09-13-2024 11:09 AM
Hellllooo Mozilla Connect!
We want to thank those folks (2,852 of you!) who participated in the Firefox User Research survey on feature priorities we posted here last month.
If you recall, this survey showed participants multiple sets of 3 random browser features, then had participants pick whether they “most” or “least” wanted a feature from each set of 3. So, this created a scenario in which each participant had to prioritize one browser feature over two other, perhaps equally likable features.
We wanted to share back with this community the top 10 highest ranked features from the survey. In the table below, we’ve organized the results by the percentage of respondents who were presented with a feature and clicked the option for “want most,” from highest to lowest. “Want least” is the percentage of participants who actively clicked the “want least” option when randomly presented with a feature. “Unselected” is the percentage of participants who didn’t select the feature as most or least wanted.
Feature Description | Nickname | Rank | Want most | Want least | Unselected |
Ability to customize your privacy, permissions, accessibility, and display settings on a site-by-site basis |
customsettings |
1 |
57.80% |
10.00% |
32.20% |
See and understand what sites, trackers, scripts that the browser is blocking |
viewtrackers |
2 |
51.20% |
12.90% |
35.90% |
Customize the visual look and feel of the browser (e.g., customize buttons and keyboard shortcuts) |
customgui |
3 |
46.40% |
18.70% |
35.00% |
Option to optimize browser performance (such as speed) for both low- and high-end devices |
optimalperf |
4 |
45.70% |
16.70% |
37.60% |
Option to allow browser extensions to run only on specific websites |
siteextensions |
5 |
43.50% |
18.20% |
38.30% |
Easily switch to dark mode for all websites directly in the browser |
darkmode |
6 |
42.80% |
23.80% |
33.40% |
Sync all your personalized settings, site permissions, and toolbar customizations between devices |
devicesync |
7 |
42.70% |
20.70% |
36.60% |
Visual multitasker: View and use multiple tabs side by side |
splitview |
8 |
42.40% |
21.90% |
35.80% |
Switch between profiles to organize work/personal tasks or swap users on shared devices |
profiletog |
9 |
41.10% |
23.80% |
35.10% |
Reader mode: View websites in a clutter-free, easy-to-read format |
readerview |
10 |
38.80% |
21.50% |
39.80% |
And here’s a simple graph of the results based on the above table:
Notice that some of these top 10 features were first brought to the attention of our product team by members of this community (recap here), and now we can now see how participants rank features relative to each other.
Feel free to read through the results and comment!
Please note: Results from this survey are only one piece of evidence our product team considers when making judgments about feature prioritization. So if a feature you really love is not in the top 10, that doesn’t mean our internal teams won’t ultimately prioritize it.
We also realize the limitations of this study, including methodological limitations (e.g., not all users we’re interested in hearing from participated, we didn’t separate questions by mobile vs. desktop browsers, etc.). Again, our internal teams recognize this single survey isn’t the deciding factor, but one piece of information.
All that being said, I can confidently say these results are being looked over by our product folks with great interest! (They love hearing from this group! 🙌)
So thank y’all again for participating and for the excellent feedback you gave in our prior discussion. Take care,
Chance
09-13-2024 06:10 PM
Speaking of features people do or don't want, it would be nice to see a response to the massive outcry against the inclusion of AI features currently going on in this thread. Alongside all of the shorter, pithier responses, many people have brought a lot of insight and a lot of sources to the table. I hope this isn't going ignored.
09-14-2024 11:06 PM
Ugh! This thread is attacked by a spam-guy
09-15-2024 09:02 PM
i could be misunderstanding but from what i could tell when i enabled the experiment - including adding a custom 'provider' since they didnt include microsoft - if you dont use it, you dont need to worry about it. its basically just another browser tab/window with the website of the AI open in it.
if you dont use it, it isnt going to change how the browser functions for you. honestly from what i can tell, theres *no* AI that actually changes how any browser or device functions except some not-for-the-average-user configs that require a lot of extra tinkering and still dont really do quite what theyre advertised to do.
dont get me wrong the AI stuff is definitely something, but it is blown way out of proportion by both its supporters and critics. its basically a fancy search engine. im sure at some point it will get better and actually be able to interact with a persons device, but at that point its still the same situation - just dont use it.
i mean firefox built the facebook containers extension and includes it in the default configs... i think we're good to go 👍
if youre more concerned about the ethics of AI and less about the privacy/security aspect, thats a slightly different discussion, but irregardless... thats my .02
09-16-2024 10:20 PM
i just stumbled onto this Pocket Collection from Mozilla/Pocket themselves thats all about AI, and thought it was worth sharing. havent read through it all but on the surface it looks decent and unbiased - addressing both the good and bad parts of AI
anyway:
https://getpocket.com/collections/mozilla-innovation-ai-hub
Human-curated news about our shifting AI landscape, brought to you by Mozilla.
i wouldve edited this in andor made the formatting better but this isnt reddit and idk how the formatting works here, ill figure it out later, probably
09-14-2024 06:32 AM
Does the 3rd point customgui also include choosing the elements and subelements of the GUI? E.g. there are a lot of items in the menu and context menus I never use that just take up space and slow down usability. On the contrary, adding some items to the context menus would make Firefox more efficient for me.
09-15-2024 01:04 PM
Ah good question, @Mutzu. I'll pass it along to our product team along with your feedback. Thank you!
09-15-2024 06:18 AM - edited 09-15-2024 06:19 AM
"Twice as fast as your current browser" is surprisingly not as popular as I thought it would
09-16-2024 05:28 AM
Firefox is fast enough for me.
09-15-2024 08:25 AM
I found the survey really strange.
Most of these things are already existing, but not strong enough.
Firefoxes main issues are
- lacks behind on performance
- no PWAs on Desktop
- no good sandboxing on Android
- no good sandboxing as Flatpak
- missing Adblocking and granular content blocking like NoScript, UBlock
Many of the other things are already there, or simply not as relevant as the other things.
09-15-2024 03:52 PM
My thoughts:
Feature Description | Nickname | Rank | Comment |
Ability to customize your privacy, permissions, accessibility, and display settings on a site-by-site basis | customsettings | 1 | The Permissions panel of the Page Info dialog is difficult to discover and could be integrated with the ETF panel. |
See and understand what sites, trackers, scripts that the browser is blocking | viewtrackers | 2 | This sounds like an existing feature of the ETF panel. |
Customize the visual look and feel of the browser (e.g., customize buttons and keyboard shortcuts) | customgui | 3 | YES, PLEASE |
Option to optimize browser performance (such as speed) for both low- and high-end devices | optimalperf | 4 | - |
Option to allow browser extensions to run only on specific websites | siteextensions | 5 | YES, PLEASE (we have some for Manifest v3 extensions but need it for Manifest v2 extensions) |
Easily switch to dark mode for all websites directly in the browser | darkmode | 6 | - |
Sync all your personalized settings, site permissions, and toolbar customizations between devices | devicesync | 7 | - |
Visual multitasker: View and use multiple tabs side by side | splitview | 8 | YES, PLEASE |
Switch between profiles to organize work/personal tasks or swap users on shared devices | profiletog | 9 | YES, PLEASE (the about:profiles UI is difficult to discover and use compared with other browsers) |
Reader mode: View websites in a clutter-free, easy-to-read format | readerview | 10 | This feature currently only works on certain page structures, so expanding it would be great |
09-16-2024 03:58 AM
Just adding my support for the customisable UI. On Firefox's download page it says "Make Firefox your own" and it would be nice to be able to do it without resorting to custom CSS.
Firefox, like other browsers, has things I don't use and some that are annoying BUT, unlike the competition, they can be switched off. That is the main reason I use it. Hopefully this will apply to the things in the pipeline like AI and Vertical Tabs.
09-17-2024 06:21 AM
Thanks for sharing the results! Yes to making it easier to customize things, especially things like keyboard shortcuts.
09-18-2024 03:58 AM
Here is another interesting poll conducted independently on Mastodon, with over 2,400 respondents. The most wanted feature was
Will this user feedback be taken into account?
09-18-2024 02:46 PM
Hello, @chance! Is there any chance to see Split View this year? 😃
09-19-2024 02:05 AM
Thank you for sharing the survey results! It’s really interesting to see how different features are prioritized by the community. This kind of insight helps shape a browser experience that reflects what users truly want. Kudos to the team for gathering and sharing this valuable feedback! Looking forward to seeing which of these top-ranked features get implemented next!
09-24-2024 10:26 AM
Cool to see the results. Hope we can help participate in more of these!
10-02-2024 01:08 PM
Too bad, I didn't have time to participate.
10-07-2024 08:31 AM
Sorry you missed it! We'll be doing more stuff like this with our User Research team, so there should be more opportunities to participate moving forward.