This document summarizes John Lilly and Mike Beltzner's presentation on open design at Mozilla. Some key points: 1. Mozilla is a global open source project with thousands of contributors and around a quarter billion Firefox users. Firefox code is about 40% community contributed and has over 8,000 add-ons. 2. Mozilla's mission is to promote openness and innovation on the internet. Their design process embraces input from the open source community through discussion, experimentation, and small teams led by strong contributors. 3. Challenges of open design at Mozilla's scale include managing global implications on language/culture as the audience grows from thousands to millions. Competition in the browser market and

1. mozilla & firefox:
open design @ scale
John Lilly &
Mike Beltzner
Mozilla

2. 1. some personal history
2. some mozilla background
3. how we design at mozilla today
4. what we’re thinking about next
5. questions & discussion

3. 15 years ago in CS547...

4. Robert Cailliau
visited from Geneva...
photo: wikipedia.org

5. ...and brought one of these...
photo: wikipedia.org

6. ...and he
photo: wikipedia.org
demoed this...

7. And I remember thinking to myself:
“Neat! Text & images...click, click, click.”

8. Then, I fell asleep.

9. In my defense, I was really tired.

10. But then things got a lot better
Dr. Dobb’s Journal, Jan 1991
& started to click for me...

11. “The great and rapid success of the personal computer industry over
the past decade is not without its unexpected ironies. What began as a
revolution of individual empowerment has ended with the personal
computer industry not only joining the computing mainstream, but in
fact defining it.
Despite the enormous outward success of personal computers, the
daily experience of using computers far too often is still fraught with
difficulty, pain, and barriers for most people, which means that the
revolution, measured by it’s original goals, has not as yet succeeded.”
- Mitch Kapor, A Software Design Manifesto (Dr. Dobb’s Journal, 1991)

12. My path after Stanford HCI
Software Company

13. My path after Stanford HCI
Software Company
ATG (Apple Labs)

14. My path after Stanford HCI
Software Company
ATG (Apple Labs)
Incubator

15. My path after Stanford HCI
Software Company
ATG (Apple Labs)
Incubator
increasing levels of innovation at the edges

16. My questions changed
“How do I design great things?”
Became: “How do organizations design
great things?”

17. Which naturally led me to Mozilla
Software Company
ATG (Apple Labs)
Incubator
Ecosystem

18. Mozilla’s mission is to
promote choice,
innovation, and
participation on the
Internet.

19. Mozilla is...

20. Mozilla is...
A global open source software project
with thousands of contributors

21. Mozilla is...
A global open source software project
with thousands of contributors
Around a quarter billion users

22. Mozilla is...
A global open source software project
with thousands of contributors
Around a quarter billion users
The maker of the Firefox Web browser

23. Firefox is...

24. Firefox is...
~40% of code by
community

25. Firefox is...
~40% of code by
community
More than 8,000 add-ons

26. Firefox is...
~40% of code by
community
More than 8,000 add-ons
Ships in more than 60
languages

27. Worldwide Firefox Market Share (last year!)

28. Some models for design (caricatures!!)
Genius-driven design
Data-driven design
Chaordic design

29. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
en/d/d2/Internet_map_1024.jpg

30. photo by julep67@flickr (cc) by-nd-nc
Queen’s University
(Great White North)

31. photo by davestfu@flickr (cc) by-nc-sa photo by alles-schlumpf@flickr (cc) by-nc-sa
Studied cognitive science & education with a focus on A.I.

32. But I liked the inverse

33. Started doing software interface design at IBM Canada

34. Started with Mozilla around the
time of Firefox 1.5

35. 1.5 - interface designer
2.0 - mozilla design lead
3.0 - product designer
3.5 - product director

36. What do you think about
when you hear the words:
“open source design”

37. Design by committee
Lipstick on a pig
Not ready for prime time

38. Embracing the chaos...
“Fitts’ says bigger
“The URL bar should
buttons are better.” “What’s with the
be removed.”
dirty house?”
“There should be
“My mom doesn’t “Nobody uses the “Add support for
a preference setting.”
understand tabs.” ‘Go’ button.” BitTorrent.”
“OpenID is the future!”
“That’s great!”
“Everyone uses tags,
not bookmarks.”
“I love tabs!”
“The profile manager
should be redesigned.”
“Add support for
Ogg Vorbis.”
“That’s awful”
“Closebuttons are better at
the end of the tabstrip.”

39. ...and organizing a chorus.

40. listen
lead
play

41. listen
lead
play

42. Chaos
Anyone can comment on a proposal for a change

43. Chaos
Anyone can submit a change to the code

44. Chaos
easier to comment on design than code

45. Chaos
camps are formed quickly

46. Chaos
noisy, unfocused, lacks perspective

47. Order
Not everyone can approve a change

48. Order
Strong leadership structure

49. Order
Strong leadership structure

50. Order
educate

51. Order
identify and elevate smart contributors

52. Order
co-ordinated, parallel, leveraged

53. listen
lead
play

54. Provide organization and
structure to direct contributions

56. Create small teams, led by strong
contributors, and give them responsibility

57. Elevate discussions with data
and research whenever possible

58. Treat disagreements as negotiations
and don’t forget your BATNA*
(* best alternative to a negotiated agreement)

59. listen
lead
play

60. Give contributors complete
freedom to play and explore

61. Add-ons:
a shared playground for
users and contributors

62. Labs is an incubator for ideas and experimentation

64. listen
lead
play

65. Open, participatory models of design can be surprising

66. match title & url
the original idea
tweaked the
“frecency”
based on feedback
adaptive learning,
new layout to
improve visual
scanning
came out of the woodwork

67. Some things we’re thinking a lot about now

68. Some things we’re thinking a lot about #1:
Browser evolution & competition

69. The Situation 5 Years Ago
IE6: 95%+

70. The Situation Today (300% more circular icons!)
68% 22%
8% 1%
choice & innovation FTW!

71. Where browsers are going...
• Performance like native applications
• More applications
• More persistence
• More context
• More mobile

72. Things we’re thinking a lot about #2:
Global Design: language implications

75. Things we’re thinking a lot about #3:
Global Design: cultural implications

76. Firefox China Edition

77. Things we’re thinking a lot about #4:
Scale, scale, scale

78. 1% of our audience used to be 10,000 users
it’s now 2,500,000 users
20% is 50 million people

79. Questions?
Thank you.
beltzner@mozilla.com
lilly@mozilla.com
unattributed pictures from stock.xchng