Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements/Repository/Wikimania Stockholm research report

Wikimania provided us with the opportunity to speak with experienced and opinionated community members. Over the five days of the conference we were able to share the plans for our upcoming Desktop improvements project, and collect valuable feedback on design ideas. Our research consisted of user interviews, a free-form feedback exercise, and a presentation with breakout groups for focused discussion. Note: to better understand the context surrounding the various ideas on this page please refer to the main project page, or more specifically the Phase 1 and Phase 2 pages.

Below is an overview of the user interviews by feature. We interviewed 18 Wikimedians in total.

Main navigation / collapsible sidebar
The sidebar contains a lot of useful tools for editors, however is seldom used by casual readers. Making the sidebar collapsible (collapsed by default for logged-out users, and expanded by default for logged-in users) provides a more focused reading experience. Link to prototype

Feedback overview:


 * There was general support for this idea. People agreed that this capability is useful and that a collapsed sidebar makes a lot of sense for readers.
 * The links in the sidebar are currently disorganized and many of them are rarely used by readers or editors, though that’s somewhat of a separate issue.
 * Tradeoff between a focused reading experience and the opportunity for people to explore areas they might not otherwise
 * Is the hamburger icon globally recognizable?
 * By showing fewer entry points for contribution, maybe the ones we do show (e.g. Edit, Talk, etc.) will get more engagement

Quick score: support (9 support, 3 neutral, 1 dislike)

Notes/responses to feedback: an additional idea we discussed, and heard support for, but is not part of the prototype is having the sections within the sidebar be collapsible as well:

For more information on this focus area see mw:Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements/Research and design: Phase 2#Main sidebar navigation

Language switcher
Currently the language links are located in the sidebar, often below the “fold” of the page. Moving language switching to a more prominent location could facilitate easier switching and a greater awareness of Wikipedia’s multilingual offerings. Link to prototype

Feedback overview:


 * There was general support for this idea. People agreed that the language switcher deserves a more prominent location, and liked the placement near the article header.
 * There were some concerns around the idea of collapsing languages (as opposed to displaying the full list).
 * Make sure to use the full language panel with search and settings. This ensures that when you have many languages it’s still a good experience.
 * Could we make it even easier to switch to the desired language? Use geolocation and try to predict?
 * Could we use a more obvious icon?

Quick score: support (9 support, 1 neutral, 2 dislike)

Notes/responses to feedback: the main takeaway from our conversations are that in the cases where people are likely to change languages a dropdown menu may not be sufficiently discoverable. It might therefore make sense to have two different treatments:

Search
Currently the search field is a relatively small element and is only accessible from the top of the page. Increasing the size and prominence of the search field, and making it always available regardless of scroll position would encourage greater exploration and learning. Link to prototype

Feedback overview:


 * There was general support for this idea. People liked search being more obvious, and liked the fixed header that made it available from anywhere on the page.
 * Could we hide it while scrolling down the page, and reveal it upon scrolling up (to preserve as much reading space as possible)?
 * What additional items might valuable in a fixed header?
 * What will happen as a result of the logo getting smaller?
 * Include images and descriptions in the search results list

Quick score: support (10 support, 1 neutral, 1 dislike)

Notes/responses to feedback:

Article navigation / table of contents
Many popular articles are quite long. How do users navigate within articles to find what they're looking for? Currently the table of contents is only accessible from the top of the page (below the lead section). Making it always available regardless of scroll position might allow people to more easily navigate within articles, helping them to find the information they are looking for more easily. Link to prototype

Feedback overview:


 * People mentioned that they don’t use the table of contents often, though they do jump between the top and bottom of the article often.
 * Table of contents is less useful for short articles
 * The placement in the prototype felt unnatural to people
 * People liked having a fixed article header, and wondered what other elements could be included for logged-in users, e.g. article tools (see Article tools section for * further exploration of this)

Quick score: support/neutral (5 support, 4 neutral, 0 dislike)

Notes/responses to feedback: for both this prototype and the search prototype people were intrigued by the idea of a fixed/sticky header and what elements would be useful to have there. There could potentially be a fixed/sticky site header (search, user tools, etc.) as well an article header (article title, toc, page tools, etc.). It could also be possible to combine these into one header. Follow up sketches (more specifically just about article navigation / table of contents):

User tools
By consolidating the user tools in a single menu the interface becomes less cluttered and more welcoming to people who have just created an account for the first time. It also provides a more flexible foundation for introducing additional features in the future.Link to prototype

Feedback overview:


 * There was general support for this idea. People appreciated the cleaner interface.
 * Could it be configurable such that you could choose one or two items to expose as icons outside of the dropdown menu?
 * Note that several popular gadgets add links to this area (e.g. UTC Clock gadget)

Quick score: support (5 support, 1 neutral, 0 dislike)

Notes/responses to feedback: anticipating the need some people will have to expose certain items outside of the menu it would be great if it was easy to specify certain pages and expose them via icons:

Free-form feedback exercise
During the three days of the conference we also displayed a poster of a redesigned desktop interface in a main walkway, with the prompt “''Let’s improve desktop. Thoughts?''”. We placed post-its and markers on a shelf underneath the poster. This resulted in 77 comments (we cleared the post-its off periodically when the poster got full).

Presentation and brainstorm
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