Wikimedia Apps/Team/Android/Communication/UsertestingOctober2021

Other languages:	Bahasa Indonesia • English • Français • العربية • हिन्दी‎ • 日本語

Instructions

On your computer create a new section on this page using the form below (it will be pre-filled with the questions for you to respond to).
Fill in your feedback about the prototype in your newly created section.
Hit publish

Please note: Your answers will be publicly viewable.

A form will be provided for mobile users pending approval from Legal. Alternatively, you can send your responses to android-support@wikimedia.org.

Background

We want to help effective communication between users in the Wikipedia Android app to improve Wikipedia. Our goal is to create a simple and better communication interface to lower barriers for working with other Wikipedians and increase confidence while improving the wikis.

Protocol

1. When do you want to communicate with other users on Wikipedia? In what kind of situations? Please select one or multiple answers below.

a) When undoing (reverting) an edit

b) When improving an article

c) When noticing a helpful edit

d) When patrolling content

e) Reviewing pages on my watchlist

f) Inviting other users to questions

g) When I want to talk about policy or big decisions

h) Other (please provide more info)

2. Describe how you got to the point of communicating in one or multiple of the situations above.

3. Besides talk pages, what tools do you use to communicate with other editors in- and outside of Wikipedia? And how do you use these tools?

4. Should user and article talk pages work and look the same or differently? Why?

User talk page in the current version of the Wikipedia for Android app
Article talk page in the current version of the Wikipedia for Android app

5. Which of the three variants do you prefer to go to an article talk page?

Variant A
Variant B
Variant C

6. Why do you prefer the variant you chose to go to the article talk page? Please describe.

7. Which of the three variants do you prefer to view an article talk page?

Variant A: Right sheet
Variant B: Bottom sheet
Variant C: A separate screen

8. Why do you prefer the variant you chose to view an article talk page? Please describe.

9. Which of the three variants do you prefer to go to your user talk page in the app?

Variant A
Variant B
Variant C

10. Which of the two variants below do you prefer to search for other users on Wikipedia?

Variant A: Searching users via the main search field of the app. Users can be searched by typing a User: prefix before the username.

Navigating to the search input field in the Explore feed
Search for other users by typing the prefix 'User:' followed by the username

Variant B: Searching users via a special field to find users in a new Wikipedia community area of the app. In the screens below, we call the new area in the app “Community”. Users can be searched by directly typing the username.

The user search field in a possible community area in the app
Typing the username without a 'User:' prefix

11. Imagine one of your recent contributions on Wikipedia was undone, because it contained information from an unreliable source. The user who undid the edit also left a message on your user talk page. You get a notification about the revert and the message on your talk page. You tap the revert notification and find yourself on the diff view, which displays differences between article edits. Which of the three variants do you prefer in the described scenario?

Variant A: Diff view of the revert
Variant B: Diff view with info about the new talk page message
Variant C: Diff view with info about the new talk page message and direct reply functionality

12. We are currently thinking about adopting reply functionality that has been introduced on Desktop Wikipedia . How do you feel about the reply functionality on Desktop? Is there other functionality you would like to see on article and user talk pages for the Android app?

13. Please watch this prototype video of suggested responses when replying to other users on a talk page and answer the following questions:

a) Please tell us about your first impression.

b) What other functionality you would like to see here?

c) What common phrases do use when communicating and which ones would like to see pre-populated?

14. We are curious about what other communication functionality you would like to see in the Wikipedia for Android app. Please rank the following feature ideas by your personal priority:

Private messaging: Send private messages to other users directly on Wikipedia, e.g. with a non-public direct messaging system. Here is some inspiration from other services:
Chat rooms: A space to meet and interact with other Wikipedia users in your area or grouped by interest. Here is some inspiration from other services:
Onboarding to talk pages for newcomers: Educate and guidance to new users about “What are talk pages?” What are talk pages used for?” or “Where do I find talk pages?”
Visual editing and no code on Mobile: More intuitive usage of talk pages, e.g. by featuring inline replies, e.g. contextual/custom Wiki keyboards for better ergonomics, improved handling of typing in multiple languages
Archiving of sections, e.g. allow users to close sections
Voice input: a more voice input driven approach to communicate on Wikipedia, e.g. listen to messages, create audio messages via dictation, voice calls with other users or better speech recognition to better support typing with voice.

15. Can you tell us more about why you made the choices in the previous question?

16. Do you have other feature ideas related to communication for the Android app?

17. Thanks for participating, we appreciate it! Please use this space here to provide any further comments.

Research questions

When do users want to communicate with other users on Wikipedia?
What other tools do people use to communicate outside of Wikipedia?
How do users prefer to access user talk pages?
How do users prefer to access article talk pages?
Do users desire to look up other users on Wikipedia?
How can edits discussions be made more efficiently for users?

Survey Results

The team received 54 responses. Survey respondents were English Wikipedia editors in Nigeria and India, Japanese Wikipedia editors, Hindi Wikipedia editors, Indonesian Wikipedia editors, as well as French and Arabic Wikipedia editors in DR Congo, Mali, Egypt and Morocco.

Question: When do you want to communicate with other users on Wikipedia? In what kind of situations? Please select one or multiple answers below.

Listed below in order of popularity are the answers we received to the question above.

When improving an article
When undoing (reverting) an edit
Inviting other users to discussions
When noticing a helpful edit
Reviewing pages on my watchlist
When I want to talk about a policy or big decisions
When patrolling content
New articles
Typographical errors and Wrong grammar
When the ban is released
When I browse content

Question: Describe how you got to the point of communicating in one or multiple of the situations above.

Listed Below is the synthesized version of the responses we received to the question above:

Direct Communication and encouragement from another user
Observing senior editors
After encountering an article Talk Page
To ask for assistance
Received a revert
Through other channels like social media
When avoiding making a direct edit to an article to not seem impolite

Question: Besides talk pages, what tools do you use to communicate with other editors on- and outside of Wikipedia? And in what situations do you use those tools?

Listed below in order of frequency you will find the response we received to the question above:

Does not use other channels
Social Media
Text Messages
Email
Telegram
Communicate on Commons

Question: Should user and article talk pages work and look the same or differently? Why?

There wasn't a general consensus to this answer. Some users felt strongly that the two should work and look differently. One respondent stated "There are too many specifications that only 'experienced users' can understand. I think that a drastic renewal is necessary." Some respondents believed they could look somewhat different but work the same. A user suggested making the user talk page appear more casual than an article talk page. There were also users that preferred they look and operate the same as Desktop. There was also mention that Article Talk pages should contain WikiProject information and notices at the top. Another user asked for more attractive templates to make talk pages more interesting. It is noteworthy that non-English users were more in favor of user and article talk pages appearing differently.