Wikimedia Apps/Team/iOS/Watchlist

This page talks about the Apps Team work to bring the watchlist feature to iOS.

It contains information about the goals of this work, the past efforts that have influenced it and why we have prioritised the watchlist feature.

Background
As the Wikipedia community continues to grow and evolve, listening and responding to our users' needs and requests is crucial. One such proposal that has resonated with many users is implementing the Watchlist feature within our Wikipedia apps. This feature enables users to maintain a list of articles they're interested in, making it easy to stay updated on their changes and edits.

Objective
Our primary objective is to enable our users to track changes to articles by saving them to their watchlist, rollback and revert changes on the Wikipedia iOS app.

Hypothesis
We believe that we will increase the number of edits from experienced editors. We also believe we will increase edits from new and infrequent editors making share of edits more comparable with pageviews and installs. We believe that users will be able to mitigate vandalism faster on Wikipedia faster using the Watchlist feature.

Testing our Hypothesis
We will test our hypothesis by monitoring data in for the iOS app in the following target growth regions:


 * Northwestern Europe (Great Britain and Ireland, Northern Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Northern France, Belgium)
 * United States of America & Canada

Northwestern Europe was selected due to the proportionate number of edits compared to installs. We believe we can enable editors in this region to edit more by enhancing their watchlist experience and making it easier for them to track and monitor articles of interest. The US & Canada was selected based on data that shows disproportionate edits compared to pageviews and active installs. We believe we can increase the number of editors to be more proportionate to the number of active installs.

Key Performance Indicators

 * 5% Increase in edits from experienced editors in Northern and Western Europe
 * 10% increase in edit activity from US and Canada
 * 10% higher completion rate with undo and revert than web
 * 60% of users that engage with watchlist feature report it helping them mitigate vandalism faster and overall satisfaction with feature

Additionally, when we will conduct usability testing, we will look for a diversity of users to ensure the functionality is used by people from a wide variety of groups. We will be hoping to include testers that speak Spanish, Chinese & Punjabi. We are also hoping to diversify the age groups, visual abilities and genders of the people we get feedback from.

User Benefits
The Watchlist feature is designed to cater to the diverse needs of our users. Based on our research, our users use the watchlist feature for the following purposes:


 * 1) To prevent vandalism - Users can monitor and contribute to the articles they follow, ensuring the content's accuracy and reliability.
 * 2) To keep up with the news - By following articles related to current events or topics they're interested in, users can stay informed about the latest updates and developments.

Why is the Watchlist Feature Important?
The Watchlist feature is important for several reasons:


 * 1) Enhanced user experience - It allows users to stay informed about changes to the articles they care about, fostering a more engaged user experience.
 * 2) Ownership and responsibility - It promotes a sense of ownership and responsibility among users, as they can keep track of and contribute to the articles they follow.
 * 3) Increased user retention - It encourages users to stay active within the community, driving user retention and participation.

Why Native Implementation Matters
The Watchlist feature being native is important for several reasons:


 * 1) Mobile-first experience - Native integration allows users to remain in the app for contributions and access their watchlist offline, ensuring a seamless experience.
 * 2) Accessibility - A native implementation ensures that the feature adheres to the user's font/theme settings, supports offline access, and is compatible with screen readers.
 * 3) Personalization and customization - Users can personalize their watchlist experience through theming and other customization options.
 * 4) Innovation - A native watchlist feature supports multilingual feeds, allowing users to follow articles in multiple languages.
 * 5) Safety - Native implementation helps mitigate vandalism by providing tools to monitor and report suspicious activity.
 * 6) Continuity - Users can benefit from features like filters, watchlist expiry, and a count of articles being watched, ensuring consistency across platforms

iOS watchlist page created on MediaWiki. We are currently iterating on early stage designs. We are discussing and describing tasks.