Addons-frontend: UX: Badge descriptions may give undesired impression

[hwine]

Describe the problem and steps to reproduce it:

Look at the hover text for both a verified add-on and an official add-on.
Verified:

Official:

What happened?

I interpreted the texts as follows:

• verified is very specific -- I know it is secure
• official is generic -- no mention of security
• For me "specific" trumps "generic", so I infer that there is no security statement about an "official" add-on

What did you expect to happen?

I'd expect that anything we produce and ship under the Firefox brand has been appropriately checked for security and performance to at least the extent of a verified add-on.

Anything else we should know?

(Please include a link to the page, screenshots and any relevant files.)

Even after reading the badge descriptions on SUMO (which I had to be told how to access -- it wasn't obvious to me), there was no material that led me to change my initial impression. Yes, _everything_ is reviewed for security per the sumo page, but:

• the "more specific" code review is again for verified extensions (details of payment and resource availability)
• the ordering of badges can be interpreted as going from a lower level of trust (recommended) to a higher level (verified), with official somewhere in between

[jvillalobos]

I'd be surprised if users question the safety of an extension that is labeled as official. I think that sends a stronger message than Verified. I kinda see your point when comparing the wording in the tooltip messages, but so far this hasn't come up as a problem, I think (beside this issue).

If there's a concise way to give more detail to the "official" message we would be happy to consider it. /cc @MeridelW for content input.

[MeridelW]

SUMO article: The current organization and content does lead me to believe that Recommended extensions exceed Official extensions in terms of security and performance. If this is not the case the article should be updated a bit.

Badging: I don't think Verified sounds more secure or performant than Official, so I would not recommend any badge changes.

Tooltip: I don't see the harm in updating the tooltip copy for the Official badge so that we are consistent across badges in how we talk about security and performance review. It seems like a safe assumption that most users would assume security and performance from an Official extension but, again, I don't see the harm of being crystal clear.

I've left a recommendation in the content doc for a new tooltip and I will add it here, too, for record: _Official add-on built by Mozilla Firefox. Meets security and performance standards._

[jvillalobos]

Thanks, Meridel. The suggested copy for the tooltip sounds good to me: Official add-on built by Mozilla Firefox. Meets security and performance standards. (I think the add-on type like extension or theme is replaced dynamically)

Note that we will need an equivalent bug filed for the Firefox side of this.

[hwine]

Thanks both -- those changes sound like they would address the confusion I perceived. (I experienced no confusion about the badge names, either.)

Re: "most users would assume security and performance from an Official ...", I may be tainted by years of hearing people saying microsoft updates only hurt their system. 😸

[bobsilverberg]

Transferring to addons-frontend, as it sounds like we want to update the tooltip on AMO. As @jvillalobos mentioned, we will also need a bug filed for the Firefox side.

[hwine]

@jvillalobos @MeridelW -- I have no idea what's right, but it looks like there is not agreement on whether the badges represent a hierarchy of trust. (I have no stake in this, and may have mis-interpretted, just making the connection.)

[jvillalobos]

There is no hierarchy. All badged add-ons (Verified, By Firefox, and Recommended) are reviewed based on the same standards and with the same frequency. They only vary in the way they are selected for badging.

[bobsilverberg]

@jvillalobos is the tooltip text "Official add-on built by Mozilla Firefox. Meets security and performance standards." the final version? Also, I don't believe there is anything in place to replace "add-on" with "extension" or "theme". The badges just say "add-on".

[jvillalobos]

@jvillalobos is the tooltip text "Official add-on built by Mozilla Firefox. Meets security and performance standards." the final version?

Yes.

Also, I don't believe there is anything in place to replace "add-on" with "extension" or "theme". The badges just say "add-on".

That's fine. I think it's on the Firefox side where "extension" or "theme" are used.

[AlexandraMoga]

The new tooltip message for the 'By Firefox' badge is visible on add-on detail pages and in search results:

This issue is verified fixed on -dev.