Mobile summaries

This document outlines ideas for a new mobile web feature intended to make content browsing easier on mobile, as well as to give mobile users an easy, lightweight entry-point into contribution.

Intended user personas

 * Casual mobile reader
 * As a mobile reader, I want some context when I'm looking at lists of articles (e.g., in search, nearby, watchlist), so I have more clarity on the exact topics I'm looking at
 * As a mobile reader, I don't want to have to load a full new article just to get some background/context on something
 * As a mobile reader, I want to help clarify the context of articles I know about so I can be helpful for others looking for the same item

Product objective

 * 1) Add more information to articles that is specifically useful to the mobile reading context
 * 2) Empower casual mobile readers to make useful contributions via mobile

Priorities

 * 1) Create new Wikidata descriptor field entries for articles lacking them
 * 2) Edit existing entries
 * 3) (potentially) flag existing entries as needing improvement

MVP

 * 1) The wikidata descriptor field is shown next to article title for users looking at the mobile view on tablets (on the article, in search, nearby, and watchlist)
 * 2) For articles lacking a descriptor, there is a placeholder CTA on the article
 * 3) Logged in users can add a new descriptor after seeing an in-context tutorial on how to write a descriptor
 * 4) Logged in users can edit existing descriptors
 * 5) On articles with disambiguation built into their titles (e.g., "Sound of Music (album)", the parenthetical context is not displayed in the article (e.g., only "Sound of music" shows), in order to prevent user confusion from too many similar items in one area

Vandalism Considerations

 * 1) If a user sees a vandal description, there should be a quick way of resetting it back to null state, since the edit can't be reverted using the edit history of the page.
 * 2) Reverts to the description will not generate a notification even if a user is opted into Reverts.

Next steps

 * Show a wikidata disambiguation page instead of freeform Wikipedia disambiguation page when following hatnote dab link
 * Allow users to edit the fields from that page

Test plan
We can start by showing the MVP only on the mobile view on tablets in order to test the following hypotheses:


 * Mobile users will find this feature useful for reading/browsing
 * Mobile users will edit and add new descriptors
 * Contributions will be of reasonable quality