Wikipedia.org add mobile app badges

From mediawiki.org
MOCK - Wikipedia.org add mobile app badges discussion - iOS mobile (portrait) with wiki view

What we'd like to do...[edit]

The Discovery team would like to add links to the Wikipedia apps near the bottom of the wikipedia.org portal page; this will provide an introduction for our visitors who are interested in, or prefer to use, the platform-native mobile apps. It's a change that makes sense to the portal team, but we want to ask the communities for feedback and suggestions.

The rationale behind this addition[edit]

  • The Mobile Apps teams have created two applications that can be downloaded from the Google Play for Android or the Apple iTunes store for iOS.
  • These apps are designed to encourage users to dive deeper into any particular subject, to look up random facts or to conduct in-depth research.
  • Both apps rank in the top 50 apps in the Reference category for both Android and iOS; each has met with favorable reviews.
  • The apps include features that extend the idea of discovery, such as the iOS "Explore" feature.
  • It appears that not many users of Wikipedia know about these two free apps; adding these links will raise awareness.
  • The WMF would like to provide a non-intrusive method of discovery for these apps, unlike previous solutions which used banners.
  • Other organizations, such as Mozilla's Firefox and Wordpress utilize their central landing pages (or portals) to provide links to their mobile offerings.

Who will this help?[edit]

The people that will most benefit from this addition are readers of Wikipedia, particularly those visiting the Wikipedia.org portal from a mobile device browser. The addition of these links to the apps will enhance the user experience natively, on their specific mobile platform. We know that daily mobile device usage is increasing day by day and we would like to offer them an alternative way of accessing Wikipedia.

At this time, we are only going to provide the app badges for the Wikipedia apps on the Wikipedia.org portal page. There are other apps that are available and free for download, such as the Commons app, that are available in Wikimedia.

How will it be done?[edit]

  • The badges will be shown only to those visitors to the portal that are using mobile devices.
  • The displayed badges will be specific to the type of mobile device:
    • the Android app download badge will only display on Android mobile devices.
    • the iOS app download badge will only display on iOS mobile devices.
  • The badges will link directly to the free Wikipedia apps, for Android or iOS devices.
  • The badges are not vendor-specific (Apple, Google), but are designed to follow the aesthetic design of the Wikipedia.org portal.
    • Design mockups are below and to the right (on this page).
  • The badges will appear at the bottom of the page, below all existing portal content.
  • The download app links will use a specific URL that will count how many downloads of the apps were initiated from the portal page.
  • Phabricator tracking ticket

Why should we not do this?[edit]

  • Might take visitors away from the portal
  • Apps are maturing and adding new features, so there will be occasional updates
  • Adds another button or navigation to the portal page
  • Encourages users to move into walled gardens
  • Android app tracks users in opt-out manner instead of opt-in like iOS
  • Linking to Google Play doesn't work for people who run Android without Google proprietary stuff

[historical] What we need next...[edit]

The feedback period has now been CLOSED! Thanks for all your suggestions and comments!
  • We'd like interested community members to provide feedback on adding Wikipedia branded app badge images and a free download link to the Wikipedia.org portal page.

Draft mocks[edit]