intothefuzz

As noted yesterday, there are many good things about Mozilla’s various websites, but the big picture of how they’re organized and work together leaves a lot of room for improvement. Entering our web universe can be really confusing for users, and the current setup limits the ways we can spread the word about all the stuff that’s happening around the organization and community.

So, to kickstart the discussion of how we might solve these problems, we held a public brown bag today to talk about the overall situation and how to improve it. Big thanks to everyone who attended and participated – it was really great to hear people’s ideas and input.

During the brown bag, I framed the solution as having four basic steps (none of which are easy, of course):
1. think about our sites as components of a larger network rather than a bunch of individual pieces.
2. tell our story effectively by making sure each site has a clear role and distinct focus.
3. group related content together so it’ll be where users can find it.
4. connect sites more effectively through cross-linking, UI elements, visual palette, etc.

More specifically, the central proposal that I put out there was that we should have a single Mozilla site (mozilla.org) that would focus on sharing the big picture of who we are and what we do, and would be a central hub for a bunch of product- and audience- specific sites to orbit around. As part of that, we would rename mozilla.com to more accurately reflect its current focus as the main Firefox product site.

The next question, then, is what to call that Firefox product site. For a variety of reasons (that will probably require another blog post to detail) my personal vote is to call it firefox.com, although there are certainly other options – mozilla.org/firefox or firefox.mozilla.org, for example. It’s an interesting discussion, although the specifics of the URL are ultimately less important than the overall goal of making our sites better.

Regardless of the name, though, there’s a lot we could do on this “new” site, such as integrating Firefox add-ons and support to create a single destination for all things Firefox. It would be a powerful communications vehicle for us, and a really useful resource for users.

Of course there are a ton of details that still need to be talked through, and some big questions to figure out. For example, where do key sites like Mozilla Europe fit into all this? Would this create an improper balance between the Firefox and Mozilla brands? What’s the right URL structure?

But, I’m confident we can answer those questions, and once we do the result will be a huge improvement for all involved: more relevant, accessible content for users; a clearer platform for communicating the mission; a better vehicle for talking about Firefox and other key initiatives like mobile, add-ons, services, etc. There are lots of really exciting opportunities, and I can’t wait to get started on them.

If you weren’t able to make it to the brown bag today (or even if you were), I’ve attached the full set of slides here, and Laura has put up a bunch of notes from the discussion session. The slides have way more detail than this this post, so please take a look and share any questions or comments in the comments section below. Thanks!

Update: David Boswell offers up some thoughts from the Mozilla Foundation perspective.

The Mozilla web universe is an interesting place. We operate a number of quality websites that, when viewed as a whole, make us one of the most highly-trafficked web companies around (a rough estimate is around 700,000,000 total page views per month – and that doesn’t include the Firefox start page).

But, right now it’s kind of tough to view them as a whole because they’re all treated pretty individually, without a lot of coordination or linkage between them. This confusing site structure causes a couple of problems that we need to solve: 1) it’s hard for users to learn about Mozilla, get involved or otherwise use the sites in the way they’re intended and 2) makes it hard for us to communicate the full breadth of things we have going on.

So, in the spirit of solving those problems I’m be hosting an upcoming brown bag titled “Rethinking the Mozilla Web Universe”. I’ll be elaborating on the current situation in a bit more detail, and have some ideas on how we might approach making things better, but I’d mostly like it to be a discussion about a revised web universe should look like and how we can get there.

If you’re interested in this sort of thing, please join us! It’s open to the public…here are the details:
* when: Thursday, February 11 at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time
* phone: dial 1.800.707.2533 (password 369) or 1.650.215.1282 (extension 92#), then dial Conference number 8600#
* video: it’ll be broadcast on Air Mozilla
* IRC: you can post questions or comments in #marketing

(David Boswell has also posted a few quick thoughts on this subject.)

Big news from the world of Mozilla: we released Firefox 3.6 today!

(I’ll pause for a moment while you go download it.)

As always, we made a bunch of site content updates in an attempt to convey the full awesomeness of the new browser. Here are a few of the highlights (Laura Mesa also has more details over on her blog):

* Personas: uplifting Personas from an add-on to the product was one of the biggest consumer-facing features in 3.6, so we made sure to cover that news in a variety of spots. Most notably, Tara Shahian and Mary Colvig masterminded a great video to show off what Personas are all about, and we added functionality in a few key spots that lets 3.6 users demo some sample Personas with a simple rollover.

* WOFF: another cool 3.6 feature is support for the new WOFF font standard, and we put that to good use by showing off the WOFF version of Meta on the newly redesigned First Run and What’s New pages.

* Security: keeping users safe is always a major priority, so we revamped the Firefox security page to reflect all the latest goodness (including the plugin check – another new 3.6 feature). As an added bonus, the page also includes a new security-themed illustration…of a walrus teaching a squirrel to surf, of course.

* Customization: building on the new Personas content, we also created a new Customization page to spread the word about Collections and other ways to personalize your Firefox.

* Download Pages: the various versions of the Firefox download page received a variety of content tweaks to support the key features and benefits of 3.6, and to roll out the “world’s best browser” messaging.

These projects (and dozens of others) wouldn’t have been possible without a lot of people’s very hard work. Huge thanks to everyone who contributed to the website portion of the release, including (but not limited to): Tara Shahian, Laura Mesa, Steven Garrity & silverorange, Tim Hogan & the Royal Order, everyone at Addis Creson, the Delicious Design League, Ivo Gabrowitsch & FontShop, William Slater, Melissa Shapiro, Johnathan Nightingale, Nick Nguyen, Mary Colvig, Alex Buchanan, Mike Morgan, Irina Sandu, Kohei Yoshino, Pascal Chevrel & the l10n community, Stephen Donner, Raymond Etornam, Jeremy Orem, Chris Blizzard, Ken Kovash, Rainer Cvillink, Mike Beltzner, Chris Beard, Sean Martell and more.

As we all know, mozilla.com is a *really* highly visited site. At around 180,000,000 unique visitors per month, even the smallest fixes can have a huge impact, so we’re always looking for ways to optimize.

Here’s a recent example of how the process works:
* a few weeks ago, Ken Kovash pointed out that roughly 10% of the people who don’t complete the install process drop out because of confusion around what a software update is, why they need to upgrade, what will happen to their bookmarks, etc.
* after talking to the Metrics team, Laura Mesa led the process of adding content to the /upgrade and /personal versions of the Firefox download page to address the user concerns (more details about this part on her blog). We also created a new FAQ page with more details.
* our friends at silverorange built the new pages, and our ace WebQA team made sure everything worked properly.
* the SUMO team created new support materials with step-by-step instructions for people who need additional help.

The new content went live today, and we’ll see what kind of difference it makes when Metrics runs the next installer survey this fall. More on our site optimization efforts coming soon…

There’s a lot of activity happening over at mozilla.com these days as we refine, tweak and modify it to be as effective as possible…here’s a quick overview:

Sprints
In the past, we’ve timed the big site overhauls to coincide with major product releases, with smaller updates in the interim on a project-by-project basis. In order to create more consistent momentum, Mike Morgan and I have kicked off a series of tightly scoped two-week sprints designed to showcase the latest web technologies, open up a better window into what’s happening in the Mozilla community and, of course, encourage Firefox downloads.

Our initial sprint, the results of which should go live tomorrow, involved enhancing the Firefox 3.5 download stats page and integrating it more into the main site. After that we’re going to tackle the “plug-in problem”…i.e., the fact that most people aren’t aware that their plug-ins may contain some pretty serious security holes. Stay tuned for more details on these and other sprints coming soon.

Site Optimization
As Ken Kovash likes to point out, the economies of scale with mozilla.com are such that even slight improvements to the site can positively affect millions of users. So, Laura, Alix and I are stepping up our efforts to work with the Metrics team to identify and solve any ongoing pain points. Here’s what’s in the works for now (with much more to come):
* communicating to users about their plug-in vulnerabilities, both with the upcoming sprint noted above and in the longer term.
* clarifying our messaging on the upgrade page to address recent findings that show some user confusion around whether an update replaces their existing Firefox, removes bookmarks, etc.
* SEO enhancements on the Firefox download page (based on a suggestion by community member Michel Galibert – thanks Michel!).
* improvements to the What’s New experience, such as serving up different content depending on the user’s upgrade path (2.0->3.5 being very different from 3.5.2->3.5.3, for example).

Mozilla Mission
The Mozilla mission and everything it represents is a huge part of what makes Firefox Firefox, so one of my ongoing goals is to do a better job of weaving that story into the site as a whole. In the first step of what will surely be an ongoing process, we’ve added some prominent mission-focused text to the First Run page (see screenshot below). Next up: the 3.5.3 What’s New page and the Firefox download page.

As for the messaging on First Run, in the two weeks since the change was made that link has been clicked on about 171,000 times. Not a particularly gaudy number, but it translates into a few million clicks when multiplied across an entire year (and doesn’t account for the more subtle influence on the millions of people who have already read it without clicking, of course).

As you no doubt have heard by now, we launched Firefox 3.5 today…a triumphant and exciting moment made possible by a lot of hard work from a lot of very smart, talented and dedicated people around the world. The result is a shiny new Firefox that includes dramatically improved performance, support for open video and other web standards, and new features ranging from geolocation to private browsing. Great stuff all around.

A release that awesome demands that we also upgrade the website that serves up those millions of downloads, so mozilla.com received its own set of 3.5 enhancements today. Check out the project plan for the full overview (and that doesn’t include the dozens of bugs that were filed to tweak things here and there), but here’s a list of my personal favorite improvements:

* a “thank you for downloading” video on the First Run and What’s New pages starring members of the Mozilla community (in addition to showing off some of the people who volunteer so much time to make Firefox possible, it’s also most people’s first exposure to the magic of open video)
* a page detailing the immense amount of back-end work that went into the release that we’re calling Under the Hood (includes some nifty graphs and a demo by Chris Blizzard)
* lots and lots of updates to our Firefox Features page, plus call-outs for what’s new and what’s been improved
* refreshed information on the Firefox download page, with redirects in place to display different content depending on which browser you’re using
* new illustrations throughout the site, most notably the addition of dolphins & gears to our existing homepage menagerie (hit refresh if you don’t see them right away)

Like any major site update, this was a large and complex project that was only possible through a true team effort. Special shout outs (in no particular order) go to:

* Steven Garrity, Stephen DesRoches and Mike Gauthier from silverorange for their tireless design and development efforts
* our Web QA superstars – Stephen Donner, Krupa Raj and Raymond Etornam – for checking the site over and over and over until it was right
* Pascal Chevrel and our localization community for making sure the key pages were available in more than 70 languages…a feat that staggers me the more I think about it
* the folks at The Royal Order & the Delicious Design League for continuing the great visual design and illustration work they started with the 3.0 site
* our incredible IT crew, including Jeremy Orem, Matt Zeier, Reed Loden and Justin Fitzhugh, for making sure everything worked
* Alex Buchanan, Frederic Wenzel and Mike Morgamic from our WebDev team for lending their magic touch to a variety of key areas
* all the technical experts – especially Chris Blizzard, but also Mike Beltzner, Vlad Vukicevic, Damon Sicore and Eric Shepherd – who patiently walked me through concepts like Native JSON and Web Worker Threads until I had them reasonably figured out
* Alex Faaborg for leading the charge on the new logo/icon and lending his detail-oriented expertise to plenty of other areas as well
* Sylvain Barre, Sébastien Adgnot and Pierre-Yves Kerembellec from Dailymotion for supporting the open video demo on First Run/What’s New with their bandwidth and expertise
* Alix Franquet and Rainer Cvillink for making all the new videos
* Paul Kim, Tara Shahian and Dave Bottoms for their opinions and ideas throughout the process

Our new Location-Aware Browsing page now has an official mascot. Meet the Geolocator…he’ll help you find your way around, and respects your privacy too.

As always, thanks to the folks at the Royal Order and the Delicious Design League for applying their loopy genius to our products.

As you probably know by now, the release of a new Firefox 3.x beta means a new robot illustration, and today’s Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 is no exception. This one is one of my favorites so far, as it really shows off the Shiretoko-series robot in all his glory (as with the previous two installments, it was created by artist Josh Burcham).

The robot is still on his quest for Shiretoko, and with another beta release scheduled for later this spring there’s definitely still more of his story ahead. Keep on downloading to find out more…

Also, while I’m on the subject, I should mention that we’ve revised the beta page on mozilla.com to make it more download-friendly. Our hope is that the big button (colored orange so as not to confuse it with the green button we traditionally use for official releases) will encourage people to give it a try, and the “Important Information” section to the right will give them the full context before they do so. Thanks to Steven Garrity for his help putting this together

Note: this is the latest in a very slow-moving (the last post was in September) series about Mozilla.com.

When we were redesigning Mozilla.com for the Firefox 3 release, our primary goal for the site was to drive Firefox downloads, but a very strong secondary goal was to do a better job of communicating the rather unique and unconventional nature of Mozilla in general. One way we tried to achieve this was with the fanciful illustrations, but we also created a “What is Mozilla?” page to explain things more directly.

Wiser people than I have been pondering this question for years, and if you asked 200 people in the Mozilla community to answer it you’d probably get 200 different answers, so I won’t claim that this page represents the final word on the subject. But, I’m happy with the way it turned out and hope that it helps laypeople who happen across it understand what we’re all about and why we’re different.

When I was writing it, my big breakthrough was realizing that it made more sense to describe Mozilla as many things all at once rather than as a single concept. From there, I drew upon a bunch of Mitchell’s past blog posts to cover the philosophical details behind the main points. The key line is really the last one: that the goal of all aspects of Mozilla is making the Internet better for everyone.

So, that was the approach to explaining Mozilla to the uninitiated. I should also mention that the page has a very handy side benefit: if you’ve ever struggled to give friends/family/acquaintances a simple answer as to what Mozilla is, how we’re both a non-profit and a corporation, and other fun things like that, just direct them to this page. I’ve used that trick several times now and it makes things much easier!

Wondering what the Mozilla.com plans are for the Firefox 3.1 release? Well, wonder no further – I’ve put up an overview on the project wiki page.

The plan is fluid and things will surely change along the way, but it’s a good start. As always, questions and comments are welcome.