16:01:36 <donuts> #startmeeting UX Team Weekly Meeting, 1 November 2022
16:01:36 <MeetBot> Meeting started Tue Nov  1 16:01:36 2022 UTC.  The chair is donuts. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot.
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16:01:39 <nah> o/
16:01:45 <donuts> welcome everyone!
16:01:52 <championquizzer> hello hello!
16:01:56 <donuts> pad is here, as always: https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-ux-team-2022-keep
16:02:03 <donuts> please add anything you'd like to discuss today to the agenda
16:02:15 <donuts> or make it bold in your weekly planning section
16:04:19 <donuts> Okay, announcements!
16:04:50 <donuts> 11.5.5 was released last week, with a new bridge line included for Snowflake that wasn't usable in Tor Browser
16:05:04 <donuts> the issue was the length of the new bridge line, which ran afoul of a character limit in tor
16:05:24 <donuts> so, 11.5.6 was prepped as an emergency release with a shorter bridge line
16:06:14 <donuts> The devs realized within a couple of hours of release that there was an issue, and so managed to halt the Android rollout at 25% (the actual number of Android updates is likely below that number)
16:06:58 <championquizzer> the messaging about the error and how to workaround if someone had already updated went great i think :)
16:07:14 <donuts> however we weren't able to do the same for desktop, and so a workaround whereby users can add a working Snowflake bridgeline to the "provide manually" modal was pushed out on gitlab, github and twitter
16:07:26 <donuts> championquizzer: yes! thankfully :)
16:07:53 <donuts> however there's a good chance a number of users in censored countries who rely on Snowflake are 'trapped' in 11.5.5 until word reaches them that they need to update to 11.5.6 manually
16:08:36 <championquizzer> we had a few users from .ir report this and i think we managed to help them yo update to 11.5.6
16:08:39 <championquizzer> *to
16:08:53 <donuts> fantastic, thank you championquizzer :)
16:09:03 <championquizzer> is a good sign in terms of that people are keeping their browsers up to date
16:09:15 <donuts> looking at metrics.torproject.org, there was a dip in Snowflake usage around the time of the update – which makes sense
16:09:24 <donuts> championquizzer: yes, that's the only silver lining here
16:09:35 <donuts> however it seems that dip has since recovered?
16:10:05 <donuts> there are two things happening that will improve our response to this in future:
16:10:43 <donuts> 1. if multilocale builds free up more disk space, we should be able to rollback desktop version numbers in the event of an emergency again
16:11:10 <donuts> 2. there is a plan to use the circumvention API to update bridge lines via Moat, instead of requiring a proper browser update
16:11:29 <donuts> see https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser-build/-/issues/40630 for details about that
16:12:08 <championquizzer> nice
16:12:19 <donuts> we also released 12.0a4 yesterday, finally!
16:12:24 <donuts> https://blog.torproject.org/new-alpha-release-tor-browser-120a4/
16:12:42 <championquizzer> re. metrics on snowflake. looks like we recovered from that dip in users https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-bridge-transport.html?start=2022-10-17&end=2022-11-01&transport=snowflake
16:12:46 <donuts> the changelog for this release is huuuuge, and includes a number of major changes which are detailed on the blog post
16:13:13 <donuts> championquizzer: yep! that's great news
16:13:17 <nicob> \o/
16:13:34 <donuts> we've also included some details about what to test in the blog post, as per nah's suggestion
16:13:48 <donuts> this content will be used as the basis for some tweets etc. later in the week, when we have time
16:14:05 <championquizzer> great work
16:14:19 <donuts> unified builds for macOS did _not_ make it into this release however, as there was a small misunderstanding about what exactly had been merged
16:14:23 <nah> nice! great work :)
16:14:25 <donuts> but it may still happen in the next Alpha
16:14:44 <donuts> okay, a quick update about TB 12.0's release:
16:15:00 <donuts> it was scheduled for Nov 22nd, but early December is now more likely
16:15:18 <donuts> there will be at least one more Alpha before then, and another stable version is being planned too
16:15:41 <donuts> we'll also play it by ear regarding the ultimate release date for 12.0, depending on how stable the next Alpha is
16:16:01 <donuts> aaaand that's it for announcements
16:16:14 * donuts checks the pad...
16:16:15 <championquizzer> thanks for all the updates donuts
16:16:21 <donuts> yw! <3
16:16:47 <donuts> no items in bold this week? would you like to mention the events we're considering attending nah?
16:17:20 <nah> well
16:17:39 <nah> yes
16:17:56 <nah> there will be two events in the following months, invite-only
16:18:08 <nah> one will be in the states, and the other one in germany
16:19:06 <nah> both events will be community powered - engaging communities, organizations and individuals that work in the intersection of technology, human rights, and privacy and security
16:19:51 <nicob> exciting!
16:19:56 <nah> some tpi folks have been invited to participate, and we are discussing if we have funding and time to attend to it
16:20:02 <nah> one is in early december
16:20:10 <nah> the other one mid-january
16:20:23 <championquizzer> nice!
16:20:38 <nah> i can't find links for any of them
16:20:48 <nah> but i can share details in pvt :)
16:21:24 <nah> i think we can really benefit from participating in these events, get connections, be in contact with other and share our work
16:21:24 <arma2> once you have details about the events, if tor people are participating, consider telling comms@ or speaking@ so we can have everything coordinated
16:21:53 <nah> comms is in the loop already, arma2
16:22:02 <arma2> great
16:22:06 <nah> one is the otf summit
16:23:04 <nah> ok, so i think that's it! once we have more information, we can share details and articulate together how we can share our work there!
16:23:28 <donuts> thank you nah!
16:23:39 <donuts> you bought enough time for me to update the pad 😂
16:23:51 <donuts> I've added a couple of items in bold
16:24:33 <donuts> firstly: our Proton UI Figma library desperately needs maintenance, and I want to get as much of that done as possible at the same time I add the customizations needed to support the Mullvad browser to it
16:24:37 <donuts> here's the todo list: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/ux/design/-/issues/45
16:24:50 <donuts> it's a pain, but it has to be done
16:25:18 <donuts> so I'm going to be chipping away at this throughout the week while keeping an eye on 12.0a4 feedback
16:25:30 <donuts> Also! I need to start thinking about the UX SOTO presentation
16:25:48 <donuts> I see we have a rehearsal scheduled for tomorrow? but I don't have anything ready yet and won't do until next week
16:25:57 <donuts> so I guess I'll just to a mic check and wave at the camera
16:26:23 <donuts> at some point during the week I'll start a pad with the outline of the UX presentation for you all to review, if you wish
16:26:34 <donuts> and I may be bugging you nah about UR numbers
16:26:41 <nah> i thought so :)
16:26:41 <donuts> and you about nice visuals nicob :)
16:26:50 <nicob> <3
16:27:22 <donuts> okay before I hand over to championquizzer, I want to check if either of you have deadlines this week that my feedback could potentially hold up nah/nicob?
16:27:34 <donuts> I know you have a few things needing review from me nicob
16:27:49 <donuts> but let's list them out to be sure
16:28:15 <nah> for things in my hands, i'll get the feedback on friday
16:28:17 <nah> ty donuts
16:28:17 <nicob> yeah I think just the graphics for 12.0a4 testing if those are still needed. and not sure how urgent, but the volume icons as well
16:28:40 <donuts> great, plus SOTO nicob?
16:28:50 <nicob> oh yes ^^
16:29:11 <donuts> lovely lovely
16:29:12 <donuts> ty both
16:29:27 <donuts> okay championquizzer! any updates from you this week?
16:29:52 <championquizzer> i am good for this week (wrt discussion points) but plan to start to look more at the TB 12 release prep this week
16:30:55 <donuts> awesome! If that prep ticket doesn't get updated soon, the changelogs for a1 through a4 basically include all the changes
16:31:07 <donuts> although the biggest and most important in addition to the general ESR upgrade are all on a4
16:31:19 <championquizzer> ack!
16:31:21 <donuts> I can also take a look through my recent history to see where the UI may have changed
16:31:41 <donuts> tbh there shouldn't be many UI changes in this release at all, compared to the last one at least
16:31:58 <championquizzer> i'll poke you and applications if i am confused about something ;)
16:32:09 <donuts> thank you championquizzer :)
16:33:00 <donuts> if that's us, we can end early this week and get back to work 💪
16:33:20 <championquizzer> thanks everyone!
16:33:23 <nah> i'm good :)
16:33:25 <nah> thank you all!
16:33:29 <nicob> all good here :)
16:33:30 <nicob> thanks everyone
16:33:32 <donuts> thanks everyone!
16:33:44 <donuts> #endmeeting