Navigation

A Few Quick Mozilla Store Updates

By on October 11, 2007 in Merchandise, PlanetMozilla

It’s been awhile since I reported on the Mozilla Store, so here are a few updates:

* Probably the most frequent comment we got after relaunching the US-based Store back in August was, “are you going to redo the International Store too, and if so, when?” The short answer is “absolutely yes” and “very soon”. I probably should have done a better job of communicating this at the time, but updating the International Store has been part of the plan all along…work has been proceeding for a few weeks now and we’re hoping to have the International Store live in late October or early November. It’ll have the same design, features and merchandise as the US-based Store, so stay tuned…

* The good thing about the International Store is that Mozilla fans will be able to have their gear shipped to almost any country around the globe. The bad thing is that the world is a big place and shipping costs can get pretty expensive (especially when you factor in duties and taxes in certain places). We’re currently looking into a few grassroots solutions with some local Mozilla communities to combat this. I don’t have anything specific to report on this yet, but wanted everyone to know that we’re actively exploring ways to solve the problem.

* About the US-based Store, we have an opportunity to add a new item of our choosing. We figured this would be a good opportunity to let the community weigh in, so we’re putting five frequently suggested items up for a vote. David Rolnitzky’s blog has more details on this, but the quick summary is that we’ll add the winner to the Store as soon as possible. So, if you have an opinion, click here to vote, or look for this promo next time you’re at the Store homepage:

A Few Quick Mozilla Store Updates

Back to the fuzz

New Approaches to an Old Challenge

By on October 4, 2007 in Design, firefox, PlanetMozilla

Convincing people to download and begin regularly using an entirely new web browser is a pretty tall task for an online ad, which is why we’re always testing different approaches to see what works.

We recently asked Nobox to come up with concepts for two online ads around the themes of security and customization (key points of differentiation between Firefox and the competition). The ads started running a few days ago…my esteemed colleague David Rolnitzky has a detailed breakdown of the thought process behind them on his new blog, so definitely check that out.

Our main request to Nobox for the security ad was that it be very benefits-focused…in other words, communicate how browser security (or the lack thereof) directly impacts the user, rather than just making a generic statement about what Firefox’s security features are. For the customization one, we asked them to explore some non-technical metaphors (besides the somewhat played-out one of souping up your vehicle) that would help explain what add-ons are and how they can help you.

Nobox processed all that and came back with an interesting approach: cartoons. When they first proposed this I have to admit I was a little uncertain, but they quickly sold me with their specific concepts, which communicated our key points in a very fun and engaging way. I feel like it’s important to be serious about what we do, but also not to take ourselves too seriously, and to me these ads do a good job of doing that. Of course, online advertising provides very well-defined results so the users will have the final say!

The landing page for the security ad is below. You can see the other landing page plus the ads themselves on David’s site.

New Approaches to an Old Challenge

Back to the fuzz

Firefox First Impressions

By on September 5, 2007 in Mozilla, PlanetMozilla

Like the old commercial says, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. With that in mind, David Rolnitzky and I have been working to improve the Firefox first run page with the aim of increasing the post-download user retention rate.

The previous version of the page was light on concrete ‘getting started’ information, so in the new page (which went live a few days ago) we wanted to provide a few quick tips on how to use some popular Firefox features. Our assumption was that if we can educate people on these features early on in their Firefox experience, they’ll be more likely to come back next time.

The big challenge was to provide this info in an easily scannable and non-invasive way so as not to delay people from actually using their new browser. To do this, we’re exposing just one tip at a time – the rest are discoverable through a series of pretty nifty DHTML transitions. We also focused on only four very easily understandable features and tried to keep the copy as short as possible.

This is obviously a crucial page in the Firefox new user experience, so we’re considering this the first in a series of tests. Right now it’s only available in the en-US version, but once we have a better idea of what works we’ll begin the process of localizing it for Firefox users around the world.

A screenshot of one of the panels is below, but I highly recommend viewing the actual live version of the page to get the full effect.

Firefox First Impressions

Thanks to Paul Kim, Mike Beltzner, Chris Beard and Jay Patel for their feedback and advice on this page. Big thanks to Alicia Patterson for her design work and Steven Garrity for his DHTML wizardry.

Back to the fuzz

Addressing Firefox Retention on the Download Page

By on August 20, 2007 in Design, firefox, Mozilla.com, PlanetMozilla

A few weeks ago, JT and Beltzner presented their 12-point plan for improving Firefox retention. David Rolnitzky and I were tasked with point #5 – “Improve download and first run pages”, so I’m happy to say that we launched a new download page earlier today.

As a bit of context, this is the page that users see after they click the Download Firefox button, and it remains up throughout the entire download process. So, rather than just showing a promo for a messenger bag (which is what the previous version of the page did), our hypothesis is that users will be better served by seeing instructions (with visuals) on how to complete the installation process.

We plan to keep testing and evolving this page over time, so consider this more of a work in progress than a “final” page. Obviously the use of screenshots complicates the localization process, so we’re just launching the en-US version now while we actively try to figure out the best way to localize these pages worldwide. In addition to the Mac page shown here, we also created XP and Vista versions, and other OS’s may follow eventually.

Update 9/4/07: Several commenters correctly pointed out that this page wasn’t always viewable from certain key browsers. That was a known bug at the time we launched the page, and I’m happy to report that it was fixed last week.

Addressing Firefox Retention on the Download Page

Back to the fuzz

Rocking Your Firefox Just a Little Bit More

By on August 6, 2007 in Design, firefox

You’ve very likely already read about Rock Your Firefox, the cool new Facebook app that enhances the Firefox Add-ons experience. What you haven’t read about until now is the previously secret Sesame Street connection.

As we were branding the program, Justin Scott wanted an eye-catching design that would make Rock Your Firefox stand out from all the other Facebook apps out there. We hit upon the idea of using a loud 70s graphic style to get our point across. I then contacted Lee Tom, a designer who did an excellent job of translating all my random thoughts and pop culture references into this:
Rocking Your Firefox Just a Little Bit More

One of the pop culture references I gave Lee as direction was this extremely groovy vintage Sesame Street clip. I’m probably dating myself here, but it was one of my favorite things as a kid and I was very happy to find it on YouTube several weeks ago (completely unrelated to this project). You’ll see the influence on Rock Your Firefox as you watch:

So that’s the story behind the story. And if you’re into this design, I should mention that Rock Your Firefox desktop wallpaper is available in several sizes here.

Back to the fuzz

Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes