What is OCA and how does it affect users?

We arrive at second of the Mozilla Foundation study in which They tell us what OCA is and how it affects users. If superhero movies have taught us anything, it's that villains always have a plan and when they insist on explaining it, it's time for the good guys to break free and triumph. We'll see if this article Series gives the same result

OCA is the English acronym for Architecture of online elections.  This paradigm refers to the way in which the design of the online environments in which people interact and make decisions is determined.

What is OCA and how does it affect users?

According to Mozilla, certain design options and user experience can unconsciously affect the consumer by defining if, how and when people make decisions about your devices. That is why developers, when determining the parameters of the design, take into account the desired results.

The authors of the Mozilla report are not very subtle when it comes to communicating their opinion to us. The title of this section is "Operating Systems' Tactics to Undermine Consumer Choice." And, in case we missed it, he subtitles us: “How Online Choice Architecture is Used to Eliminate Consumer Choice and Control”

A couple of paragraphs later take care to clarify that OCA is not necessarily a bad thing:

OCA in operating systems could be used in a positive way to help people choose among similar products by pre-installing options that are the best choice for most people in a specific region.

Let me give an example of my own. At some point (I don't know if it still does) the Manjaro Linux distribution decided to install the Softmaker FreeOffice office suite which, by implementing the Microsoft Office document formats natively, had better compatibility with the files created with it. Many users protested that they preferred the open source office suite LibreOffice. The developers then decided that at the time of installation the user would determine which of the two he wanted to install.

Another example is the Ubiquity screen, the Ubuntu installer that asks us if we want to do a full installation (including office suite, video player, music collection manager and email client) or a basic installation after which we we can choose which program to install using the software center.

But then they warn us:

However, this same OCA practice it can also be used in a negative way if the pre-installed option is not aligned with the best interests of most people and instead pushes people towards a product that benefits the OS developer.

I still think Mozilla underestimates consumers. No one is going to use a product that doesn't work for them just because it's there or comfortable. Many of the users who bought computers with Windows Vista went to the trouble of taking them to technical support and paying to have Windowx XP installed.

Although I agree with the authors of the study that people balance the time and energy they have with the amount of homework they have to do, it seems to me that eare using this as an excuse to hide their own mistakes in Firefox's design decisions. Pay attention to the following quote:

Shortcuts can help people make decisions. For example, instead of doing endless research on what browser options are available to them, people can focus only on software that is available on the home screen or offered by a well-known brand.

For platforms with market power, OCA can be misused to maintain this market position, leverage this power in adjacent markets, and influence consumer choices.

my question is then Why does Chrome have more users on Windows than Microsoft Edge when they both use the same rendering engine and their plugins are compatible?

In the next article we continue talking about the OCA and its influence on us users