Thunderbird:UX:Test Pilot

Test Pilot For Thunderbird

We need more information about how our users work. To that end, we're hoping to see a Thunderbird port of Test Pilot before too long. If you're interested in helping with the porting work, it's believed not to be too hard, and mailto:jono@mozilla.com has offered to help you get started.

Interesting Studies

Some ideas for studies:

Possible through automation

Thunderbird can collect these metrics automatically and without user intervention on machines where the user has installed the Test Pilot plugin.

• Crypto
  • SSL: Gather telemetry about the most popular ISPs that use SSL to protect communications with clients, namely SSL/IMAP and SSL/SMTP. Examples of data to collect would include ISPs that:
    • use self-signed certificates
    • use expired certificates
    • use revoked certificates (or have not set up revocation properly)
    • send incomplete cert chains
    • ask for SSL client-auth certs
    • use otherwise invalid certs (anything that generates an error)
  • S/MIME: Gather information about S/MIME usage and errors. (This might be tricky for a number of reasons. Need to think about this some more.)

Requires User Action

These ideas require the user to complete a survey of some sort.

• Backup
  • Find out what kind of email backup people would want, if any
  • Example Questions:
    • How often do you back up your email?
    • Have you ever lost old emails before?
    • How much would email backup be worth to you?