My name is David and I am a researcher here at the University of California Berkeley.
I have been asked by others to help improve a piece of software for people like you.
Um, I'm not the one who is responsible for the software, so don't worry about offending me.
We're here to to try and make this software as usable as possible.
We would especially like your help in finding any parts which are difficult or confusing.
To this end, we are asking you to perform a "cognitive walkthrough".
This involves talking out loud while you perform the tasks that we ask you to complete.
I am going to be here simply to observe.
Don't wait for my feedback.
And I will try to not interact as much as possible.
So I'm going to give you a short example of what I mean by cognitive walkthrough,
um, so I am going to give myself a task and then do it and while I am doing it I am going to explain what I see.
Why I am clicking on things, what I expect to happen, if something happens that is surprising.
I will just say that out loud.
So, the task I am going to give is I need to open a paint program and I need to draw a red hexagon.
So I am here at the desktop, and I see there's some applications at the bottom
but none of them looks like it is a drawing program.
So, I am going to search for drawing.
And there is a magnifying glass and I know that that means search.
I will click that and see if we have have something... "paintbrush".
Okay, Paintbrush looks good, like it will work.
So I click on that, that's the first link.
Now, it looks like it is asking me for how big the image should be.
And I wonder if I'll be able to change this later or if I have to decide now.
But uh I am not going to worry about it too much and I am just going to go with the default.
Okay, the window resized and that I think that means that it resized to the numbers that were there.
So now, uh, I need to switch to red color.
Um, so I click here and it gave me something red.
And now I wonder if there is a tool to draw a hexagon.
There's this, this only says "Rectangle". That doesn't look right.
I don't think these do it, so I might have to draw it myself.
Uh, I will do the line tool and try to draw a line.
Uh, something is wrong because the line is black even though I picked red.
So, I am going to try and undo that. "Edit", "Undo".
Um, click the red, it doesn't work.
This is color selection, let me try this.
Okay, now that changed down here. So that's a little strange. Let me try red again.
Okay, so now it's actually red.
Now let me try drawing the shape.
I wonder if there is like a tool to automatically close this shape,
but I am not actually going to try because I wouldn't know where to find it, so I am just going to close it.
And now, I know from other paint programs that this paint bucket will fill it in and I click and that's exactly what I expected to happen.
So that's the example cognitive walkthrough.
Now I am going to give you another simple example where I want you to practice doing this technique.
Sure.
So, I want you to open a web browser and find the population of Zimbabwe.
Okay, good. Now I need you explain what you are doing as you, um, take each step of the process.
Oh, okay.
So run through that again and explain like each step you took, starting from opening the browser.
So now I'm opening Safari, that's what I usually use.
Mmhmm.
Now I type in "population in"... "population in zimbabwe".
The thing is that I don't know how to spell it but there is... [Laughter.]
There it is in the search history so I click enter and there it is.
Okay.
According to numbers in 2013, the population is uh 14.15 million population in Zimbabwe.
Okay great, good. So now we'll move on to the real experiment.
So today, it's going to be a test of a web browser that is called Tor Browser.
Okay.
Have you heard of it before?
No.
Okay. And uh these are the instructions I want you to follow.
Mmhmm.
As much as possible, I want you to figure it out on your own.
But if we get really stuck, then we'll, we'll find a way to solve it. Do you have any questions before we start?
I need to see if I can find Tor.
Okay.
Yeah, that is part of it.
Okay.
So, uh just start now and then do whatever you would do at home if you had to...
Do I need to close the web browser and open it again or I just...
If you would use this browser, you can leave it open.
Okay. So I just would type in "tor" in the uh search engine and "Tor Project"...
"Anonymity Online", I guess this is it.
And I click.
And the there is a "Download Tor", so I am going to click this.
It's for Mac. So I will click download.
Okay. It's downloading.
Uh, so during the download time, it will take a few minutes.
Okay.
Go ahead and just describe anything that you see or you observe about this page or this download task.
"Want Tor to really work"...
Um... "Full list of warnings"... Okay. I am going to read the "want Tor to really work".
Do I need to read this aloud?
No, but just say what it makes you think about as you're reading it.
Or if anything looks really important to you that you would normally notice.
Uh... "Don't torrent over Tor". "Torrent file-sharing applications have been
observed to ignored proxy settings and make direct connections even when they are told to use Tor."
Okay, it seems I cannot use torrent while on Tor.
That's important to know. Okay. Um,
"Don't enable or install browser plugins".
Oh, okay. That's good to know.
Um. So, I guess that means when I use Tor I cannot watch videos?
That's a little bit concerning for me. Um.
And... Oh, "Don't open documents downloaded through Tor while online".
Um.
Okay. I think I understand.
But I am wondering since you are browsing Internet if you cannot read the documents online or watch videos while you are on Tor.
That's a little bit inconvenient.
Mm.
Okay. It's almost finished downloading.
Okay.
Okay. Almost.
I am just... It's finished downloading, I am going to install it.
Wait. Is it...
Okay. "Torrent Browser".
"'TorBrowser' can't be opened because it's from..."
Uh, do I need to change the system preferences?
So do whatever you would normally do in this situation.
Okay.
If you saw that.
Uh, umm.
The password here is just "password".
Okay. Okay. Ahh.
I think this will work. Since I changed the security settings... yes.
Okay. So here comes the "Tor Network Settings".
"Which of the following best describes your situation?" "Connect directly to the Tor network, this will work in most situations".
Okay. I will just click "Connect".
Okay. Here, it says congratulations. [Laughter.]
Okay, so you got, you've got 1 and 3 here and now you are on...
Yep.
3.
"Do a web search for 'onions'."
Oh, here, try this one. If you know how to do this, check that Tor is working.
Check? Okay. I will just go to Google.
Okay.
Okay, I think it works. So I checked it's working.
Okay.
And I'm now doing web search for "onions". Yes.
Okay, good. You don't have to click on any of those. Just we wanted to see the search.
And "Find a YouTube video for 'Ode to Joy'".
Should I go to YouTube or should I just go to...
However you would normally search for a YouTube video.
Okay.
I am typing in "ode to joy", search video, and...
There is a YouTube video. I am clicking.
Okay.
"A plugin is need to display".
I remembered, it says the plugin is not working on onion, so.
I'm sorry, on Tor. [Laughter.]
Okay, I think I finished this. Number 5.
Uh, yeah, we actually should let it... Wait here for a moment.
Okay.
Uh, this is not exactly what I expected to happen so I just want to make sure that this isn't an error.
Oh, yeah, it seems to be...
Should I try another one?
...the way it is. Yeah. You can try another one.
Okay.
That's maybe, that's a good idea.
I just backward and there seems there is another video. I am clicking on the second video.
Okay
On web browser, hope it works.
Oh.
Same thing.
It says... Oh?! Okay. No?
Oh! It worked. It works. [Laughter.]
Okay, it's playing. That's good sign.
Hm. Okay it's working.
Okay.
Good.
Good. All right.
I will click...
So you can...
That's the other way around. Okay.
Okay.
So, uh, I finished number 5.
You're on 6.
"Use 'New Identity' under the onion menu". Onion, I guess this is. "New Identity".
Now, can you... can you describe what just happened, and what do you think?
Okay, I click on the onion and the New Identity bar and then it's uh, changed, it go back to the webpage
that says "Congratulations" like the one I just installed Tor. So.
Okay
So I am not sure what is happening next, but yeah.
Okay.
All right, so now the top of the window here. I want you to find all these little icons and explain what you think each one of them means.
Okay, okay. I'm going to start with the first one.
Okay, you can go ahead and explore them if you need to.
Okay. "Forbid Scripts Globally (advised)". I am not sure what it means.
Mmhmm.
I click, nothing happens.
And uh, oh, here's the, under the onion
I think it is all settings and information about the Tor webpage. Uh.
I will click on "Preference".
"Use the recommended proxy settings for my version of Firefox".
I am on Firefox? I thought I am on Safar— Wait. what?
Okay, so if that's surprising, just...
Okay. So it says "Use the recommended proxy settings for my version of Firefox".
So, I guess when I click "New Identity" it opens Firefox?
No. Wait—Sorry, I am a little bit confused now. [Laughter.]
That's fine. I can explain some things afterward. But just now, just explain that you are confused.
Okay, I am confused now.
The "Proxy Settings", so I am going to the security settings.
Oh, it says "Don't record browsing history or website data".
"Disable browser plugins, (such as Flash)".
"Restrict third-party cookies and other tracking"... Okay, good to know.
Um, and on the right of the onion tab it's the search engine.
And so what is this? Okay.
So it's the default webpage set on the browser.
How about the bar here? Oh, okay.
Here is the history, "Save Page", "Bookmarks", like normal web browser has.
Okay. Uh, "Sign in to Sync". Oh, okay.
So I can use this on one laptop and I will see my history and bookmarks on the other.
Mmhmm.
Okay, good to know. Um. Is it?
Great. That's it. Great, fantastic.