Usability Research: Tor Launcher
Methodology: See Attachments Where: Tor Meetup in Mumbai, India Participants: Five (5)
Results
- Summary of demographics
- What users said
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
1.
- The group consisted of 5 male users aged 20-50.
- Most of the users described themselves as and day to day tech users who use Tor just on specific situations.
2.
Q1 Do you think you would need to click on Configure to connect to Tor?
- Most users answered ‘NO’ to this question and understand that there was no need to configure at this point.
Q2 What do the checked options do?
- All users relate checked options with checking for censorship in their country. Most of them understood that these options are used for connecting to the bridge.
Q3 Describe in your words how a bridge will help users.
- Most of the users understand a bridge as a function that helps them bypass censored material.
- Users did not go deep into how the bridge actually works to help users.
- Quote: “It can help to change the way I am currently connecting on Tor”.
Q4 If Tor is censored in India, what bridge would you use?
- Most users say they would pick a bridge at random.
- Most of them hesitated for a few seconds. It seems that users cannot tell the advantage of one bridge over another and therefore decide to go with an option.
- Quotes: “...I would choose at random” “I don’t know. I would probably brute force try” In Fact! “I would try all of them until something works”.
Q5 Have you ever had to configure a proxy? Would you know how to look for Internet settings in another browser? Can you check your system’s network settings?
- All the users answered yes to all parts.
- This was not a difficult question for them. They gave their answers promptly and seemed to understand the concepts of configuration and system settings.
3.
This was an all-male user group; therefore they represent only a portion of the users of Tor who use it in specific situations. They are all consumers of technology and understand the basic terms referred to in the questionnaire, such as configure/censorship/proxy/bridge. However, when it comes down to engaging with the website settings, in particular choosing a bridge, users are not yet well informed and require creative assistance.
4.
- Increase opportunities for interaction with users of other genders/gender identities.
- Review existing content about bridges, for instance, consider naming bridges according to their specific functionality.