User:Jmorgan (WMF)/Commons Upload Wizard user study

Goals

 * 1) To better understand the motivations and experiences of skilled photographers uploading photos to Wikimedia Commons.
 * 2) To better understand the experience of using Upload Wizard on a tablet computer.

Rationale
Attracting more experienced photographers to our movement could have a positive impact on content quality. However, experienced photographers are an important class of "power" content contributors who are not specifically supported by any current software products.

Experienced photographers often process their photos using specialized photo editing software tools before uploading their photos to social media sites. Over the past few years, tablet computer screens and processors have improved significantly, and there are many photo editing apps available for iOS, Android, and Windows tablets. Some photographers now use tablets rather than laptop or desktop PCs to edit their photos. Many photo sharing services, like VSCO, Flickr, and Instagram, provide tablet-optimized apps that allow photographers to browse, upload, and organize photos. Wikimedia currently lacks a dedicated (maintained) Commons Upload app, so it would be useful to evaluate the feasibility of uploading images on a tablet via the vanilla website using the Upload wizard extension, so that we might have a baseline against which to compare any future uploading interfaces.

Participant
I worked with an experienced photographer on the upload of a photo she had taken and then edited in her preferred editing application (VSCO), from her tablet (Apple iPad Mini 3). The participant had frequently uploaded images to Flickr, Instagram, and Facebook from her tablet. Photography was not the participant's primary means of financial support, although she had been paid for photography in the past. She mostly took and shared photographs for personal fulfillment. The participant had previously released photos under Creative Commons licenses, primarily on Flickr.

The participant had a Wikipedia account and had made several edits to English Wikipedia under that account in the past, but was not a regular contributor. She had uploaded one photograph to Wikimedia Commons before, with the assistance of an experienced Wikipedia editor.

Setup
The setting for our study was a small meeting room at the company for which she worked, during her lunch hour. For the study, the participant was logged in under her Wikimedia Commons account. She had agreed ahead of time to donate her photo to the Commons, and understood the conditions of the CC-BY-SA license. The study took approximately 20 minutes. The session was also audiorecorded, with the participant's permission.

Protocol
The participant was instructed to think aloud, and the investigator took typed notes during the process. During the study, the investigator prompted the participant to resume speaking (thinking aloud) if she lapsed into silence for more than 4-5 seconds during the task. He also asked her questions about her expectations, goals, and impressions at various points throughout the task, for instance if she appeared to exhibit surprise, frustration, or confusion..

Before the participant began the task, the investigator read her the simple task instructions (see "Instructions" below), and then asked her several questions about her background with photography, sharing photos on social media, and with Wikimedia websites (see "Pre-task questions" below). Once the participant concluded her task, the investigator asked her several open-ended questions about her experience (see "Post-task questions" below)

Subsequent to the study session, the investigator conducted a heuristic walkthrough to understand the image upload process in greater detail and to further contextualize the notes he had taken during the study session. During this walkthrough, he also uploaded one of his own photos from the same iPad, after performing some perfunctory editing on it in the same photo editing program.

Instructions
"This is a test of an interface to help people upload images to Wikipedia. Imagine you've decided that, in addition to reading Wikipedia, you want to help build it. Your goal will be to upload a photo that you have taken and edited on your iPad to Wikimedia Commons. Remember, we're testing the interface, not you. If you're having difficulty with something, the problem is with our design. Please think out loud as much as possible; tell us your thought process during each task, and try to explain your choices."

Pre-task questions

 * 1) Have you edited Wikipedia, even once?
 * 2) Have you uploaded images to Wikimedia Commons? If so, why?
 * 3) Have you uploaded images to other websites? If so, which websites, and why?

Post-task questions

 * 1) What frustrated you the most about this task?
 * 2) What surprised you the most about this task?
 * 3) What did you enjoy about the process, if anything?
 * 4) What improvements could have made this process easier or more enjoyable?
 * 5) Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience today?