The past 5 months of research and design has been a tough but enlightening experience working with the OTF Usability Lab.
During the exploration of the I2P site information architecture, we began to make changes where there was assumed dev knowledge on the download page and also switched to an active voice to direct new participants in that process.
As we know, the I2P software gateway to the I2P network has become relied on by people all over the world with all different backgrounds and privacy needs. This is wonderful, but as a software it needs to support better accessibility for these new people.
This is where the I2P Java software has provided a very good way to get people connected and using a P2P network. It provides a router to connect a person to the I2P network, and also provides them with familiar maintained applications to get them started using the network. The process over the past months has been how to improve that for the future.
First, we worked through “What is I2P?” Question and tackled our controlled / familiar vocabulary. There was a short and entertaining panel discussion at the DWeb meet up last month between Eileen and myself about this issue with many of our projects in the P2P community and how it can be confusing for new folks. I am hoping to follow up with a longer talk next month - stay tuned!.
One of things that struck me most was that in the documentation on the I2P site there is very little description of what I2P is asking people to download. One of the points raised in the review of the onboarding was that finding email and torrenting options was strange and unexpected. IDK and I have worked together on introduction to I2P Applications and Software guide which will be on both the site and in the /console. There is also a step by step Windows specific installation guide almost ready for implementation.
That feedback has kept me busy for the past month and half tackling both the conflation of the “dev” I2P identity ( network ) and the software gateway ( Get I2P). We reference I2P as “things to do with I2P" or "how to use I2P" and "I2P network" and how we "get I2P.”
When we talk about “I2P” we can more clearly talk about the Invisible Internet as a dynamic development framework and also the Product offering, which is the software / network gateway.
Things to do with I2P: applications your can use, how to develop privacy aware applications
How to use I2P: How to use the software , configuration for your privacy needs
I2P network - the P2P process and core
Get I2P - download the software and start your router!
In the past many people have said they felt a bit intimidated by how technical most of the communication is about I2P. At this time the Java software gateway is actually such a great and easy way for anyone to gain access to the I2P network. I hope that I can begin to get more people feeling comfortable who are not devs to add their voice and help to shape a more accessible future. My hope is too introduce not just equality, but equity into our UX and documentation since we are all not devs or designers or security professionals. The option of privacy is for everyone, and so we will continue to do this work and create new and fun ways for anyone to get involved and take part in a network that is constantly being made better by the core dev team.
Set Up Wizard
I created new graphics using Undraw design assets for the Set Up Wizard and updated the text. There is some review needed in a few areas at the moment, but it is looking great. I wanted to take the opportunity to focus on contributing, so introducing the need for translation efforts, and reseeds and giving people a clear indication of how much bandwidth to share for the best experience was introduced. Since these are network terminologies and we need to become familiar with how P2P works, doing this creatively and in a relatable way is important to get right.
Great job by IDK for implementing these changes!!
Services or Applications?
Familiar terminology is important. For instance is a peer different than a node? Is an I2P router like my router at home? Why is email called a service when I thought it was an application?
I have been trying to rethink the sidebar structure for a future release. To rename The I2P Services section to “Applications and Plugins ” would be a good start , as well as moving Addressbook and the Hidden Services Manager there as well.
“I2P Internals” may be better named as “Network Connection Information” with a section that includes the network status indicator, Peers, and graphs , logs, NetDB, profiles and tunnels.
The docs on /console have been given a rewrite for better flow and to clarify the “what is I2P” question. The layout options are being evaluated as well.
Reseed Policy
IDK has drafted up a new Reseed Operator Policy to go along with our I2P Operators Guides effort. Please have a look at the his forum post!
-sadie