Research Source Journey

[ninavizz]

We know between nothing and very little about Sources. Most of us working on SecureDrop too often fall-back on stereotypes of who Sources are (hint: Ed and Chelsea are statistical outliers), which is a disservice to both Source and Newsroom users.

Our understanding of Source users and their needs can and should change, as more funding becomes available to support UX work on SecureDrop in 2019 and beyond.

Goal of this work

• To create and share concrete, easily consumable evidence from research, that product, outreach, funding, and training resources may directly draw from as evidence to support our work.
  • A majority of what is today pointed to as user research wrt Sources, is anecdotal knowledge.
  • On an aside from being anecdotal, little of this knowledge is documented in a central, easy to access, consistent, or consumable fashion.
  • As knowledge that is both anecdotal and not documented, inconsistencies in facts or interpretations are probable.
  • It would help volunteer contributors and FPF staff alike, for a modest library of known factual evidence to exist, that all contributors may draw from and build upon.
• To gain visibility into pain-points and opportunities not currently known in the experience for Sources.
• To highlight pain-points and opportunities for Newsrooms, that begin with the Source experience.

We cannot make evidence-based decisions, when we're all either speculating, citing anecdotal knowledge known to some but not all, or when there's inconsistencies in either facts or in the interpretation of facts—which is often the case with passive and undocumented knowledge gathering.

Rough outline with ideas for how to accomplish

Newsroom experiences are dependent upon good Source information & correspondence, and we can't lose sight of that.

This is something I've been thinking about and would really like to pursue. All participants would need to be offered modest compensation, and this seems like an appropriate study to work with a recruiting agency for.

1. Rough Source user-profiles would be developed from where I left-off in 2016, in conjunction with a separate study with customer newsrooms to build profiles of Sources based on emotional and cognitive factors (so, yes—anonymity preserved & no story/tip details revealed).
2. Around the US & some of Europe, users would be recruited through Craigslist and professional community groups and screened against a survey that will seek to measure commitment to ethics, while also capturing demographic/professional details. Possibly working with a recruiting firm to do this, would be good—need to explore how much that would cost.
3. Study would consist of meeting with users in 3-5 geographic locations; multi-task this effort with other research efforts requiring meatspace moderation.
4. In each session, hand the user a scenario custom-tailored to their line of work, activism, or interest domain. Then ask them to submit files they've collected with the "tip" to 2 separate news organizations; each org, having SecureDrop.

Measure...

• Which method do they each choose to submit through?
• What is their experience with each newsroom's tips/contact page?
• If they do not seek-out using SecureDrop, track their experience anyway.
  • How did they find the non-SD experience?
• If they don't initially seek-out SecureDrop, then ask them to submit through SecureDrop
  • How do they find the SD landing pages for both newsrooms?
  • How do they find today's SD Source experience?
  • How do they feel afterwards?
• Ask each to follow-up on SecureDrop in 1 week.
  • Does anyone?
  • Additional gift-card as incentive, likely to be necessary

[huertanix]

A side note: @zenmonkeykstop and I are planning to look through examples of recent publicly-known not-secret whistleblowers and what their attempts to leak documents have looked like for a source guide we're collaborating on. Not sure if this would be useful for your research but we can probably share whatevs insights we find might help inform the design side of things.

[ninavizz]

SO much would be helpful! Let's definitely combine our superpowers on this!!

These things I started on, back in 2016, and would love to build upon 'em: https://drive.google.com/open?id=18Q9QtgQu_eKm1-2--1oJe5YSbbZeYxdW

(See page 3 of PDF, and spreadsheet—the latter, compiled from googling while binge-watching Breaking Bad)

TBH, I think the rest of the world needs to know more about this stuff. I don't believe newsrooms do the best outreach to Sources, and do believe this kinda research could help not only us—but other projects done in support of newsrooms, too. :)

[ninavizz]

Related issue that this would could address: https://github.com/freedomofpress/securedrop/issues/3177

[ninavizz]

Would love your input and/or thoughts on this, @ei8fdb! :)