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Topic on Talk:Technical Collaboration Guidance/Cases/ORES

Principle of knowing what you're talking about

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Whatamidoing (WMF) (talkcontribs)

In re Technical Collaboration Guidance/Cases/ORES#Principles, about Point #4:

Could there be some value in providing a simple overview of how to evaluate a product?  It could include things like:

  • deliberately considering other use cases (I'm an experienced editor at the English Wikipedia, but this feature will mostly be used by casual readers at small wikis)
  • figuring out how you compare to other users (If you've made thousands of edits, you are the "top 1%" rather than a typical user; admins, wikignomes, bot operators, article writers and image uploaders all have different needs; etc.)
  • information about how people adapt to changes on websites (Question: How many daily users of Facebook can really picture what the site looked like before its last big redesign?  [Answer:  Almost none.])
  • an acknowledgement that it can be difficult to figure out a plan in the early days (especially before screenshots and prototypes exist), that plans do and should change over time, and the value of asking questions
  • remembering that – no matter who I am – I'm the expert on my personal experience, but I'm not the expert on your personal experience. Part of the product manager's job is to become an expert on the typical user experience for relevant groups, but my personal experience may be unusual even among people who are demographically similar to me. Also, my personal experience may change over time.

I don't think that a page like this needs to be aimed specifically at the editor–WMF dev situation; it could be equally relevant and helpful for someone who is trying to redesign the Main Page or create a gadget.

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