Firefox/Onboarding
Mozilla's mission is to promote openness, innovation & opportunity on the Web. One way we fulfill that mission is to make products like Firefox, designed to put you in control of your online life. But how do people learn about Firefox? We're not preinstalled anywhere. If someone tries Firefox, how do we do more than just display pages? How do we become the user’s agent on the web and fulfill our promise to put them in control?
And how do we do this not just the first time someone opens Firefox but ongoingly?
Firefox is a powerful tool but designed to be simple to use right out of the box. As a person's use of the web changes and grows over time, how do we help them level up?
How do we make people awesome?
Onboarding. From the moment someone first becomes aware of Firefox until we’ve fulfilled our promise to put them in control of their online life, we’re onboarding them. For a long time our onboarding flow has been a "default" experience—the result of many small decisions instead of a comprehensive plan. A large part of that is a result of how we’ve been organized internally—generally by touchpoint or feature. If you look at onboarding from the user’s point of view, you’ll see the work of many individual teams with their own agendas and goals (e.g., Firefox, Creative, Mozilla.org, Growth, Accounts, Legal, Marketing, PR, Hello, Privacy, Snippets, etc.).
To address this, we’re looking at onboarding as a product. And we’ll be working together as a cross-functional team to build a new onboarding experience in a holistic and systematic way designed with one goal: Make people awesome.
The Plan
This is the plan - it’s an invision document which you can comment on.
The plan has three main parts.
Gestation: The goal: Clearly explain what makes Firefox different and why people should choose it. People are exposed to Firefox in numerous ways over a period of time. All of this information forms an impression and people use that to decide whether or not to download Firefox.
First Run: The goal: Quickly get Firefox installed and set up. Get out of the way as fast as possible and make it easy for people to open Firefox a second time. This is where we lose most people.
First Month: The goal: Get people using features that they find valuable: multi-device accounts, Firefox only features and customization (including add-ons and themes).
Here’s a simplified version. Initially, we'll focus here because it will have a large impact and other work is dependent on it.
Download Page
On the download page need to make the case for why you should choose Firefox. Our non-profit status is a key part of that message - it’s the proof point that underlies everything. The download page reflects and reinforce the messaging in the user’s path. It explains why you should choose Firefox and allows you to download. It doesn’t have anything else that distracts from that task.
Once you click download, let’s show the reasons for choosing Firefox if the user hasn’t already scrolled down. We can also remind the user to open the setup file (browser specific).
Stub Installer
The stub installer doesn’t have anything to distract you from the task of installing. You’ve already confirmed multiple times that you want to install Firefox so no need to make you confirm again.
Account Sign In
The account sign in form is mainly designed for existing users. It allows them to quickly set up a new device and not have to see new user content. For new users, this serves as an introduction to the idea of an account (they can still create one here if they wish to).
First Run Page
New users see the first onboarding page which is focused on making it easy to open Firefox a second time. Additional pages will be displayed over a number of days and weeks.
New Tab Page
Browsing starts on the new tab page (which replaces the home page). New users see tiles and snippetes tailored specifically to them.
"Later Run" Page
Over the course of the first month we’ll trigger[1] additional onboarding pages for new users.
- Get Firefox everywhere - download on mobile and connect with an account.
- Tracking Protection - Firefox only feature
- Feature recommendations - add-ons, themes, customizations
[1]We can open additional onboarding pages programmatically or in response to user interacting with a tile, snippet or email.
Returning Users
The goal: Give people who have uninstalled Firefox or haven’t used it in a long time, a “like new” experience.
- If there is no existing Firefox installation, we’ll refresh the profile to fix hijacking and performance problems. Their bookmarks, history and passwords will be saved and we’ll treat them as if they are a brand new user.
- If there is an existing Firefox installation and it hasn’t been opened in more than 60 days and Firefox is not the default browser, we’ll refresh the profile to fix hijacking and performance problems. Their bookmarks, history and passwords will be saved and we’ll treat them as if they’ve just performed a major update.
Timeline and Milestones
Key Links & Assets
- Onboarding summit notes
Communications
- Google group: fx-onboarding.
- irc: #onboarding
- Adhoc meetings to get started - kickoff scheduled for Wed Nov 18th.
Roles and Responsibilities
| Team/Role | Contact |
|---|---|
| Product Owner | Michaeal Verdi |
| Firefox Growth | Chris More, Alex Davis |
| Firefox Marketing | Winston Bowden |
| Creative | Tim Murray, Holly Habstritt Gaal |
| Mobile UX | Darrin Henein |
| Engagement | Jennifer Bertsch |