[ux] CCS Paper

[David Fifield]

On Fri, Sep 21, 2018 at 11:43:40AM -0400, Kevin Gallagher wrote:
> My name is Kevin Gallagher (kevun on IRC) and I recently got a Tor UX
> study accepted into CCS. I wanted to attach the paper here so interested
> parties could read it. This project was performed before TB v8, but
> hopefully some of it will still be useful moving forward!
> 
> I think the interesting aspect of our study is the method more than the
> findings. The method of quantitative data collection could allow for an
> extended experiment to discover user experience issues that are
> encountered during naturalistic use of the Tor Browser, and without
> harming the privacy of the users. Maybe an extended experiment like this
> with more experienced Tor users could be useful.

This is an interesting approach. What they did was have a script monitor
whether Tor Browser and other browsers were running:
https://github.com/kcg295/TorUsabilityBrowserSensor/blob/master/process_monitor.py
Whenever a browser's status changed, they opened up one of a small
number of surveys asking for feedback:
https://iu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1zUUNkFOq0Hbmux
https://iu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1MlX8ndQNIHKgyp
https://iu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1He1PMKCwwIXC0l

Kevin: among the missing browser features that participants mentioned,
"password managers, bookmarks, history, session tracking, cookies,
etc.," it's interesting to see bookmarks, because bookmarks is one of
the things that Tor Browser does keep across sessions. Maybe by
"bookmarks" the participants meant automatically remembered history,
like Firefox's most-viewed pages tab? Or maybe they were just frustrated
that their bookmarks from another browser weren't easily available in
Tor Browser.