Comments on: Why People Don’t Install Firefox – Part II

By: kkovash

kkovash — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:53:14 +0000

Hi there,

sorry about the comment form UI. I’m working on getting it fixed/improved.

Ken

By: name

name — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:58:07 +0000

Come on, it’s just stupid saying that people don’t use Fx because some installer steps are unnecessary. I despise installers that don’t let me choose the start menu folder where the shortcut will be created.

Also, instead of the installer, you should work a bit on this comment form.

By: Bob Arnson

Bob Arnson — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:59:39 +0000

Another datapoint to capture is the amount of customization when users take that path. For example, I always choose a custom install because I always deselect the desktop and quick launch shortcuts (because I only ever use pinned root start menu items [or urls or hardware buttons or...]). But I never change the installation directory or start menu folder. Does anybody change the start menu folder?

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:13:31 +0000

The percentage of people responding does seem low, and I’d say that’s because the feedback form needs a better design, more simplicity.

The reasons that Robert Strong listed above need to be included so that you can tell if that’s why they canceled or not.

Answers (to the question “why did you cancel?”) should also include:

Firefox is already installed, oops.

Takes too long to install.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:59:59 +0000

I just read all 6 steps of the install process. It looks 5-6 steps too long.

Step 1 looks completely worthless, as it doesn’t ask any questions. Step 6, similarly, seems unnecessary. Steps 3-5 should not occur in a normal install.

Suggested replacement: when you run the installer, show *one* step similar to step 2, with a big friendly “Install Firefox” button, and a smaller twisty for “Edit installation settings” or similar. (Don’t use “custom” or “customize” here, because Firefox has various campaigns to encourage people to customize their browser, and you don’t want people thinking they need to choose “custom” unnecessarily.) If the user hits “Install Firefox”, the install proceeds with no further interaction. If the user clicks “edit installation settings”, it expands to show the checkboxes for icons and default browser, the destination folder, and the start menu folder, as well as a “use default installation settings” option. After changing those, the user can then hit the same “Install Firefox” button.

This way, you have *one* dialog box, *one* click to install with the defaults, and easy accessibility to all the custom installation options at once.

By: Robert Strong

Robert Strong — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:51:25 +0000

The high cancellation rates at step 2 is very likely due to the firefox.exe process continuing to run after the user exited. The installer doesn’t forcibly close Firefox due to potential dataloss.

The high cancellation rates at step 3 is very likely due to the user not having admin rights and the installer requiring the user to select a directory where the user can write to.

We have been talking about lessening the number of installer pages in the near future.

By: kkovash

kkovash — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:16:02 +0000

Otto and Alex — sorry about the image showing steps #4 and #5 as being identical. The image has been adjusted and is now correct.

Ken

By: alex.r.

alex.r. — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:07:25 +0000

The feedback UI is way too complex. I don’t know what percentage of “I’m confused” were actually referring to the feedback program instead of the installation program.

Step 4 and 5 look exactly the same? Why the discrepancy in the number of cancellation between the two?

The large amount of cancellation on step 2 might be strictly related to the fact that it’s the first thing that users actually read. Step 1 is pretty useless as far as I’m concerned.

By: JG

JG — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:51:58 +0000

Oh, and this seems obvious, but are you measuring what page the users are canceling on? That will likely give you more useful information than the actual user feedback. Actions speak louder than words, as they say. And knowing your funnel (what % of users you lose at each step) is the most important thing in user acquisition analysis.

By: JG

JG — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:49:39 +0000

I think you’d be better off with just a simple freeform text box and doing a qualitative analysis on the answers rather than quantative. e.g. “We noticed you canceled your installation. We’d really appreciate you taking a second to quickly tell us why. Thanks!” This puts the work on you, which is where you want it when you’re trying to gather user feedback. Put the work on the user, and they won’t do it.

Your average user can’t be troubled to click more than twice, but give them a text box and they’ll type til they run out of space…