Will Automatically Importing User Data Help Overcome the Blank Slate Problem? Jennifer L. Davidson Senior User Researcher Firefox, Mozilla Seattle, WA, USA jdavidson@mozilla.com Saptarshi Guha Data Scientist Firefox, Mozilla San Francisco, CA, USA joy@mozilla.com Jofish Kaye Principal Research Scientist Emerging Technologies, Mozilla Mountain View, CA, USA jkaye@mozilla.com Peter Dolanjski Product Manager Firefox, Mozilla Kitchener, ON, Canada pdol@mozilla.com Michael Verdi Senior Interaction Designer Firefox, Mozilla San Antonio, TX, USA verdi@mozilla.com Gemma Petrie Senior Staff User Researcher Firefox, Mozilla Chicago, IL, USA gpetrie@mozilla.com Michelle Heubusch Content Strategy Lead Firefox, Mozilla Chicago, IL, USA mheubusch@mozilla.com Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). Copyright held by the owner/author(s). CHI’18 Extended Abstracts, April 21–26, 2018, Montreal, QC, Canada ACM 978-1-4503-5621-3/18/04. https://doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3188542 Abstract The ’blank slate problem’ - the difficulty of initial use upon using a new program - is a common user experience problem. In this paper, we explore one solution: importing data from a similar product. Our team created a feature for our browser onboarding process that automatically imports data from the user’s pre-existing browser. We then conducted remote, unmoderated usability studies and quantitative experiments. Our initial findings show that autoimport can solve the blank slate problem by getting users started quickly with the browser, but introduces issues related to perceived privacy and performance. We provide recommendations that can impact design decisions related to user data and user perceptions of their privacy, particularly as it relates to tech proficiency. ACM Classification Keywords H.5.2. [User Interfaces]: User-centered design Author Keywords onboarding; software onboarding; import; automatic import; user data; perceived privacy Introduction This paper focuses on the issue of importing user data into a newly downloaded web browser. Internet usage and desktop/laptop ownership are widespread. As of November CHI 2018 Late-Breaking Abstract CHI 2018, April 21–26, 2018, Montréal, QC, Canada LBW596, Page 1