

New text:

Firefox is free and open source software from the non-profit Mozilla Foundation. We believe in ensuring your rights and protecting your privacy.

(final sentence is a hyperlink to about:rights)

Comment 15

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

I don't think we need engagement's sign off. Over on the About Window I proposed the much shorter and to-the-point text of:

This software is completely free and open, and you can _use it_ however you want.

I'll bring this up in today's product planning meeting and we'll get to resolution for you by noon PT, Margaret. I'll even file a patch, if you'd like.

Comment 16

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Moving out target past Firefox 4.

Comment 17

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

Attachment: Proposal from Harvey / Beltzner

From a conversation with Beltzner and Harvey earlier today, we've decided to go with:

[Firefox 3 text minus foundation] Licensing information.

where licensing information is a hyperlink to about:rights, and directly after the first statement.  So:

Brandname is free and open source software from the non-profit Mozilla. Licensing information.

Comment 18

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Comment on attachment 473311 [details]
Proposal from Harvey / Beltzner

No, this isn't right. "the non-profit Mozilla" doesn't work, and I spoke with cbeard about dropping it, and he agreed. I also don't think "Licensing information" is right.

Comment 19

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

After much hand-wringing - seriously, I've spent several hours with this - and based on the input from Harvey, Alex, and Chris Beard, this is what we are going to use for Firefox 4:

------------

Firefox is free, open source software built by Mozilla. _Free software gives you rights_.

------------

For those curious as to how I got here:

 - Harvey indicated that we need to reference the fact that the software is provided under a license the provides the user with rights

 - Alex wanted the statement to be positive an empowering, and point out the differences between free software and software that claims to be free

 - I really didn't want it to be boring.

Comment 20

[:Margaret Leibovic]

Attachment: WIP

Comment 21

[:Margaret Leibovic]

Attachment: wip screenshot

It turns out it's kind of hacky to get a link in the notification bar instead of a button, and I still have to figure out how to get it adjacent to the first sentence.

Comment 22

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

Still not a blocker, see comment #5.

Comment 23

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

>Still not a blocker, see comment #5.

something being a regression or not doesn't seem like the correct metric for determining if a UX issue should block.  Instead I think we should go with impact=(occurrence*visibility)*(how critical the issue is).  In this case the occurrence is only 1, the visibility is at nearly 100% of users, and the issue is that we are taking brand damage where we should be winning users over.

Comment 24

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

I think we should revisit this message based on the work done by EC1