Consolidate or de-emphasize our many download pages

During the UX Sprint, several of the users found alternate download pages other than download-easy, and became confused. If you search for Tor, download Tor, or Tor Browser, you get one of the following links:

https://www.torproject.org/download/download https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en https://www.torproject.org/download/download-easy.html

Each of these has a different flow for downloading Tor Browser, and all but download-easy caused users to stop and become confused. I personally think https://www.torproject.org/download/download should simply redirect to download-easy, and the https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en page should remove the matrix and either behave like download-easy, or its download button should take the user to download-easy.

We will still need some place to put installation instructions, and the alpha downloads, but those should be broken off into different pages that replace the outdated mess in https://www.torproject.org/docs/documentation.html.en.

changed milestone to %WebsiteV3

added bridgedb-ui component::webpages/website defer-new-website milestone::WebsiteV3 owner::traumschule parent::23266 priority::high resolution::implemented severity::normal status::closed tbb-usability-stoppoint-website type::defect ux-team uxsprint2015 labels

Trac:
Keywords: ux deleted, uxsprint2015 added

Trac:
Cc: saint, dcf1 to saint, dcf1, mcs

A good start would be to change the redirect at https://www.torproject.org/download so it points to /download/download-easy.html instead of /download/download. "www.torproject.org/download" is what appears at the end of the animated user video, and it's also a nice one to remember.

Replying to dcf:

A good start would be to change the redirect at https://www.torproject.org/download so it points to /download/download-easy.html instead of /download/download. "www.torproject.org/download" is what appears at the end of the animated user video, and it's also a nice one to remember.

See #15332 (moved).

CCing myself and sysrqb because if something changes, it might break BridgeDB's instructions.

Trac:
Cc: saint, dcf1, mcs to saint, dcf1, mcs, isis, sysrqb
Keywords: N/A deleted, bridgedb-ui added

Replying to mikeperry:

and the alpha downloads, but those should be broken off into different pages

I like the idea of a separate torbrowser-alpha page that just has a table for downloads. And then get rid of the table on the normal torbrowser page.

An alternative is to try to pack an "alpha (sig)" section onto download-easy, but I think that will cause it to not be easy anymore.

This said, if we do this and also get rid of the main download page, how will the users find this torbrowser-alpha page? On the main download page is a "Download unstable" link. Would adding that to download-easy make it uneasy?

If a user is entering the query "download tor" into a search engine such as Bing, Yahoo or DuckDuckGo, the first result is going to be: https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en - on Google, it is the second result, with the first result being https://torproject.org/download.

Is there data that is available to review to see how many page views the easy download page is getting compared to the one all of the search engines are pointing to?

This may give better insight into which page should be at the center of the consolidation.

Thoughts?

Trac:
Username: wilbns

Trac:
Cc: saint, dcf1, mcs, isis, sysrqb to saint, dcf1, mcs, isis, sysrqb, isabela

Trac:
Keywords: bridgedb-ui deleted, bridgedb-ui defer-new-website added
Severity: N/A to Blocker
Reviewer: N/A to N/A
Sponsor: N/A to N/A

whoops

Trac:
Severity: Blocker to Normal

Trac:
Status: new to assigned
Owner: Sebastian to cypherpunks

Trac:
Milestone: N/A to WebsiteV3
Keywords: bridgedb-ui defer-new-website deleted, bridgedb-ui, ux-team, defer-new-website added

Trac:
Parent: N/A to #23266 (moved)

I assigned myself to this because *cypherpunk might never step up.

My proposal:

• drop download easy
• have one page per OS
• list all projects on each page
• images as navigation at the top
• short description with link to project site
• all collapsed per default, activated per click on an image
• drop js, use css .active instead (see #27131 (moved):comment:2)
• each projects maintains 1 file with the correct links to the latest version
• have three static links per os and project for stable, alpha, unstable, whatever (looking at #26298 (moved) i don't want to fix the labels here), organized centrally with RewriteRules
• architecture specific links, language version
• link to install instructions
• warnings/education section at the bottom as is

It was pointed out at several locations that in censored areas it would be good to have a all in one download page. If all links are stable, everyone can keep and distribute it to download the packages several months later without 404.

Downside: page is longer, but also more valuable and users could be lured to check out the ecosystem a bit more.

For releases www-admins need to update rules to the new file (+.sig) on https://dist.torproject.org/ (organized by a not so complicated bash script)

• tpo/download/index.html # all in one download page (projects x OS)
• tpo/download/[linux|osx|windows|android]/index.html # all download links for linux (/ [hurd]? #26873 (moved)) with links to /doc/os
• tpo/download/[os]/tor-browser/latest (=stable)
• tpo/download/[os]/tor-browser/stable
• tpo/download/[os]/tor-browser/alpha
• tpo/download/[os]/[project]/[version]
• tpo/download/tor/source/LTS
• tpo/download/tor/source/stable
• tpo/download/tor/source/unstable
• tpo/download/tor/source/unstable/[version]
• tpo/download/tor/source/slack*/*

This more an idea and a question if this could work with your current workflow. I don't want to break anything or change functional processes.

I asked myself if it would make more sense to work on the new site only. However I rather not want to let the current one rot until the launch in some months. The carryover (#23266 (moved)) will be easier with a 'consolidated' system as it is much faster to translate up to date and correct content from wml to markdown (can even be done in one step). After fixing the links I want to get into the trust issue (#3893 (moved)).

Please help me with your ideas.

WIP: https://github.com/torproject/webwml/pull/12

(i'm happy to know if you disagree)

Trac:
Owner: cypherpunks to traumschule

Retreating from above ideas and replying to [ticket:14686 mikeperry]:

During the UX Sprint, several of the users found alternate download pages other than download-easy, and became confused. If you search for Tor, download Tor, or Tor Browser, you get one of the following links:

https://www.torproject.org/download/download https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en https://www.torproject.org/download/download-easy.html

Each of these has a different flow for downloading Tor Browser, and all but download-easy caused users to stop and become confused. I personally think https://www.torproject.org/download/download should simply redirect to download-easy, and the https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en page should remove the matrix and either behave like download-easy, or its download button should take the user to download-easy. Are you also ok with redirecting download-easy to download (since /download redirects to it ticket:15332)? My idea is to create a css accordion as for the verifcation PR getting rid of the broken JavaScript (#27540 (moved)) and preserve existing anchors to not break possible user bookmarks. We will still need some place to put installation instructions, and the alpha downloads, but those should be broken off into different pages that replace the outdated mess in https://www.torproject.org/docs/documentation.html.en. Created #27584 (moved).

merge download pages into one

Trac:
Status: assigned to needs_review

I need to rework that branch.

Trac:
Status: needs_review to needs_revision

squashed

Trac:
Status: needs_revision to needs_review

We implemented a consolidated download page when we launched torproject.org/download. Please, open a new ticket if anything is remaining.

Trac:
Resolution: N/A to implemented
Status: needs_review to closed

closed

mentioned in issue #15332 (moved)

mentioned in issue #17413 (moved)

mentioned in issue #17413 (moved)

mentioned in issue #17669 (moved)

mentioned in issue #17805 (moved)

mentioned in issue #22888 (moved)

mentioned in issue #24231 (moved)

mentioned in issue #24255 (moved)

mentioned in issue #24883 (moved)

mentioned in issue #24883 (moved)

mentioned in issue #25098 (moved)

mentioned in issue #26133 (moved)

mentioned in issue #26298 (moved)

mentioned in issue #26307 (moved)

mentioned in issue #26774 (moved)

mentioned in issue #27131 (moved)

mentioned in issue #27480 (moved)

mentioned in issue #27673 (moved)

mentioned in issue #27809 (moved)

moved to tpo/web/trac#14686 (closed)

mentioned in issue tpo/web/trac#15332 (closed)