Release Channel Redesign

We're Getting Bigger and Better
Over the past 6 months our humble product website has grown significantly due to the launch of four new core products: our Beta and Aurora release channels which come in both desktop and mobile flavors. 

That's 4 more products!

These channels are vitally important; we rely on the bugs reported by users on these front lines to make Firefox better. In return these users get a special build of Firefox where they can enjoy the coolest new features first.

To make sure we created a nice new home for them within mozilla.org/firefox - our main consumer facing website - we've done a ton of work: phase one consisted launching a main channels landing below (picture below) - really - just getting the basics live:

Phase two - just completed - launched the second phase of the channel project meant to provide more of a brand identity. 

We want to make sure we're clearly communicating the difference between the Beta and Aurora builds (screenshot below) while enabling the same download ease we see with our GA browser ("general availability").

The Results

• Better Discoverability: After conducting using testing via www.usertesting.com to measure the before and after we learned that users are better able to find these new products, especially from natural search. 
• We saw through user testing that people now have a clear sense of the differences between the different builds. This was severely lacking before and clarity around this was one of our main goals.
• More robust experience: We went from having one main channel landing page to adding an entirely new section on our site consisting of four distinct landing pages and a redesigned landing page

Next Steps

• We still have a long ways to go adjusting the usability on the /channels page - see Bug 725808 for the gory details!
• User testing made it painfully clear that the post download experience is less than ideal: we don't do a good job communicating to these VIP users how they can provide feedback, or what features are ready to be tested. That will be tackled during Q2. 

What do you think? Are there any more improvements you'd like to see on our site? If so, leave comment away!




  

Mozilla Website SOPA/PIPA Efforts

This morning my alarm went off at 4:30am so I could hop online to help launch Mozilla's anti-SOPA efforts. 

Although the scenarios are of different degrees of significance, I couldn't help but think of a story I once heard about how Steven Garrity, a long-time contributor, launched the original Firefox download page live for the first time early one morning from bed over 8 years ago. 

Once I finally made it into work it was a delight to see our main SOPA landing page on the cover of the New York Times amongst our peers at Wikipedia, Reddit, and more. 

There are many other bits and pieces to our SOPA campaign, but here is a overview of what we did on our main web facing properties. 

Site Blackout

We blacked out our main download landing pages by having them redirect to the SOPA landing page below (www.mozilla.org/sopa). 

That means that everyone wanting to download Firefox today or anyone who came to our main website through the normal front doors saw this page instead. Those numbers are well into the multi-million. We make the "deep" content available since we want people to be able to get support, and upgrade their browser for security reasons.

A few details:

- We launched using redirects that would not harm our SEO efforts by following guidelines from posts like this people put together exactly for this reason. 

-We also chose to keep a way for visitors to download Firefox - you can see it at the bottom of the screenshot above. This was a bit tricky since we didn't want to come across as "commercial" or trying to take advantage of this event to get more downloads but as Alex Fowler so aptly stated we give visitors the download option in order to: "...continue to support our mission, ensure users have access to support, as well as the ability to find and update to safer and securer versions of Firefox." 

Start Page Blackout

Even more significantly we dramatically changed the look and feel of our default "Start" page, meaning, the page you see when you type "about:home" into your browser. 

We made it black. We added relevant info.  We put a censorship slash through the fox. Everyone on the English build of the browser should see this page today if this is their default homepage. Those numbers are in the tens of millions. 

This launch with very Mozilla-esque  - willing participants huddling together in chaos trying to throw something together to make a difference for the future of the web. 

For example: here's the main etherpad we used to draft out our actions.  Nothing short of mayhem!

We'll see what results from these efforts as the day unfolds. 

In the mean-time it's been a very exciting day.

Different By Design

Firefox is a different type of browser. Mozilla is a different type of company. You can see that from our founding story, the way we work, our priorities, our non-profit status and more.

When it comes to marketing at Mozilla - which, hey remember how we're different? -  we call "Engagement" not "Marketing," we think long and hard about how to communicate this difference. 

After all, living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to spread the word about a product and our story is nothing but authentic.

These factors led to the launch of our recent brand campaign. Checkout this smattering of creative and notice its boldness, authenticity, and ability to set us apart from the crowd:

The Web Launch

When it comes to our main user-facing channel -- our website (one of the most viewed sites in the world) here's the creative we launched to get this message across:

And some localized versions... (finals are not this neon of a orange)

The "before" shot (Notice how we hint at, but don't really show our difference):

 
Here's What Happened

With the help of a simple survey we were able to measure the affect this new creative had on overall brand awareness. The shift was significant -- now the majority of all new Firefox users know Firefox is made by a non-profit. 

Before we launched this campaign the opposite was true. We crossed well over the 50% threshold and increased awareness over 20% all without hurting download conversion rate.

Next Steps & Bottom Line

We will continue to do more of this and will roll-out this campaign worldwide. And for now, we know we're on the right track and that aligning our outer 'presentation-layer' with our inner values helps us communicate what matters most to us in a way that resonates with our users.

Mozilla IRC In Haiku Form

Mozilla IRC channels become a desolate place during the holidays; much like the deserted school hallways during winter break. Since I'm working remotely this week I poked around my usual channels to see what folks were up to and came across some interesting exchanges that struck me as worth recording in haiku form.

In their own ways these give a little taste of the ridiculousness, the challenges, the fun, the poetry that can be made of the everyday exchanges within the annals of Mozilla IRC.

Enjoy.

I have been thinking

i have been thinking
of contributing but i've
no clue where to start
   - #WebDev

about:memory

900 tabs! what's
about:memory look like
with that many tabs?
-#FX-Team

" ÷ <--- "

Bumped keyboard ends up
Making a division sign
It was Fligtar. heh.
-#AMO

New Year's Plans

have plans for new years?
Sadly not. I'll probably
be doing homework...
-#Spinzone

Stephen Donner

at the brainstorming
stage right now, but would love to
make this thing happen.
-#QA

I hope you enjoyed. Bonus: submit your own Haiku in the comments! 5-7-5 is all you need to know.

PS: There's a special haiku hiding-out in the stub-installer project we're working on scribed by the amazing, "Happiest Man Alive", Matej Novak, who I hope doesn't mind me posting it here:

Proudly non-profit
Free to innovate for you
And a better Web

 Happy New Year!

Droid Vs. FoxDroid Death Match

The snippet channel allows the Engagement department to rapidly test concepts and questions that arise. 

One such question was what sort of graphic we should be using to represent our Android Mobile product. Hypothesis: the existing brand equity of the Droid logo may do a better job attracting and converting qualified visitors than the generic mobile phone we've been using.

Here's a short recap of what we found - perhaps there are other community sites or companies out there that can apply these learnings as well:

Result:
The pure Droid graphic was the most successful at driving people to the Android store. It worked a full % point over the generic phone graphic, and .3 points above the FoxDroid graphic.

Learnings:

• Clearly signaling platform from the graphic increases amount of qualified traffic at basically no harm to clicks
• Cute FoxDroid received slightly more interest (2.5% more clicks), but slightly less qualified interest; cuteness = clicks and interest, but not always highest quality clicks
• People are probably tired of the original mobile graphic - let's change that up
  

Test: Ran three different graphics below through the snippet channel and measured both clicks and conversion. In this case the "conversion event" was a click the the "Get Firefox for Android" button on /mobile.

Conversion Rates:
Android - 2.3%
FoxDroid - 2.0%
Default Phone - 1.3%

I was a tad surprised since I though the customized FoxDroid would resonate with users the most. Are you surprised? Why or why not?

Functionally Infused Snippet Goodness

 

If you're an Aurora users there's a good chance that  you'll open Firefox and be greeted with a Fox scampering across your homepage. We've recently put the Demo Gallery's "Runfield" game into a snippet (the small area under the search box), so Aurora users can enjoy the latest and greatest HTML5 goodness.

Have a look at what people have been saying!

Why We Implemented This Functionality
Implementing Runfield into the snippet space represents much more than the opportunity for Aurora users to play a game. This is the first time we've ever offered functionality through a snippet and marks the launch and first phase of a bigger project.

Stop Telling, Start Showing
The billions of monthly impressions this page receives offers a huge opportunity to use snippet to start showing, and stop simply telling, users what Firefox can do with the modern web.

There's More on the Way...
We're currently testing a functional Persona snippet that allows you to "try on" and then apply 3 of our most popular personas without having to leave the start page. We're also thinking about a restart-less add-on snippet, and have many more fun ideas in the works.

For Love & Data
The metrics team has done great work, showing how the more Firefox users who personalize their browsing experience with Personas and Add-ons the greater the chance they'll fall further in love with Firefox.

Moreover, their entire browsing experience will become more enriched and fulfilled due to the personal bond setting up your browser to feel just right provides.

It's Your Web
As the Mozilla Manifesto states, Mozilla believes the individual should have the "ability to shape their own experiences on the Internet." and this is a direct pipeline to do so.

Enjoy!

Have a idea for a start page snippet? Leave it in the comments below.

How to Increase Onsite Newsletter Signup Conversion

You've heard it before, small optimizations can have huge impacts that increase conversion numbers. It's true! What follows is the story of one such optimization that my team at Mozilla recently released that increased our daily newsletter signup rate by 25%. 

We Want to Date You
One question always on our minds is how to form lasting relationships with our website visitors. I'm sure many of you have the same question and fear people visiting your website once and moving onto the next sexy thing, never to come back again.

Dumped.

It's a busy inter-webs out there! It happens all the time!

We've recently launched a fantastic email program that allows a deeper connection between Mozilla and our users to be formed. Our web team has worked closely with Winston Bowden (@winstonbowden), our email program lead extraordinaire, to make sure site visitors have a chance to signup for our newly launched monthly newsletter. (sign up here)
 

Launchin' and Learnin'
When the first iteration of newsletter signup form launched it went like this: user clicks signup option in footer and gets linked to a landing page where they can fully register. Can you spot the inefficiency?

 

Above: "Get Monthly News" links to this main Newsletter signup page:

We decided to make this process easier by allowing inline signups. Stripping down the signup form and embedding only the bare-minimum fields within the site footer accomplishes this. It also helps the user experience in two ways: whittles down the signup process, and allows the site visitor to remain on the same page.

Here's what it looks like now:

 

Above: Email signup field is open by default within the footer of every page. Clicking the small tabbed button reveals the other data fields needed for complete signup, as seen below:

Hot or Not?
This slightly more advanced technical implementation did take some time out of our normal release cycle. But was it worth it? Sure was... 

This small change increased the daily signup rate by 25%, or 1,000 incremental new subscribers every day. This will result in an additional 365,000 email subscribers a year!

The Bottom Line
Although next time we launch similar site functionality it should contain the most streamlined user flow from day one, it's never-the-less interesting to see just how big of an effect a small change like this can have.

Do you see other ways we can improve the user experience on Mozilla.com? I'm sure you can. I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

Blogging 'bout Mozilla - A Kickoff Post

Wow. Okay. Here I go faithful "Forrest through the trees" readers. Hold onto your heads - I'm finally going to start blogging about my experiences here as part of Team Mozilla!

After contributing to the Mozilla engagement team on a contractor basis I was recently hired as a member of the Engagement Team (that's what we call "Marketing").

I get to focus on how to make the Mozilla.com website even better by leading and contributing to projects that involve website optimization, brand awareness, SEO, onsite marketing, and a whooooole lot more. In general I aim to help Mozilla.com live up the the clear potential it has as one of the top destinations on the internet.

To say that I'm ecstatic about the opportunity and possibilities is an understatement.

Our team recently went through a whirlwind of a time helping launch Firefox 4 for desktop and mobile. Now that I'm back on my feet (unlike this guy) after those two incredible product releases it’s high time I share a little more about what’s ahead.

This quarter we're focusing on projects that will help us communicate the Mozilla story in a clear and consistent way. When it comes to Mozilla.com that means letting visitors know we're a non-profit, making sure the website is as cutting edge as our browser, and tracking how effectively we're sharing our story with the world.


I'll be updating you, dear reader, along the way so that you too can learn from our progress, stumbles, and (hopefully mostly) slam dunks.

Talk to you soon!
Laura
lforrest at mozilla.com

How to create a non-profit holiday donation solicitation that works

I'm an active volunteer for several non-profit organizations that fundraise, and like most of us, am otherwise bombarded by monthly solicitations from various alumni associations vying for some cash.

I just received a standout holiday direct mail piece from the Berkeley Student Cooperative that actually made me get out my checkbook. Here are the three things they did right:

1. Perfect Amount of Personalization: It's a cute well designed holiday card. All the co-op house names are on the front. There's not one but three hand-written notes from current members.

They didn't even use my name, or the house I lived in, but that doesn't matter - I'm still really impressed that three students spent the time to write little notes like "Much coop love." I can't even read two of the three messages but don't care since it's the thought that counts. One student drew a heart and colored it in with red crayon. These small touches make a big difference.

2. Seasonally Appropriate: It's a holiday card. It came at the perfect time of year; right before I've have spent all my disposable income on gifts and am beginning to feel holiday cheer, without the stress and holiday overload that will come in the next two weeks. They position their annual goals as "resolutions" instead of just "goals" or more dull "benchmarks" (more on that below).

3. Proved That My Money Will Go to Good Use: Here's where they knocked it out of the park. They could have left the left side of the card blank and gone on with their lives. Instead, they included two lists: "2010 Resolutions" with checked check boxes by each of the 5 goals, and then "2011 Resolutions" with unchecked boxes.

This tells me two things: they were able to accomplish a lot with their donations from this year, and they have a clear mission for next year. It's also cool to see that one of next year's resolutions is to raise money for a seismic retrofit of the house I lived in (see? more personalization).

Conclusion: The personalization of this card combined with their clear direction and transparent "resolutions" make for a great way to really get inside my head, and fill it only with positive thoughts and feelings about donating. Compare this to a generic form letter most other organizations send with a fake signature from the principle/president at the bottom and you can see why this card made me finally give.

A Good Thing: Andrew Warner Mixergy Interviews

For the past six months I've enjoyed the in-depth interviews Andrew Warner conducts on his site Mixergy. The quality and depth of insights he garners from these people in one hour is terrific. It's the intimate metrics driven conversation you've always wanted to have with that person.

Personally I end up learning a lot I can apply directly to my work in the start up world and sort of feel like I met these people myself.

Here's what I mean about detail: when interviewing the Wufoo guys, I don't just learn that they got a humongous traffic boost when they were covered on Techcrunch, Warner goes deeper and I learn that traffic channel "...converted to paying customers at .25%" which is abysmal, hence don't count on Techcrunch coverage to seed your user base. See that difference?

I also really appreciate how Warner always asks the truth about acquisition prices and how well an interviewee made out even if it makes for an awkward moment.

Here's an easy way to start:

My Favorites
Paul Graham: I'm pleasantly surprised by Paul's jovial manner. Learn about the inside workings of Y-Combinator.
AirBNB: It's a great story and I love their hustle.
Wufoo guys: Give great metrics
Seth Godin: Andrew and him have a great repi
The Why Guy: I almost skipped this one but it's now a favorite. Offers a straightforward way to figure out what to do with your life.

Who I'd like to See on Mixergy
Jessica Livingstone (Update - DONE!)
Tavi the 13-year old fashion blogger

Things I'd Improve
Warner is sometimes too preoccupied by the audio-visual so when there's a snag he gets too distracted and it takes away from the interview. Edit those parts out or be cooler when that stuff happens. When you're fazed it gets passed to your audience. Also sometimes Warner is shy when asking certain questions. There's no need to be. Own it, boy!

I could spend days on his site. He even interviews a porn star.

So check out Mixergy.com. I've found the easiest way is to subscribe to this podcast through iTunes.