Hi,
September was again more busy than average to respect the timeline of Project 101 (Tor VPN) and Tails releases.
Tor VPN =======
- I analyzed the usability test of Tor VPN 0.6.2 that I did in August.
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/ux/research/-/issues/69
In short, the usability of Tor VPN 0.6.2 is decent when people don't need to use a bridge, but very bad when Tor is blocked. None of the participant managed to use a bridge on their own.
The main issues are unclear system status and confusing network model.
Quotes:
“Tor is like a bridge.“ — P5
“I'm looking for bridges that make it like if I were in Switzerland.“ — P4
“It should say: You are being blocked! With Tor you can bypass this censorship using a bridge.“ — P6
Summary of findings:
https://gitlab.torproject.org/-/project/92/uploads/1fba8220a110622d852bf4486...
List of all issues:
https://nc.torproject.net/s/fXbRYw76pTXJZym
Video clips:
https://nc.torproject.net/f/645757
- I created GitLab issues to document the most severe issues:
Improve feedback while "Connecting" https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/181
Clarify connection status on all screens https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/182
Allow changing exit location from Configure menu https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/185
Improve discoverability of the list of countries https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/186
Clarify what can be tapped in the Bridges screen https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/187
Remove the need to press Enter when entering a bridge line https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/188
Clarify which bridge is being used (eg. after Bridge Bot) https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/189
Improve discoverability of the circuit view https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/190
Allow configuring only a single bridge https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/193
Rethink how the different relays are named https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/194
Clarify just enough about the network model https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/195
Don't allow changing exit location unless already connected https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/196
Report loss of connectivity to the Tor network https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/onionmasq/-/issues/110
- I started brainstorming solutions to all of these issues with Duncan and the rest of the UX team.
Tails =====
I wrote some documentation to help users with recent issues:
- Shim SBAT verification error (#20471)
https://tails.net/news/version_6.7/#sbat
- Provide fsck from Welcome Screen when the file system of the Persistent Storage is corrupted (#15451)
https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/merge_requests/1586
This one was a LOT of work to figure out which data forensics path we should recommend to users and document the main ones step-by-step.