We are now applying UX best practices to all of our development cycles.” “Since we don’t collect data on user behavior, we had to build a testing methodology so our community could help us perform these tests with our users. “This was the first time Tor did a full development cycle following UX best practices, such as being involved with the conceptualization of the UI and performing user testing to validate our hypothesis,” Isabela Bagueros, a Tor project manager, wrote Tuesday.

The project took roughly four months and another four months to find its way into the app.ĭevelopers said adding the feature to the app helped them better embrace UX best practices, something that should factor into future Tor Project projects. Developers had to redesign the app’s security settings and overhaul the slider’s UI to work on a mobile app. Users can elect to disable JavaScript on all sites or just non-HTTPS sites, make all HTML5 audio and video elements tap-to-play, or disable all fonts, icons, symbols, and images depending how concerned users are of their security.Īdapting the slider to Orfox didn’t come easy. The Security Slider feature app lets users decide how tightly reined in they want their mobile browsing experience to be. The latest update to the Orfox, pushed in August but not announced by the Tor Project until Tuesday, brings the Tor Browser’s security slider feature into the fold. It’s essentially an Android compatible fork of the Tor Browser repository that uses Orbot, a proxy app that acts as an instance of the Tor network.

Tor Project developers partnered with the Guardian Project to release the first iteration of the app last December. Tor Project developers recently bolstered Orfox, a Tor Browser for Android devices, to help privacy-conscious mobile browsers better customize their security.

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