First the good news: after three more sessions, I am less despondent
than I was
after Week Two.
I have taken my own advice from
Week One
and lowered expectations. After teaching for so many years and
developing a decent sense of my strengths and weaknesses in the
classroom, this move took me out of my usual groove. It was easy
to forget in the rush of the moment not to expect perfection, and
not being able to interact with students in the same way created
different emotions about the class sessions. Now that I have my
balance back, things feel a bit more normal.
Part of what changed things for me was watching the videos I made
of our class sessions. I quickly realized that these sessions are
no worse than my usual classes! It may be harder for students to
pay attention to the video screen for seventy-five minutes in the
same way they might pay attention in the classroom, but my actual
presentation isn't all that different. That was comforting, even
as I saw that the videos aren't perfect.
Another thing that comforted me: the problems with my Zoom sessions
are largely the same as the problems with my classroom sessions. I
can fall into the habit of talking too much and too long unless I
carefully design exercises and opportunities for students to take
charge. The reduced interaction channel magnifies this problem
slightly, but it doesn't create any new problems in principle. This,
too, was comforting.
For example, I notice that some in-class exercises work better than
others. I've always know this from my in-person course sessions,
but our limited interaction bandwidth really exposes problems that
are at the wrong level for where the students are at the moment
(for me, usually too difficult, though occasionally too easy). I
am also remembering the value of the right hint at the right moment
and the value of students interacting and sharing with one another.
Improving on these elements of my remote course should result in
corresponding improvements when we move back to campus.
I have noticed one new problem: I tend to lose track of time more
easily when working with the class in Zoom, which leads me to run
short on time at the end of the period. In the classroom, I glance
at a big analog clock on the wall at the back of the room and use
that to manage my time. My laptop has a digital clock in the corner,
but it doesn't seem to help me as much. I think this is a function
of two parameters: First, the clock on my computer is less obtrusive,
so I don't look at it as often. Second, it is a digital clock. I
feel the geometry of analog time viscerally in a way that I don't
with digital time. Maybe I'm just old, or maybe we all experience
analog clocks in a more physical way.
I do think that watching my lectures can help me improve my teaching.
After Week One, I wondered, "In what ways can going online, even for
only a month and a half, improve my course and materials?" How might
this experience make me a better teacher or lead to better online
materials? I have often heard advice that I should record my lectures
so that I could watch them with an experienced colleague, with an eye
to identifying strengths to build on and weaknesses to improve on.
Even without a colleague to help, this few weeks of recording gives me
a library of sessions I can use for self-diagnosis and improvement.
Maybe this experience will have a few positives to counterbalance its
obvious negatives.
Starting in version 75, Firefox can be configured to use client certificates provided by the operating system on Windows and macOS.
Background
When Firefox negotiates a secure connection with a website, the web server sends a certificate to the browser for verification. In some cases, such as corporate authentication systems, the server requests that the browser send a certificate back to it as well. This client certificate, combined with a signature from the private key corresponding to that certificate, allows the user to authenticate to the website.
These client certificates and private keys are often stored in hardware tokens or in storage provided by the operating system.
Using Firefox to access a client certificate stored on a hardware token typically involves loading a shared library written by either the vendor of the token or another third party into Firefox’s process. These third party libraries can cause stability issues with Firefox and are concerning from a security perspective. For instance, a vulnerability in one of these libraries can potentially put Firefox users at risk.
Alternatively, Firefox can use client certificates that have exportable keys if they are manually saved to a file and then imported into a Firefox profile. Though this storage mechanism can be protected by a password, this option increases the potential for a private key to be compromised. Additionally, this method does not work at all for unexportable keys.
A New Approach
To address these issues, we have developed a library that allows Firefox to interface with certificate storage provided by the operating system. Rather than loading third-party libraries to communicate with hardware tokens, Firefox can delegate this task to the operating system. Also, instead of forcing the user to export client certificates and re-import them into their Firefox profile, Firefox can look for these certificates directly. In addition to protecting private keys, this new mechanism allows Firefox to make use of client certificates with unexportable keys.
Because this library is entirely new, we took the opportunity to select an implementation language that would allow us to access the low-level operating system APIs we needed while enforcing strong safety properties. Rust was the obvious choice to fill those needs.
Availability
This library is shipping as part of Firefox Desktop on Windows and macOS, starting with version 75. To enable it, set the about:config preference “security.osclientcerts.autoload” to true.
We expect this feature to be of great benefit to our enterprise users who have previously gone to great lengths to configure Firefox to work in their environment.
In 1988 Keith Haring painted a mural on the White House lawn then donated it to the Children’s Hospital, National Medical Center, Washington, D.C. Photography by Tseng Kwong Chi. pic.twitter.com/klP1vCwF7D
Keep a growing collection of great contributions posted in your community.
If you see a good question, a great answer, insightful blog post or other great contribution tag it in Evernote (or just copy and paste the line into a doc).
Now drop these examples into your community journey.
In the newcomer guidelines or welcome message, show examples of great questions and what makes them great.
In your documentation for MVPs, highlight great responses posted in the community in the past and what made them great.
Examples like these really help members infer how long questions and answers should be, the level of detail they need to provide, whether to use bullet points, screenshots and video. They can also infer the right tone of voice to adopt.
p.s. This video might also help your member journeys.
In the past few weeks, the coverage of COVID-19 has reached a fever pitch - as it should in the interest of having an informed public in the face of a novel and terrible virus. But such coverage has been met every step of the way by destructive disinformation that is taking a virus with already deadly potential and turned it into a weapon against the global public.
Mix with ignorance and corruption for the perfect storm.
Wash your hands. It’s the advice that’s everywhere right now, and no wonder—along with social distancing, it’s one of the best ways to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But even in that simple dictate, there’s still room for questions: Bar or liquid? Antibacterial or not? Mass-produced or those marketed as “natural,” like the handmade ones you can find at a farmers market? After receiving several reader questions on the best kind of soap to kill the coronavirus, we talked to experts in chemistry and immunology to find out what does—and doesn’t—matter when you’re washing your hands.
That bar of soap you’re so rigorously scrubbing your hands with multiple times a day is one of the most ancient consumer products you use, with one caveat: A lot of modern soap isn’t soap at all.
Grief is a journey. And in parallel to that journey are the myriad practical acts of unbundling from another’s life, and of shutting down or attending to the practical tools they once used.
Figuring out what to do with Catherine’s mobile phone is this week’s task.
The phone itself, a Nokia 6.1, has a storied history: last September Catherine was rushed to hospital by ambulance, the result of dehydration and exhaustion. Here’s how I told the story of that day in the email newsletter that went out to friends and family:
I was away last week, and Catherine’s mother Marina, supported by generous friends, was here from Ontario to help out. Marina’s presence was a Godsend, and made my time away possible.
Her presence also allowed Catherine to be convinced today that it was again time to call in reinforcements, and with the help of her Palliative Home Care nurse, she was able to arrange to be admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital today for rehydration and recuperation.
This all happened to coincide with the time that I was due to drive Marina over to Moncton to catch the train home, and this was how it came to pass that our house cleaner, two paramedics, a home care worker, me, and Marina were all packed into our house today.
As Marina and I were readying to depart, Catherine was on a stretcher being loaded into an ambulance by the paramedics, and she neglected to notice that her cell phone was in her pocket: it fell out, crashed onto the sidewalk and, before anyone could notice, the stretcher ran over it. It did not survive.
Not a calamity, relatively speaking, but yet another thing to add to the pile.
Oliver and I did drive Marina across to the train, and we stopped at Staples in Moncton to pick up Catherine a new phone; it turned out that the Nokia 6.1, the phone that was run over by the stretcher and needed replacing, was on sale. So we simply bought a replacement, and delivered it to Catherine in hospital that night.
Catherine used this phone a lot. For Instagram. To send texts (for someone for whom reading and writing was a constant struggle, this wasn’t easy, but she plowed through). And as a phone.
Two things have prevented me from doing something with her phone over the last 90 days.
Three things, actually, if you count that it’s another act of closure.
First was her telephone number: all three of we 100 Prince Streeters ended up with telephone numbers ending in 9569. What to do with Catherine’s? Put it back into the pool for someone else? Keep it alive in case we need a third phone between the two of us? I solved, or at least delayed, this issue by downgrading the Public Mobile plan for the SIM to a basic $15/month plan. A small price to pay for renting a phone number for a while.
Second was the text messages on the phone. Despite that most of them were workaday “good morning!”, “how are you?”, “can you get eggs?” texts, or maybe especially because of that, the archivist in me didn’t want them to disappear into vapor when I repurposed the phone.
To solve this problem, I installed SMS Backup+ on the phone and configured it to backup Catherine’s text messages and call log, via IMAP, to her email account, which I’ve kept active, via IMAP.
It took all night to back the messages up–there were almost 9,000 of them–but now that’s done, when I login to Catherine’s Fastmail account I see two new folders, Call log and SMS. In the SMS folder is an archive of Catherine’s texts back to December 10, 2018:
It’s a small thing, an archive only of interest to me. And perhaps never to be consulted after today.
I cannot teach you to write. No one can. I cannot teach you to sing. I cannot teach you to pause in the moment before dusk and appreciate the sunset. I cannot teach you to love and be kind to your fellow human beings. I cannot teach you to step into your forehand and follow … Continued
Just published our preprint, “Association of BCG vaccination policy with prevalence and mortality of COVID-19”. We critically evaluated the hypothesis that BCG vaccination has protective effect against #COVID19, and our analyses support the idea (so far).https://t.co/3XRZWBZrPj
There are many reasons that the numbers have been low so far but why aren’t there more people ill and more people dying? A 100-year-old vaccine may be part of that answer.
The editors of Price Tags have been discussing why open streets for walkers, rollers and cyclists are not being considered off Vancouver’s downtown peninsula. The Province’s Medical Health Officer recommends exercising by yourself or in your existing small family groups respecting the needed two meter distance.
London England’s Transport for London (TFL) has already been thinking about opening streets for pedestrians and cyclists to maintain the needed physical distancing space on roads.
Gwyn Topham in The Guardian notes that TFL wants to improve street safety for sidewalk users and cyclists, and keep people active. TFL controls what are called “red routes” in London, the major roads in the city. Just as in the rest of Great Britain, (and in Canada too) vehicular traffic has evaporated, and the 20th century rule of giving sidewalk users a miniscule portion of the road allowance is at odds with the required two meter personal distancing.
Instead of looking at political reasons why not to do the right thing, TFL is making changes to allow pedestrians and cyclists longer green in road crossings, and working across the varied boroughs to provide a unified approach to opening streets.
Imagine if Vancouver had a walking and cycling commissioner. London has Will Norman who has examined what other global cities are doing and is “ looking at the busiest parts of our road network to see where we can give people walking more space.”
In New Zealand and Columbia cities have widened sidewalks and roped off parts of vehicular streets for cyclists and runners. London is hoping to create “filtered” streets where access will be for walkers and cyclists and emergency vehicles only.
In Manchester England there have been plans for a pedestrianized street network in the northern part of the city. Residents have just gone ahead and cordoned off sections of streets to give pedestrians and cyclists needed space.
We’ve seen this kind of activity in Vancouver where street closures are set up using hockey nets and barbeques set up across streets. And surprisingly, the community’s initiative without Manchester council approval is condoned by the area’s cycling and walking commissioner:
“Creating safe space for people to make essential journeys without a car or take exercise is essential if we are to be able to sustain isolation, so seeing streets cordoned off is really important. It’s particularly heartening to see these measures being implemented by the people who live there, telling us this is how they want their street to be.”
The app situation on Google’s Chrome OS has been a target for criticism for years. While it’s getting better, a new change to the Play Store could bring significant improvements for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs).
For a long time, users who wanted to install something on their Chromebook had a few options. You could install Chrome apps (which are on their way out), use PWAs or download Android apps from the Google Play Store. For the more adventurous Chrome OS users, you can also run Linux apps.
In many ways, PWAs are the best options when it comes to apps. They are built on existing webpages and many companies offer them. Downloading a PWA essentially lets you run the website locally and without the need for an internet connection, depending on what you’re doing of course.
One of the major barriers to PWAs is installing them. However, Chrome Unboxed spotted a change to the Play Store that lets it install PWAs automatically. At the moment, only the YouTube TV app — which isn’t available in Canada — and Twitter offer PWAs through the Play Store on Chrome OS. Thankfully, the feature is completely automatic.
When you look up Twitter on the Play Store with your Chromebook, everything looks as it normally would. However, when users click ‘Install,’ Google Play detects that they’re using Chrome OS and automatically installs the PWA version instead. Chrome OS’ apps platform manager, Dominick Ng, took to Twitter to share that getting PWA installations to work on the Play Store was some of the most “challenging and satisfying” work he’s done.
It is so gratifying to see a) our strategy so clearly understood, and b) some of the most challenging and satisfying engineering work I've ever done make it out to the world. https://t.co/PMPcbsiQB7
Further, there’s no option to download the Android app. While some may find the lack of choice frustrating, in most cases the PWA will be a better experience on Chrome OS than the Android app. Since PWAs are essentially just websites, they’re already designed with keyboard and mouse support in mind, which helps with Chromebooks. Android apps, on the other hand, are designed for touch input.
Plus, the whole process makes downloading PWAs much simpler for the average user who may not know about them or the benefits of using them.
Google says that it is temporarily lowering Nest camera quality to conserve internet resources amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tech giant told TechCrunch that it’s making the change since most people are staying at home in self-isolation and spending more time online. Nest camera owners can expect to see the change in the next few days, and should receive a notification once it happens.
“To answer the global call to prioritize internet bandwidth for learning and working, in the next few days Nest will be making changes to lighten internet usage and keep people connected,” Google wrote in a post on the Nest community website.
It’s important to note that users who still want to have the clearest footage can adjust the settings back to a higher quality.
Google is not the only tech giant to reduce its quality amid the pandemic, during which there has been heightened demand for bandwidth. To name a few, YouTube and Netflix announced last month that they would limit their video quality globally.
Disney has confirmed that it will release new original content on Disney+ on Monday, May 4th in celebration of Star Wars Day.
The first of these originals will be Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, an eight-part docuseries on the making of Disney+’s The Mandalorian, the first-ever live-action Star Wars series. The series quickly became popular due to its western-inspired story about a bounty hunter protecting a child affectionately referred to by the internet as ‘Baby Yoda.’
Through Disney Gallery, series creator Jon Favreau and the cast and crew will explore various elements of The Mandalorian, including the production process, the technology, practical effects and the legacy of Star Wars creator George Lucas.
While the first episode of Disney Gallery is premiering on a Monday, subsequent episodes will begin streaming every Friday. The second season of The Mandalorian, meanwhile, is slated to premiere on Disney+ in October.
Alongside Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, Disney will also release the series finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on May 4th. The beloved animated Star Wars series was brought back for a seventh and final season on Disney+ in February and Star Wars Day will see it come to its highly anticipated finale.
The series follows Anakin Skywalker, his former apprentice Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi and their Republic allies in their final battles against the Separatists. The final episodes will see the return of Darth Maul and explore the events leading up to Revenge of the Sith.
The 1918 flu, also known as the Spanish Flu, lasted until 1920 and is considered the deadliest pandemic in modern history. Today, as the world grinds to a halt in response to the coronavirus, scientists and historians are studying the 1918 outbreak for clues to the most effective way to stop a global pandemic. The efforts implemented then to stem the flu’s spread in cities across America—and the outcomes—may offer lessons for battling today’s crisis.
Today Apple announced the successor to 2016’s iPhone SE, a new model that retains the same name and goal of being the budget option for customers. The new iPhone SE will be available for pre-order this Friday, April 17, it ships one week later on April 24, and starts at $399, the same price the original SE had when it launched. Unlike that original model, though, the new SE carries an altogether different form factor. While the original SE was based on the iPhone 5’s 4-inch design, the new SE resembles the iPhone 6/7/8’s 4.7-inch design. This makes it notably larger than the previous iPhone SE, but still smaller than any of the flagship iPhone 11 line.
The 2020 iPhone SE, like its predecessor, contains modern specs but in a classic iPhone body. It has the same A13 Bionic processor found in the more costly iPhone 11 and 11 Pro models, but cuts costs in other ways such as by offering Touch ID rather than Face ID authentication, and a single 12MP rear-facing camera rather than the dual- or triple-lens arrays on Apple’s flagship models. The presence of Touch ID in particular makes the device an attractive option not only for users on a tighter budget, but also those who really don’t want to lose the Home button the next time they upgrade devices.
The Home button is back on a modern phone.
The single-lens camera on the iPhone SE appears very similar to the iPhone 11’s wide angle lens. It’s a 12MP camera with ƒ/1.8 aperture, and offers Portrait mode via that single lens. Notably absent from the device’s camera tech specs is any mention of Night mode, so that feature presumably remains exclusive to the 11 lineup. Smart HDR, however, which debuted on the iPhone XS in 2018, is available with this camera. On the video side, the iPhone SE can capture at 4K up to 60fps, an impressive feat for a low-cost device.
Besides the larger display, better camera, and the iPhone 11’s A13 Bionic processor, the iPhone SE carries several other modernizations over the previous SE model. Wireless charging is supported, like on the iPhone 8 before it. The device carries an IP67 rating for water resistance, so you can be a little less worried about it getting wet. Also, the Retina HD display offers True Tone for adjusting white levels automatically based on your surroundings.
As far as changes that may be a negative to some, but aren’t really surprising, the new SE model doesn’t offer a headphone jack. Instead, there’s a pair of Lightning-equipped EarPods included in the box. Also, for touch feedback interactions, the iPhone SE uses Haptic Touch like modern iPhones rather than including 3D Touch. Though 3D Touch wasn’t a feature of the original SE, it was a part of the iPhone 8, so some may have hoped to see it included here.
Black front, white back.
Finally of note, the iPhone SE’s battery provides up to 13 hours of video playback per charge, and is fast-charge capable so you can charge up to 50% in 30 minutes if you use an 18W adapter or higher. Unfortunately, the device doesn’t include an 18W adapter in the box but rather the standard 5W adapter found in most prior iPhones.
The iPhone SE will be available with 64, 128, or 256 GB of storage for $399, $449, or $549 respectively. It comes in three colors: White, Black, and (PRODUCT)RED. It’s worth noting that all three colors include a black front finish, marking the first time an iPhone with classic bezels is available with a white back and black front.
Just like the original iPhone SE, this 2020 model succeeds at taking some of the best qualities of modern iPhones and putting them in a budget-friendly package. The inclusion of Touch ID for those leery of a Home button-free iPhone, as well as the smaller 4.7-inch display, makes this an appealing prospect not just for the budget-conscious, but also those who prefer their next iPhone be as much like their current one as possible.
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Samsung Galaxy smartphones that are running the latest version of Android 10 lack Android’s Daydream feature. Reportedly, this update happened this past February and no one noticed, except for those on Samsung’s official forums, Reddit and XDA’s forums.
Samsung might have decided to get rid of the feature because the Daydream View product line is no longer active.
This functionality reportedly still works on Pixel devices running Android 10, so it must have been a decision made by Samsung. Further, Android Authority looked into Samsung’s version of Android 10, and it’s simply missing a flag that can be fixed to make Daydream work again.
Have you noticed the lack of Daydream functionality on your Samsung device? Let us know in the comments below.
Gasta in this case is basically Pecha Kucha, but with an Irish flavour. This online version wasn't exactly 'global', with presentations mostly from the British Isles, Canada, the U.S., and Maha Bali from Egypt. Though the presentations were brisk, the introductions weren't, and so the overall effect is mixed. The best bit was Sheila MacNeill suggesting that exams and proctoring present an attitude of distrust rather than care. Maha Bali also covered care, citing several times from bell hooks. Martin Weller talked about the fragility of the current system and the need for resiliance, and Tony Bates made some predictions. Here's the Twitter stream associated with the event. Here's the video on YouTube.
As many people start to work from home these days, they’re finding that their 13-inch laptop screens don’t always cut it. One option: You probably have a TV that’s several times larger than your computer display. Although a TV is not a perfect monitor replacement, it can work great as a large screen for holding Zoom meetings, watching videos from your laptop, or giving a presentation to the kids during their homeschooling time. Here are three easy ways to turn your TV into a monitor that might not even require any extra equipment.
Zoom has added a few security features to its platform following significant worldwide backlash for its flawed privacy practices.
Admins can now configure minimum password meeting requirements to adjust the minimum length and require letters, numbers and special characters, or allow only numeric passwords.
Randomly generated meeting IDs for newly scheduled meetings and webinars will now be 11 digits long instead of nine.
The company is also rolling out new measures to protect recordings by making password protection for shared cloud recordings on by default for all accounts. It’s also enhanced the complexity of passwords on users’ cloud recordings, but notes that existing recordings are not affected.
Zoom Chat users can also now hide the message preview for desktop chat notifications. If this is turned off, users will simply be altered that they have a new message without displaying any message content.
Further, Zoom says that it has fixed issues related to missing data and delays on the Zoom Dashboard.
These changes come after the company has been facing increased scrutiny for its security practices, such as the ability for unauthorized people to enter meetings in some cases. Zoom CEO Eric Yuan recently said that the company failed to fully implement its best practices due to added service capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zoom previously announced a 90-day feature freeze to focus on implementing new privacy measures and to fix the numerous current security flaws.
Now more Firefox mobile users will be able to enjoy the new browser as it rolls out widely on the beta channel. It should also mean the experience will be more stable, although I haven’t had any significant issues with Firefox Preview.
Unfortunately, the change will also mean limited access to browser extensions. For now, the new Firefox browser only supports one add-on: uBlock Origin.
The program includes roughly 100 extensions such as Privacy Badger, Facebook Container, LastPass and more.
If you currently rely on Firefox extensions when browsing on your phone, you may want to avoid the new browser for a little while.
On the flip side, if you’re itching to test out the new Firefox, head to the Play Store and download the Firefox for Android Beta app. If you’ve already got it on your phone, it may be a few days before version 75.0.0-beta.4 arrives on your device.
Es gibt nichts im Apple-Universum, auf das ich so neugierig bin wie auf dieses Keyboard. Ich mag das Keyboard Folio von 2018 sehr, ich kann perfekt darauf schreiben, aber die Außenseite der Hülle habe ich ruckzuck ruiniert. Zweimal.
Das neue Magic Keyboard ist hintergrundbeleuchtet, hat ein sehr interessantes Scharnier, ein Trackpad, einen USB-C-Anschluss, an dem man das Ladekabel flach liegend anschießen kann und verwendet statt des Butterfly einen Scherenmechanismus. Und es ist brutal teuer. 339 Euro für das 11-Zoll und 399 Euro für das 12.9-Zoll iPad Pro. Dafür möchte ich gerne eine bessere Qualität als bei meinem Keyboard Folio sehen.
Ich meine dabei nicht den Mechanismus der Tasten. Die sind im Folio staubfrei eingebaut und funktionieren tadellos. Mir geht es nur um das gummiartige Material auf der Außenseite, das bei mir eine Orangenhaut bildet und ruckzuck dreckig wird. Das ekelt mich so sehr, dass ich das Folio praktisch nicht mehr verwende. Ich hoffe einfach, dass Apple das nun besser hinbekommen hat.
Die Hintergrundbeleuchtung nehme ich gerne und das Trackpad muss ich erst mal üben mit dem iPadOS. Ich weiß nicht, was in dem Scharnier außer der Mechanik steckt. Der Ladeanschluss ist mit den Pogopins im oberen Deckel verbunden, so dass das iPad geladen wird und der eigene USB-C-Anschluss freibleibt. Dieser Ladeanschluss wird nicht als vollwertiger USB-Port beworben und wird keine weitere Funktion haben. Was mir weiterhin fehlt, ist eine Garage für den Pencil. Würde er in das Scharnier passen, dann würde Apple das wohl auch bewerben.
This is part of the content of a larger webinar (slides for which can be found here) describing how Alt hosted its OER20 online conference. This particular posts details how they used Google sheets to set up the conference programme. I thought it worked pretty well, though what I could have really used (and couldn't find) was an .ics file I could use to import the conference programme into my calendar.
A design sprint focused on privacy and browsing on mobile devices
Eight people from the Firefox for iOS team spent four days last week in a Google Ventures-style, remote design sprint. The team was inspired to gather for a sprint by existing Firefox user research about privacy and mobile devices and some business challenges that Firefox for iOS is facing.
In many ways, the sprint was traditional in its format. The two-year goal we set for the sprint was for Firefox to be the iOS browser people choose first for privacy. Related to that goal, we surfaced the following key questions:
Can we convert people into privacy-conscious browser users?
Can we solve the problems facing an unsavvy majority, rather than those of a savvy minority?
Can we connect this feature to revenue, conversion, and retention?
Using Miro as our primary tool (building on JustMad’sMiro template), our sprint team, comprised of engineering, design, content strategy, marketing, product, program management, and user research expertise, devised a solution that was a combination of sketches made by sprint team members. We initially named the final solution Private by Default and then re-named it to PandaBrowser for the purposes of user research. (We chose “panda” for our made-up product because pandas’ faces remind us of the mask used to signify Private Browsing Mode in Firefox today.)
Launch screen for our design sprint concept, the PandaBrowser
The PandaBrowser was meant to be an iOS browser with private browsing mode on by default that included direct value-driven messages and other signals of privacy, including a straightforward way to clear one’s browser activity.
On the last day of the sprint, we ran five unmoderated sessions on the usertesting.com platform to evaluate a basic InVision prototype of the concept and learned the following:
Participants were familiar with the concepts of private browsing mode and incognito and confidently expressed what they thought those modes achieved, whether or not those perceptions were accurate for existing private browsing mode offerings by Mozilla and other companies.
Participants also mentioned privacy-related concepts like cookies, geo-location, and ad tracking, but may or may not have accurate mental models of those items.
Participants found value in their phone browser history, tabs, and/or bookmarks for task continuity and returning to previously visited sites, which for some participants meant that a browser defaulting to a private browsing mode that clears activity often would be inconvenient.
Participants assumed that our Private by Default concept was similar to Firefox Focus in that there was not a “regular” browsing mode to which one could switch. While the prototype did not include any UI elements for switching to a “non-private” mode, the original concept did envision a toggle for switching out of the default private mode.
Participants described specific use cases for a private mode which included watching pornography, searching for niche products like fake Juul pods, location-based searches, and monitoring prices for things like flights.
The team is now in the process of identifying which sprint learnings we want to pursue with further design iterations, experimentation, and user research in 2020.
Also a design sprint against the backdrop of a global pandemic
Mozilla has a long history of having a distributed workforce with close to half of employees working remotely. While this design sprint was originally planned to take place in-person in our Toronto office, the COVID-19 pandemic forced everyone to stay home and participate in the sprint over Zoom. Remote design sprints are not uncommon, but we did the following beyond typical remote working to be sensitive to the trying times in which everyone is living and working.
Rewrote the sprint guidelines to prioritize “Be kind to yourself”
We emphasized at the start of each day that “be kind to yourself” was the most important guideline for the sprint. This included making explicit that people could take breaks as they needed without questions from the team, determine any other accommodations they needed to practice self-care during the sprint, and communicate with the facilitator privately via Slack at any point. We also added the caveat to the “no devices” guideline that we expected sprint team members to focus as much as possible on their primary desktop/laptop device, where we used the Miro board filled with activities that requested active participation from across the team, but trusted that team members would monitor any other devices they needed in order to take care of loved ones.
Sprint Guidelines: 1. Be kind to yourself 2. Full attention 3. No [other] devices 4. Turn off alerts (set “away” status) 5. Everything is time-boxed w/ breaks 6. Help us stay on time 7. Share pertinent feedback as we go
Made an effort to be more generous with breaks
Given all teammates currently sheltering in place across North America, including three time zones, we considered extra time for wellness and rest. We made sure we did not work more than two hours without a break and made sure our twice daily breaks (30 minutes and then 90 minutes) were considered sufficient for team members’ needs. The team was most crunched for time on Thursday given the prototyping testing work, but the team worked together on each day of the sprint to ensure we got our sprint activities done in order to adjourn for our breaks on time.
Checked-in with teammates after each break
The world is changing so quickly, and major news is transpiring throughout each day. Additionally, team members were experiencing major life events, some very sudden and emotional, during the sprint week not directly related to the pandemic. Each time the team convened, at the start of the day and after each break, we made sure to check on what if anything notable transpired during the break time that might merit discussion or at least team acknowledgement. These check-ins took 5-10 minutes.
One of our sprint team members moved across the United States just before our sprint began. He had to supervise movers who arrived with his furniture while the sprint was taking place.
Collected suggestions for improvement at the end of each sprint day
Gathering team feedback on the sprint at the end of each sprint day is not particularly unusual, but emphasis for daily feedback during this sprint was placed on any accommodations that we might need to add before the following sprint day. Changes we made as a result of the daily feedback was to allow more time, even with our expedited sprint schedule, to hear team members’ rationale for their voting during activities.
Some other changes we will consider for next time:
If five consecutive days are available for the sprint, taking five instead of four days would lessen the workload toward the end of the week, especially for major sprint activities such as the prototype-making, user research planning, and group watching of the usertesting sessions. (Our team was limited to four days due to the Easter holiday.)
Perhaps lengthen some activities and shorten other activities. The team noted that more time with the Monday experts and for team discussions about important sprint decisions would be valuable.
Set higher standards for the accessibility of our sprint tools. For example, while we never used color as the only signifier for activities on our Miro board, there were some instances where color was privileged over other signifiers, even with one of our sprint team members having color-blindness. A more accessible sprint would not prioritize a single type of affordance (e.g., dependent on vision).
Long-lasting lessons
A Mozilla researcher who was not on the sprint team mentioned recently that perhaps one upside of the current pandemic is that we may all learn to be more empathetic to the people around us, perhaps more fully aware that we can never know what or the magnitude of what someone is experiencing in the current moment or even due to long-standing circumstances, some even systemic. While current world events inspired some changes we made to the way we work in the case of our recent design sprint, one could argue that these types of accommodations should be the norm. Our experience last week was a reminder that remote design sprints can be a valuable approach for bringing together a diverse group of people to do focused problem-understanding.
One of the sprint team members added: “…while we cannot physically be present with our friends, families, and coworkers, it felt really good to work together towards a common goal. Even if this goal isn’t going to change the state of our world right now, the togetherness and team-building warm fuzzies are ever more important during these times.” The idea of working toward an inclusive common goal is what we try to do at Mozilla on good days and, if recent times are any indication, on the toughest, too.
Thank you to the sprint team for your hard work last week and to the other Mozillians who provided feedback on an early draft of this post.
Videos consultations with doctors turn out to work pretty well. How about this: we get shipping containers and we fit them out as remote-first family practices. Consult doctors over Zoom. Also with Amazon lockers filled with aspirin, common medicines, etc, remote unlocked by giving out a code.
Initially drop the shipping containers here in the UK, in communities where it’s hard for people to travel due to the lockdown. Then kit out the containers with satellite internet, and use the airdropped health centre as part of international aid: doctors here in the UK taking shifts; patients wherever they live. (To support a team of people who are actually on the ground doing the leg-work, of course.)
Assume all that works… then I would suggest researching robot surgeons and tele-operated operations.
Next: schools.
It turns out remote education works pretty well too. Fit out shipping containers as supplementary classrooms so teachers on the ground can rotate kids through additional lessons. Allow for self-directed learning for adults too. Put a big screen on the outside and run English language courses. Teaching assistants based here in the UK, of couse.
Look: the NHS Nightingale Hospital London got going after 9 days starting from the government’s request for assistance. It’s an exhibition centre turned into a temporary hospital with a 4,000 bed capacity; it launched with 500. Here’s the story from the architects BDP, including the instruction manual.
This is going to sound like a tangent but it’s not. And it’s going to lead to a place which you might find uncomfortable, because it’s about war, and I apologise in advance:
I went to a last-minute protest on Whitehall a bunch of years back, and somehow in the midst of all the crowds and chants, I ran into a friend. And he was meeting one of his friends, and they were going to the pub to meet some folks from a military think tank. So I tagged along.
I ended up sitting next to a researcher and having a long conversation about propaganda and Russian Twitter bots, and all of that is a topic for another time, but the reveal was that this guy’s business card revealed that his specialism was non-kinetic effects.
That is, the kind of war you can do without chucking stuff at people.
I think there are a bunch of situations now where bombs don’t help. Bombing doesn’t help in Syria. Bombs don’t help when young white men are being radicalised into domestic terrorism.
I’m not a pacifist. I probably lean towards being an interventionist. But I don’t feel that bombs and shooting people have proven themselves particularly effective.
So after that conversation in the pub, I started thinking about what I’d drop instead of bombs. Schools and hospitals. Well, why not? In the 1950s and 1960s, it was jazz:
Founded in 1950 and secretly funded by the CIA, Radio Free Europe (RFE) began broadcasting from Munich to Soviet-controlled Czechoslovakia in 1951. … Soon RFE was broadcasting to Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.
And:
Western music, and jazz in particular, became a popular form of resistance against the Communist regimes, especially in Eastern Europe.
Things we are good at in the UK:
health – the NHS should be seen as an asset to scale up; dividing it up and selling bits off is a lack of imagination
education – it’s already a massive export
call centres
tech startups
speaking English, which happens to be a global language (for some pretty unpleasant reasons)
military spending.
If I was in charge of the UK’s industrial policy, in addition to betting on distributed supply chains beating China, I’d also be betting that “distribution” (how value moves from producers to consumers) is going to make a massive shift too, because of telepresence and tele-operation. I would be funding research bringing together the above, creating schools and health centres, remote operated and packaged into shipping containers; designed, built and staffed in the UK.
Then I’d use these for better serving communities at home, profit (this is a way of taking the UK’s strengths to bigger markets), for international aid, and (um) for non-kinetic effects.
I suppose my meta-point is that we’re moving to a world where services that can be delivered remotely will be delivered remotely – but that doesn’t mean that both sides need to be speaking at a tiny moving image on a phone. There are more imaginative ways to skin the cat.
Hey so then what else?
English common law is widely respected. Stuff the shipping containers with terminals to speak with lawyers to draw up commercial agreements, and arbitration suites with UK-trained judges. All remote.
Next: discos, probably. Music is massive UK export. Eurovision aside we’re really good at it. Drop nightclubs in shipping containers, stream in all the good stuff. Good sound system, good lights. Hearts, minds, and banging techno.
After a cycle from the West End to Jericho, the contrast between those parts of Seaside that allow for sufficient separation and distancing with those that don’t became more obvious than ever. More than that, it’s evident that the status quo is unacceptable.
The City and Park Board cannot on one hand tell us to keep two metres apart and then, on the other, not provide sufficient space and proper instructions. It has led to mutual irritation among users. And, bottom line, in a pandemic it’s just not safe.
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