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讨论页计划/可用性

问题追踪器： #owc2020
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This page is a translated version of the page Talk pages project/Usability and the translation is 26% complete.
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于Phabricator查看
任务T249579
维基媒体基金会的项目
Talk page usability improvements
Help contributors recognize and use talk pages as spaces for discussion.
群組： Editing
开始： 2021-04-01
成员： Bartosz Dziewoński, David Chan, David Lynch, Esther Akinloose, Marielle Volz, Rummana Yasmeen, Nicolas Ayoub, Sherry Snyder, Benoît Evellin
积压工作： #owc2020
主导： Ed Sanders
管理： Valerie Puffet-Michel (engineering), Peter Pelberg (product)

本页介绍了Editing team 将要做的工作，以帮助人们本能地识别和使用讨论页作为与维基上的人交流的空间。

这项计划在讨论页工程 之内，我们的团队付出了更大的努力，帮助不同经验水平的贡献者使用讨论页更轻松地在维基百科上进行交流。 为了实现这一目标，我们正在以2019年討論頁諮詢 和现有的社区惯例为基础，以逐步发展讨论页的视觉外观，以确保与当前体验的向后兼容性。 要参与并关注此项目的开发，我们建议您将此页面添加到您的监视列表中。 我们将使用此页面来：

  • 分享和邀请有关设计的反馈
  • 宣布部署计划
  • 共享有关功能使用方式的数据

What changed?

The new look for talk pages (screenshot of French Wikipedia).

The following changes have been deployed as the final product:

  • We changed how the talk page's main title, adding a space after “Talk:”, and all section titles look, now using Sans-serif.
  • The buttons for replying, subscribing, and starting a new topic appear in a bolder typeface, instead of looking like a regular link.
  • For Vector 2022 users, the table of contents shows the number of comments within a topic.
  • We added meta-information at the top of the talk page (link and date for the latest comment).

状态

Screenshot showing the suite of [[mw:Talk_pages_project/Usability|desktop Usability Improvements]] enabled at ko.wiki.
Desktop Usability Improvements enabled at ko.wiki.

Deployment

On 6 May 2024, the set of Usability Improvements (desktop) were made available to all:

  1. Wikis that participated in the A/B test
  2. Sister projects except Commons and Wikidata

Visit Talk pages project/Deployment Status to learn more.

Wikis that participated in the A/B test are informed of the deployment of the Usability Improvements as the default experience on talk pages.

An option to opt-out these changes is available in preferences (uncheck the "Show discussion activity" option).

A/B Test Findings Published

The findings from the A/B test designed to evaluate the suite of desktop talk page design changes are available for you to review.

A/B Test

On 8 May, the A/B test we mentioned in April started at the following Wikipedias:

  • Azerbaijani (azwiki), Bengali (bnwiki), Dutch (nlwiki), German (dewiki), Hebrew (hewiki), Hindi (hiwiki), Indonesian (idwiki), Korean (kowiki), Persian (fawiki), Portuguese (ptwiki), Romanian (rowiki), Thai (thwiki), Turkish (trwiki), Ukrainian (ukwiki), and Vietnamese (viwiki).

On 1 June, we confirmed sufficient data had been gathered to begin an analysis to assess the impact of the suite of changes the Usability portion of the broader Talk Pages Project. In July, we expect results to be ready for the Editing Team to share and for us to collectively make sense of.

2023年4月

The Editing Team is planning an A/B test for Usability features on the desktop site. See phab:T302358 and Talk pages project/Usability/Analysis.

A screenshot showing the [[mw:Talk pages project/Usability|Usability improvements]] enabled at cs.wiki for everyone (logged in and out) using the Vector (2022) skin.
Usability improvements enabled at cs.wiki for everyone (logged in and out) using the Vector (2022) skin.

Today, the suite of Usability Improvements became available to everyone (logged in and out) by default at the Czech and Hungarian Wikipedias who are accessing talk pages with the Vector (2022) skin enabled.

All Usability features are available to all editors using the mobile site.

Seeking Design Feedback

A screenshot showing the talk page's existing "Add topic" button styled in a more noticeable way and placed in a more prominent location at the top of talk pages.
The proposed revisions to the "Add topic" button in the Vector (2022) skin.

There is a prototype ready that we would value feedback on: https://patchdemo.wmflabs.org/wikis/e22ef06cf7/wiki/Talk:DiscussionTools

The prototype introduces two changes:

  1. The "Add topic" button appears in a more prominent location on the page (above the existing page toolbar that contains actions links like "Page," "Discussion," "Read," "Edit," "Edit source," etc.)
  2. The "Add topic" button is styled differently

The two changes described above are an effort to make it easier for people to quickly locate and easily "reach for" the button for starting a new discussion topic.

→ Please visit the talk page to share what questions/ideas/concerns this change brings up for you.

Page Frame Features Available at Most Wikis

Next week, people accessing all Wikimedia wikis (except en.wiki) on desktop who have the Show discussion activity setting enabled within Special:Preferences, will see new information on talk pages about the level of activity happening within them.

See the 11 January update for details about the specific changes you can expect.

A screenshot of a talk page with the following new design elements highlighted: the number of comments within each talk page section, when the latest comment was published and the title of the section it was published within, and the addition of a space in the page's title
Screenshot showing the "Page Frame" features that are being made available on desktop talk pages.

Page Frame Features Available at Partner Wikis

On Tuesday, 17 January, people accessing the Arabic, Czech, and Hungarian Wikipedias on desktop who have the Show discussion activity setting enabled within Special:Preferences, will see the following new features on talk pages:

  1. A visual space between the "namespace" and "page" name portion of a talk page's title
  2. An indicator that describes, and links to, the latest comment published on a given talk page
  3. Information within the table of contents about the number of comments within each section

Usability Improvements in All Talk Namespaces

Next week, people at all Wikipedias who have the Show discussion activity setting enabled within Special:Preferences, will see Usability Improvements when they visit any page within a talk/odd-numbered namespace (e.g. Wikipedia talk, File talk, MediaWiki talk, etc.).

Update to Reply button
新外观，在移动设备上用于所有语言版本。 如果单词“回复”是一个或两个字符（阿拉伯语、中文、日语、泰语北部语、粤语），也可以在桌面上使用。
新外观，在桌面上用于大多数语言。 对在参数设置中启用了显示讨论活动设置的用户可见。
最开始的外观。 对在参数设置中不启用显示讨论活动设置的用户可见

添加箭头以提高無障礙 。

桌面版默认不包含箭头。 配置是按语言全局设置的，而不是按维基设置的。 如果您认为您的语言应该包含箭头，请按照请求wiki配置更改中的流程进行操作。

新的回复按钮样式
标记了新更改的屏幕截图

清除提示（桌面）部署

9月27日，出现在桌面讨论页上的新的回复按钮样式可供捷克语和匈牙利语维基百科上启用了讨论工具测试版功能的用户使用。

明天（10月18日），这个新的回复按钮样式将在大多数其他维基百科上可用。 在T320683查看更多。

主题容器（桌面）部署

标记了新更改的屏幕截图

今天，主题容器在英语和德语维基百科的桌面上可供所有启用讨论工具测试版功能的用户使用。 有关此部署的更多详细信息，请参阅 T315625。

在接下来的几周内，我们计划：

  1. 在桌面上向启用了讨论工具测试功能的日语维基百科志愿者提供桌面主题容器。 参见T318127。
  2. 为阿拉伯语、捷克语和匈牙利语维基百科桌面讨论页上出现的[ 回复 ]链接提供新外观。 参见T315626。

主题容器（桌面）部署

8月30日星期二，主题容器作为测试功能在所有维基媒体wiki上提供，英语，德语和日语维基百科除外。

原因是，我们正在这三个wiki上运行一个中央通知活动，以收集反馈关于可用性改进套件。 一旦这些活动完成运行，并且我们理解并回复了反馈，我们将在这三个维基百科上提供桌面主题容器作为测试功能。

新的“添加主题”按钮的设计已准备好供大家查看。

显示新的“添加主题”按钮的模型，该按钮可能出现在桌面的讨论页上，供启用了Vector（2022）皮肤的用户使用。
建议的“添加主题”按钮设计的模型。

此更改旨在让人们更容易注意到和访问桌面讨论页上的“添加主题”按钮，而人们无法访问新的站点范围的粘性标题和现在出现在其中的“添加主题”按钮。

请访问讨论页以分享有关设计的反馈。

您在这里看到的设计灵感来自cs.wiki，en.wiki，fi.wiki和fr.wiki等项目，这些项目已经实现，使人们更容易识别和访问“添加主题”/“新部分”链接，尤其是在较长的页面上。 在T267444查看更多。

使主题容器（桌面）在更多wiki上可用

Yesterday (17 August), Topic Containers became available as a Beta Feature on desktop at all Wikimedia wikis except de.wiki, en.wiki, and ja.wiki.

In the coming weeks, following additional prototype testing, we will offer Topic Containers on desktop at the remaining three wikis mentioned above.

Second deployment

The initial desktop Topic Container deployment seems to have gone well. Accordingly, we are planning to make Topic Containers on desktop available as a Beta Feature at all Wikimedia wikis except de.wiki, en.wiki, and ja.wiki before August is over.

If/when this timing changes we will share an update here.

First deployment

On Wednesday, 20 July, Topic Containers (the new talk page section heading design) became available as a Beta Feature at the first three Wikipedias: Arabic (ar.wiki), Czech (cs.wiki), and Hungarian (hu.wiki).

Over the next few weeks, we will offer Topic Containers as a beta feature at all Wikimedia wikis. This timing assumes we do not discover any significant issues.

In the meantime, if you would like to see what a live talk page looks like with Topic Containers enabled, try visiting hu:User talk:Tacsipacsi (make sure the "Discussion tools" feature is enabled in Beta Features).

Design updates

A screenshot showing the design of desktop talk pages in the Vector 2022 sin as of 8 July 2022.
Desktop talk page design (Vector 2022) as of 8 July 2022.
A screenshot showing the design of desktop web talk pages as of 8 July 2022.
Desktop talk page design (Legacy Vector) as of 8 July 2022.
A screenshot showing the design of mobile web talk pages as of 8 July 2022.
Mobile talk page design as of 8 July 2022.

Over the past couple of months, people have shared feedback about the initial designs we published in May.[1][2][3] This feedback has been helpful in leading us to see the need for making a series of adjustments to the design. You can the latest designs in the screenshots that accompany this update.

Some of the changes we have made in response to the feedback you all have shared include:

  • Removing the arrow that previously appeared before each "Reply" link
  • Adding the ability for people to click the "Latest comment" indicator and be taken to the most recent comment in the discussion
  • Removing the icons that previously accompanied the metadata that is shown beneath each talk page section heading

First deployment

Before July is over, we plan to offer the new talk page section heading design as a Beta Feature at an initial set of wikis.

You can see and try the new talk page section heading design right now by visiting talk page.

A screenshot showing prototype of Usability Improvements designs.
Screenshot showing the Usability Improvements prototype.

A prototype is ready for you all to try the talk page visual changes.

These changes are designed to make it easier for people to understand and use talk pages on desktop and mobile.

Please visit the talk page to find the information you will need to:

  • Try the prototype
  • Share feedback about the prototype

A mockup showing the proposed new design for desktop wikitext talk pages.
Annotated mockup of new design for desktop wikitext talk pages.

Mockups are ready for the changes designed to make it easier for people to understand and use talk pages on desktop and mobile.

In the next few weeks, a prototype will be ready for you to try out these changes on a test wiki.

In the meantime, a question for you all: What ideas, questions, or concerns do these mockups bring to your mind?

Knowing this will help the team decide whether adjustments ought to be made to the designs prior to inviting you all, and other volunteers from across the Movement, to share feedback about them.

You can review these designs in more detail and share feedback about them on the talk page.

The Topic Containers prototype we mentioned on 11 March is ready for testing.

To try the desktop prototype, please visit Prototype/Topic Containers where you will find a link to the prototype as well as instructions for trying and sharing feedback about the prototype.

The team is continuing to iterate on the Topic Containers designs for both mobile and desktop talk pages.

A screenshot showing a proposed design for mobile talk page section headings
A proposed design for mobile talk page section headings that includes new metadata about the discussion.

In the next 1-2 weeks, we will have an initial prototype ready for you all to experiment with and share feedback about. We will also be starting a series of CentralNotice campaigns for volunteers to review and share feedback about the Topic Container prototype which will include:


  • New styling for == H2 == section headings
  • New metadata about talk page discussions. This will include: the number of people who have commented in a discussion, the last time a new comment was published in the discussion, and the total number of people who have participated in the discussion to-date.

A series of mockups exploring different ways section headings on talk pages could evolve.
A series of Topic Containers design concepts.

Seeking Feedback: Initial "Topic Container" Design Concepts

An initial set of design concepts for Topic Containers is ready for you all to review (see screenshot).

These Topic Containers are an effort to evolve the way talk page section headings ( == H2 ==) appear, and introduce new information within them, to help:

  1. Junior Contributors easily recognize talk pages as containing discussions
  2. Senior Contributors assess the level of activity on talk pages

📣 We would value you reviewing the design concepts and sharing what you think of them on the talk page, so the team can know what changes to explore in the next set of designs we will share in January (2022).

Design work beginning

Design work on Topic Containers – the first intervention we are working on as part of this phase of the Talk Pages Project – is underway.

In the coming weeks, you can expect to see some preliminary sketches posted here for you all to review and for us to talk about together.

In the meantime, if any questions are on your mind about this part of the project, please post them to the talk page.

We need your help

When looking at a talk page, what do you think would make it easier for you to know what conversations are worth reading? Please share what you think on the talk page.

The thoughts you all share will inform the design of the "topic containers" we will start designing soon. These "topic containers" are intended to help people more easily and quickly recognize talk pages as containing conversations and get a sense for the level of activity happening with them.

Strategy

In June, we published the design strategy and set of interventions we are planning to work on as part of the larger effort to help people, across experience levels, identify and understand the conversations happening on talk pages. You can read more about this strategy.

The team has compiled the research that is informing the approach we will take to help Junior Contributors quickly recognize talk pages as spaces to communicate with other volunteers and locate the tools available to do so and help Senior Contributors can quickly evaluate the level of activity happening on talk pages. More information about this can be found in the Objectives and Background sections below.

In the coming weeks, you can expect this page to be updated with the particular interventions we are planning to work on as part of this phase of the project. Before then, you can review how we are planning and organizing this work in Phabricator at T249579.

The team is planning to begin work on the incremental enhancements needed help people instinctively recognize and use talk pages as spaces to communicate with people on-wiki will begin in earnest in ~3 months.

In the meantime, we will be expanding this this page to include the research that is motivating this work and the impact it is intended to have.

Objectives

This work to make wikitext talk pages more legible is intended to cause:

  1. Junior Contributors to quickly recognize talk pages as spaces to communicate with other volunteers and locate the tools available to do so.

[4][5][6]

  1. Senior Contributors to be able to quickly assess what conversations on a given talk page are worth focusing on.

Impact

Analysis #2: Impact

To learn whether the suite of desktop talk page design changes were effective at causing the impacts they were designed to cause, we conducted an A/B test.

At the 15 Wikipedias that participated in the test, 50% of people who were logged in were shown the new talk page design and 50% were shown the existing experience on desktop talk pages.

We then compared how these two groups of people engaged with talk pages in service of making the following decision: Are the set of Usability Improvements on desktop fit to be made available to everyone, at all Wikimedia wikis, by default?

What follows is a summary of what we learned through this A/B test and ultimately, the conclusion we are drawing from it.

You can read the full test report and learn more about the thinking behind this A/B test.

Learning objectives

To what extent have the suite of desktop talk page design changes been effective at causing the following?

  1. Junior Contributors quickly recognize talk pages as places to communicate with other volunteers and locate the tools available to do so.
  2. Senior Contributors are able to quickly assess which conversations on a given talk page are worth focusing on.

Conclusion

This set of desktop talk page design changes resulting in increased engagement and decreased disruption is leading the Editing Team to be confident that offering these Usability Improvements as default-on features would have a net positive impact on wikis and the people who contribute to them.

Findings

Bar chart showing the rate at which edits are reverted, grouped by experience level
Revert rate for talk page edits in A/B test, grouped by experience level.

Revert rate.

Defined at the proportion of published talk page edits, of all types, that are reverted within 48 hours.

  • Overall: we observed an 11% decrease (-0.4 percentage points) in the revert rate of talk page edits by people shown the suite of desktop talk page design changes across all participating Wikipedias and all editor experience levels.
  • Experience level: when we analyzed revert rate by editor experience level, we observed...
    • A 12.5% decrease in the revert rate of talk page edits made by Junior Contributors (<100 cumulative edits)
    • A 7.4% decrease in the revert rate of talk edits made by Senior Contributors (>100 cumulative edits).
  • Desktop skin: when we analyzed revert rate by desktop skin type, we observed...
    • A 6.3% increase (3.2% → 3.4%) in the revert rate of edits made by people using the Vector skin
    • A 30.8% decrease (3.9% → 2.7%) in the revert rate of edits made by people using the Vector 2022 skin

Edit completion rate

Defined as the proportion of talk page edits that are started and successfully published (not reverted within 48 hours).

  • Overall: People shown the suite of desktop talk page design changes were slightly more likely to complete an edit that they started. We observed a 3.3% increase (+2 percentage points) in edit completion rate across all participating Wikipedias and all editor experience levels.
  • Experience level: when we analyzed edit completion rate by experience level, we observed...
    • A 1.6% increase (43.8%→44.5%) in edit completion rate among Junior Contributors (<100 cumulative edits)
    • A 3.6% increase (66.8%→69.2%) in edit completion rate among Senior Contributors (>100 cumulative edits)
  • Desktop skin: when we analyzed revert rate by desktop skin type, we observed...
    • A 2.1% increase (62.4% → 63.7%) in the revert rate of edits made by people using the Vector skin
    • A 5.3% decrease (59.9% → 63.1%) in the revert rate of edits made by people using the Vector 2022 skin
A bar chart showing the percent of desktop talk page views that included an edit attempt
Percent of talk page views by Junior Contributors that included an edit attempt

Block rate

Defined as the proportion of people who publish talk page edits and are subsequently blocked.

  • We did not observe any significant changes in the number of users blocked after publishing a desktop talk page edit.
  • Overall: 0.5% of users shown the suite of desktop talk page design changes were blocked compared to 0.6% of users who were shown the existing experience across all participating Wikipedias and all editor experience levels.

Talk page engagement

Proportion of Junior Contributors that visited a desktop talk page and made an attempt to edit.

  • Of all the visits to desktop talk pages that Junior Contributors made throughout the A/B test, Junior Contributors shown the suite of desktop talk page design changes interacted with the page in 16.7% more talk page views (+1.4 percentage points) than those shown the existing experience.
  • We observed an 19% increase (+0.7 percentage point) in the proportion of talk page views by Junior Contributors that included a saved edit.

Timing

This analysis was completed on 27 June 2023 and analyzed how people engaged with desktop talk pages at az.wiki, bn.wiki, de.wiki, fa.wiki, hi.wiki, he.wiki, id.wiki, ko.wiki, nl.wiki, pt.wiki, ro.wiki, th.wiki, tr.wiki, uk.wiki, and vi.wiki from 8 May 2023 through 28 May 2023.

Analysis #1: Engagement

To learn whether the suite of desktop talk page design changes were negatively impacting peoples' experiences using Wikipedia talk pages, we conducted an initial analysis at the three Wikipedias where these features were first made available by default: ar.wiki, cs.wiki, and hu.wiki.

This analysis was meant to help us answer the following question:

Are the set of Usability Improvements negatively impacting other peoples' experiences using Wikipedia talk pages?

The answer to this question was a key factor in helping the team decide whether these new features were fit to be deployed more widely and evaluated through an A/B test.

Timing

This analysis was completed on 12 April 2023 and analyzed engagement data at ar.wiki, cs.wiki, and hu.wiki during the following time periods:

  • cs.wiki and hu.wiki: 28 February 2023 - 29 March 2023
  • ar.wiki: 05 March 2023 - 3 April 2023

The time periods were selected to collect engagement data two weeks before and two weeks after making the suite of desktop talk page design changes available by default at the participating wikis.

Findings

A bart chart showing desktop talk page revert rates by experience level at ar.wiki, cs.wiki, and hu.wiki during spring 2023
Desktop talk page revert rates by experience level at ar.wiki, cs.wiki, and hu.wiki during spring 2023

Revert rate

  • Overall: We did not observe any changes in the overall desktop talk page edit revert rate pre- and post-deployment across the three participating wikis. The overall revert rate pre- and post- deployment was 4.3%.
  • Editor Interface: When we analyzed the revert rate by editor interface type, we observed a -17% percent decrease in the revert rate of desktop talk page edits made with visual editor and a -4% decrease in the revert rate of desktop talk page edits made with wikitext following deployment of the feature.
  • Experience level: When we analyzed the revert rate by experience level, we observed a -18% decrease in the revert rate of desktop talk page edits by Junior Contributors (under 100 cumulative edits) following the deployment of the feature; compared to 4.5% increase (+0.1 percentage points) for Senior Contributors (over 100 cumulative edits).
A bar chart showing desktop talk page edit completion rates by experience level at ar.wiki, cs.wiki, and hu.wiki during February and March, 2023.
Desktop talk page edit completion rates by experience level at ar.wiki, cs.wiki, and hu.wiki during February and March, 2023.

Edit completion rate

  • Overall: We observed a -4.8% decrease in desktop talk page edit completion rate across all three participating wikis. There were no sudden increases or decreases in daily edit completion rates following deployment of the feature.
  • Editor Interface: We observed a slight increase (< 1%) in edit completion rate for desktop talk page edits made with visual editor and an -11% percent decrease for desktop talk page edits made with wikitext following deployment of the feature.
  • Experience level: We observed was a 10.2% increase in talk page edit completion rate for Junior Contributors and a slight decrease (-1.3%) in edit completion rate for Senior Contributors.

Block rate

  • Overall: We did not observe any significant changes in the number of users blocked after publishing a desktop talk page edit. Less than 1.5% of users were issued a sitewide block pre and post deployment across all three participating wikis.

Opt-out rate

  • Overall: A total of 48 distinct users across all three participating wikis turned the feature off.
  • Activity level: Less than 1% of the total number of users who made a desktop talk page edit attempt following the deployment of the usability improvements (2,122 people) disabled the feature during the reviewed time period.

Full Report

Usability Improvements Engagement Analysis


Strategy and approach

Strategy: "Inch towards legibility"

We will make incremental and optional changes* to elevate the core talk page components (e.g. topic headings and conversation metadata) and calls to action (e.g. replying to a comment, starting a new discussion, subscribing to a topic, etc.). We will seek changes to improve peoples' ability to:

  • Recognize talk pages as space to communicate with other people
  • Identify and understand the conversations happening on talk pages
  • Know what to do to engage with talk pages

*We are using "optional changes" in this context to mean that new functionality will be developed in ways that ensure people retain the flexibility to turn it off.

Approach

We will work to deliver on the strategy above through three phases, the details of which are outlined below.

It is important that volunteers' needs and expectations are heard and incorporated into the design process. To do this, we will publicize the questions and decisions that guide the implementation of each of the phases below and make sure this information is easy to engage with.

Phase 1: Topic containers

A screenshot showing the new design of level 2 section headings on desktop talk pages at cs.wiki.
Topic Container (desktop) at cs.wiki.

First, we will evolve how talk page section headings (read: ==H2==) are visually represented and introduce discussion-specific metadata within these headings.

"Discussion-specific metadata" in this context refers to information like: the last time the conversation was edited, the number of comments in the conversation, the number of unique people who have participated in the conversation, etc.

More information can be found in T269950.

Phase 2: Affordances

Next, we will make the affordances for responding to specific comments and starting new conversations easier for people to identify and access.

More information can be found in T267444 and T255560.

Phase 3: Framing context

In this last phase, we will introduce new page-level visual elements to help people immediately recognize talk pages as places where editors communicate and for them to assess the activity happening within the talk page they have landed upon.

Mockup of appearance change to Level 1 page title
Current
Talk:Example page
New style
Talk:Example page

More information can be found in T269963.

This set of changes will include:

  • A visual space between the "namespace" and "page" name portion of a talk page's title
  • An indicator that describes, and links to, the latest comment published on a given talk page
  • An "Add topic" button that will appear in in the sticky header Vector (2022) introduces (desktop only)
  • Information within the new table of contents Vector (2022) introduces about the number of comments within a section

Design

  • A mockup showing the proposed design for mobile wikitext talk pages.
    Proposed design for mobile wikitext talk pages.
  • An annotated mockup showing the proposed design for the mobile wikitext talk pages landing page view.
    An annotated mockup showing the proposed design for mobile wikitext talk pages (landing page view).
  • An annotated mockup showing the proposed design for the mobile wikitext talk pages individual discussion view.
    An annotated mockup showing the proposed design for mobile wikitext talk pages (individual discussion view).
  • A mockup showing the proposed design for desktop wikitext talk pages.
    Proposed design for desktop wikitext talk pages.
  • An annotated mockup showing the proposed design for desktop wikitext talk pages.
    An annotated mockup showing the proposed design for desktop wikitext talk pages.

Background

The Editing team is committed to evolving wikitext talk pages in a way that gives experienced contributors more leverage to coordinate their work and connect with other editors, while making the same communication and coordination practices and capabilities legible and intuitive for newer contributors.

For these wikitext talk pages to be valuable, Junior Contributors need to intuitively recognize them as spaces to communicate with other volunteers and Senior Contributors need to be able to spend minimal effort understanding the conversations happening on a given page.

The trouble is, volunteers across experience levels report the current presentation of wikitext talk pages can make recognizing talk pages, understanding the conversations happening within them, and identifying what they need to click/tap to participate in these conversations unnecessarily difficult.

Specifically, user feedback [8][9][10][11][12][13][14], usability tests[15][16] the Talk Page Consultation (see: #Newcomers, #Confusion, and #Design), and academic research[7] have highlighted the difficulties people have reading and using talk pages:

Talk pages and their current configuration proved confusing...For [some] participants, it took more than 4-5 minutes to understand the Talk page itself which was “disorganised” making it “difficult to take part in the discussion.”
—Understanding and improving Wikipedia Article Discussion Spaces
I don't know what it means really to start a new discussion. Because none of this looks like a discussion.
—Junior Contributor usability test participant
I often have trouble visually parsing long discussions on the WP:Help desk, for example. Sometimes, a discussion will involve three or more people and/or have five or more posts. Spacing between posts is not standardized, nor are signatures, nor is indentation, nor is the length of posts. Sometimes, people become confused and respond as if one person is the author of what another user has written.
—User:Quisqualis writing in Navigating within long-winded discussions...
I felt I had to scan the page a lot for what i needed, as different elements didn't really stand out. It wasn't really obvious that i was looking at a message from someone...
—Junior Contributor usability test participant

By making the components that comprise talk pages conversations (e.g. conversation topics, conversation boundaries, comments, etc.) and the tools necessary for participating in them easier for people to parse, we are striving to:

  1. Increase the likelihood Junior Contributors quickly recognize talk pages as spaces to communicate with other volunteers and locate the tools available to do so and
  2. Increase the likelihood Senior Contributors can quickly evaluate the level of activity happening on talk pages.

History

Many projects, conversations and research have, and are, working to improve contributors' experiences with talk pages. This project is better off for their existence. Some of the projects the team continues to learn from are listed on the main project page and below. If there is a project you think we should be aware of, please boldly add it here.

Glossary

The Talk pages project glossary is intended to help us all communicate about talk pages more effectively by making sure we have a shared understanding about the words we use in our discussions and documentation throughout the project.

References

  1. ↑ Talk:Talk pages project/Usability/Prototype
  2. ↑ Talk:Talk pages project/Usability#Share Feedback
  3. ↑ Wikipedia talk:Talk pages project#Prototype Ready for Feedback
  4. ↑ Talk pages project/Replying
  5. ↑ Talk pages project/New discussion
  6. ↑ Talk pages project/Notifications
  7. ↑ http://jodischneider.com/pubs/sac2011.pdf
  8. ↑ https://w.wiki/SjF
  9. ↑ w:Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab)#Navigating within long-winded discussions by way of a visual parsing cue
  10. ↑ https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Topic:Vjl9e4d6kwjbtbxf&topic_showPostId=vkpbxx1ce8slir61#flow-post-vkpbxx1ce8slir61
  11. ↑ https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Topic:Usulqlnsa9lga0wx&topic_showPostId=v6unq0z6vtyipzts#flow-post-v6unq0z6vtyipzts
  12. ↑ w:Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab)/Archive 34#Thinking about a radical reduction of talk page banners
  13. ↑ w:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-03-24/Dispatches
  14. ↑ User:Wiesios
  15. ↑ phab:T257281#6344895
  16. ↑ Flow/Moderated Testing, November, 2014: talk pages and Flow
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