[tor-bugs] #24309 [Applications/Tor Browser]: Activity 4.1: Improve how circuits are displayed to the user

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#24309: Activity 4.1: Improve how circuits are displayed to the user
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 Reporter:  isabela                        |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  defect                         |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                         |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser       |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                         |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  ux-team, TorBrowserTeam201803  |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                                 |         Points:
 Reviewer:  antonela                       |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by brade):

 Replying to [comment:26 arthuredelstein]:
 > ...
 > It occurs to me that the Tor Circuit section needs an icon at left,
 similar to the lock in the "Secure Connection" section and the Permissions
 [✓|x] icon below. Any ideas what this icon should be? (An onion is
 probably not the right choice, because we're already using that for onion
 sites.) One possibility would be the "relay" icon in
 https://people.torproject.org/~irl/icons/

 I like the icon proposed by Antonela's attachment since I think it helps
 non-technical users understand what a "circuit" is (common understanding
 in US is that a circuit has to do with electronics).  I'm also OK with not
 having an icon since it does add some busy-ness to that section.

 > Any thoughts about where the "Guard (i)" and "Learn More" links should
 lead to? Somewhere in the Tor Browser manual? Or should these be tooltips?
 Or perhaps a single large info section could pop up next to the circuit
 display whenever the user hovers over it.

 If we only needed a few words of text, a tooltip would be fine but I think
 that we need more text to explain some concepts such as guard node.
 Expanding the display horizontally would be a great long-term design.  In
 the short-term, it would be OK to just load a web page of documentation.

 > Also I'm wondering if it's bad to have both the Guard (i) and "Learn
 More" links, since they seem to be redundant.

 I disagree that they are redundant but I defer to Antonela as the
 designer.  To me, the Guard (i) icon should provide a general explanation
 about guards and maybe circuits.  The "Learn More" link has to do with the
 specific issues that users are confused why the whole circuit doesn't
 change when they request a new circuit.

 Another thought or two about these links:  If we are going to remove one
 of the links, I'd remove the (i) icon.  I find that the (i) icon is much
 too small; it's just a purple dot and not very recognizable as something
 that is clickable to get more info.  We know that this is a common area
 where users have questions so having an explicit "Learn More" link will
 stand out more and hopefully reduce user support in this area.

 > Also, I liked Sukhbir's suggestion about adding an "Exit" label. We
 could even add a "Middle relay" label or more information about an onion
 site's relays. But I don't want it to look too cluttered either. Maybe
 tooltips are the best thing? ...

 Mark and I think that including both "Exit" and the IP address will add a
 lot of clutter.  Do we need to provide the IP address?  Maybe it would be
 better for the IP address to be shown in a tooltip and we should show
 middle relay and exit with links to help.

 One other comment about your prototype:
 The "Load New Circuit" button label is new text for Tor Browser.  The
 current menu label for this functionality is "New Tor Circuit for this
 Site".  I think we should not use such different labels for the same
 functionality.  I propose labeling this button "New Circuit for this
 Site"; Mark proposes: "Reload Using a New Circuit".

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/24309#comment:29>
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