Documentation/Audiences for Wikimedia technical documentation

Who's using your technical documentation?
Audience profiles, user personas, developer stories, user stories, user journies, etc. can be very useful tools when you want to picture the people who are using your technical documentation.

This page contains a list of audience profiles for Wikimedia technical documentation. The goal is to provide details about the types of people who visit our sites looking for technical information that will enable them to understand and support our projects. Each person has a different journey. Audience profiles give us insight into that journey. What are the motivations, needs, and frustrations of the people coming to Wikimedia sites in search of technical information? What needs and requirements do different audiences share in common?

We can use these profiles to inform the creation of specific documentation for target audiences and to guide decisions about how to prioritize, craft, and organize technical documentation that better serves the needs of multiple audiences.

Universal experience
Different people arrive at Wikimedia sites by different methods and with different motivations and different goals. While their experiences and needs may be different, they share some common expectations.

Each person who comes looking for documentation and information should find it easy to:


 * Know where to begin
 * Understand what resources are available to them
 * Find what they need to complete their task
 * Read and follow the documentation
 * Understand how to make contributions of their own

Better practices
The audience profiles and user stories listed here are not exhaustive; they do not cover every possible user or scenario. Creating and organizing technical documentation for a large, diverse group of users is a monumental task, and while it's an admirable goal to try to serve everyone, it may not always be possible to meet everyone where they are at. Describing specific audiences and identifying where their wants and needs intersect is an exercise that can help guide us in the curation of quality documentation for a greater number of users.

Whenever possible, strive to follow consistent practices when creating and organizing technical documentation to create a better experience for everyone who interacts with technical documentation on Wikimedia technical projects regardless of which audience or audiences they belong to.

For example:


 * Follow an agreed-upon style-guide
 * Follow community guidelines
 * Provide real, clear examples

Criticisms
The quality and usefulness of the audience profiles described here are limited by the knowledge and experiences of the people who create them. Some audiences may be obvious; others may not. If you are aware of additional audiences and stories not listed here, please share your thoughts on the talk page for further discussion.

Don't assume the information here will tell you everything you need to know about a given audience. Make sure to test your assumptions (and your technical documentation) with real people.

Considerations
This section needs additional work
 * Accessibility
 * Translation
 * Inclusion

Audiences
This section needs a lot of work!

MediaWiki users
End-users of sites that use MediaWiki. Not necessarily for Wikimedia projects. Not necessarily experienced developers.

User stories

 * I want to run my own wiki using MediaWiki.
 * I want to customize my wiki experience in my browser.

MediaWiki developers
Focused on MediaWiki software, not necessarily for Wikimedia projects.

User stories

 * As a PHP developer, I want to develop new functionality for MediaWiki.
 * I want to contribute documentation related to MediaWiki software.

Wikimedia developers
Focused on developing tools, bots, and scripts and improving the software that supports Wikimedia projects.

User stories

 * As an experienced developer, I want to contribute to a Wikimedia open source project.
 * I want to automate maintenance tasks for a Wikimedia project.
 * I’m interested in what the Wikimedia technical community is doing.
 * I want to contribute documentation to a Wikimedia project.

User stories

 * I want to automate maintenance tasks for a Wikimedia project.
 * I want to contribute documentation to a Wikimedia project.

User stories

 * I want to use Wikimedia Enterprise to reuse Wikimedia content at a large scale.

User Stories

 * I want to contribute documentation to a Wikimedia project.
 * I want to use Wikimedia data in my research or data analysis.

Newcomers
Individuals who are new to the Wikimedia technical community.

Experience levels

 * I am an experienced software developer.
 * I have some software development skills.
 * I am interested in software development but have little or no experience.
 * I am an experienced researcher.
 * I am new to the open source community.

User stories

 * I am interested in what the Wikimedia technical community is doing.
 * I want to understand how to complete a specific task related to Wikimedia technical projects.
 * I want to understand a specific concept related to Wikimedia technical projects, MediaWiki software, or open source software, in general.
 * I am interested in working with data and have heard that Wikimedia projects are a good place to start.
 * I am new to open source and have heard that Wikimedia technical projects are a good place for new contributors to start.
 * I am looking for opportunities to contribute to open source to build my development skills or to gain experience for employment.
 * I want to contribute to technical documentation.

Other possible audiences

 * Students (at a variety of levels)
 * System administrators
 * Wikidata stakeholders
 * Open source community members (curious about Wikimedia projects)
 * Interns and mentees working on projects through Outreach programs (not necessarily newcomers to Wikimedia projects)