Mobile/2013 strategy planning



For previous strategy planning, see: Mobile/2013 strategy planning/Archive

Background
The mobile team is working to reach its target of 1,000 unique uploaders per month at the end of this quarter. For mobile web, we’ve already built some features and are planning some others – you can see the ones we’ve already created below in Current upload workflows, and the ones we could potentially work on through the end of March in Potential/planned workflows.

However, we should still be prepared in case we fall short of our goal with our current features. Help us come up with more crazy, brilliant ideas – use the Other ideas section to brainstorm other possible features/workflows for getting users to upload via their mobile device.

Lead image upload CTA
A call to action to upload an image to articles that have no images or infoboxes in the lead section.


 * Pros
 * Easy for new users to do and understand.
 * Doesn’t require educating newbies about the Commons/Wikipedia distinction.


 * Cons
 * Unknown: how many articles fit the heuristic (have no lead images or infoboxes) and can actually be illustrated with a self-created photo?
 * Requires a high element of serendipity (user is in the right place at the right time, both physically and on Wikipedia)
 * It’s a one-time thing – user can only upload one lead image

Uploads dashboard
A call to action to donate an image to Commons via a persistent link in the left nav. Not associated with any articles.


 * Pros


 * Users can upload practically anything, and as much of it as they want
 * Creates a persistent work queue for anyone who wants to upload


 * Cons


 * Not obvious to users where their photos are going
 * Users expect to see their photos added to articles, which may not ever happen
 * Planned upload workflows

Upload/share via Commons (app)
The ability to take photos and upload them to Commons, and convert existing photos into the appropriate format and share via Commons.


 * Pros


 * Empowers power users


 * Cons


 * Will probably be better for depth (getting a small number of people to upload lots of files) than breadth (getting lots of people to upload at least one file) because of the very specialized nature of the uploading app.

Nearby
A call to action to add images to articles nearby that lack them.


 * Pros


 * Substantially increases the efficacy of the lead image upload workflow
 * Creates a persistent work queue for anyone who wants to upload


 * Cons


 * Still has some element of serendipity (user must be in a place around which there are a lot of articles lacking images)
 * Still a one-time thing, and if user exhausts list of articles nearby them, they can’t find more

Article image galleries
Allow users to add to existing photo galleries in articles, and/or create new galleries in articles and allow users to add to them


 * Pros


 * Galleries could potentially be infinite, allowing anyone to add their own photo of the Golden Gate Bridge to the GGB article


 * Cons


 * Adding this gallery to desktop may break Wikipedian expectations of their role as content curators and be controversial. May potentially have to be a mobile-only feature, which might confuse desktop and mobile users.
 * May require curation/patrolling – higher community workload

Non-lead image uploads
Give users the ability to add photos to articles that already have them, dragging to the appropriate section


 * Pros


 * Dramatically expands the possible list of articles that can carry an upload CTA


 * Cons


 * Requires high technical overhead: futzing with markup.
 * Image positioning can get strange when they start to pile up, making articles look broken
 * Unknown: how common is it for an article to need images in the non-lead section?

Update outdated images
A call to action for users to add a newer version of images that are out of date.


 * Pros


 * Together with Nearby, can expand the set of articles that users can add images to


 * Cons


 * Requires some method of tagging images as outdated
 * Still has some element of serendipity
 * Unknown: how many images are actually out of date?

Other ideas
Your ideas here!

Older planning doc

 * Mobile/2013 strategy planning/Archive