WMDE Engineering/Participate in UX Activities

At Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. we are working on improving the usability and usefulness of Wikipedia, Wikidata, and MediaWiki. You can help us do this by either telling us about your motivations, workflows and problems or by testing new features.

If you would like to participate in user research, and would like to be notified when we need feedback on a new function or would be open to talk about your usual workflows: Please sign up for our mailing list.

Below we give an overview of activities and answers to common questions. If you have other questions or recommendations, please write on the Discussion page or send an email to [mailto:ux@wikimedia.de ux@wikimedia.de].

What happens at a research session?
There are different types of research sessions. Most involve direct communication with a researcher. Usually, this happens online in google hangouts or jitsi video call. The research session is for an allocated time and the researcher will lead you through the process, including sharing all relevant details beforehand.

Common forms of research:
 * A conversation with show-and-tell, where you demonstrate how you do some tasks, so the researcher can better understand how they are done and why.
 * Using a new feature or an updated user interface and ‘thinking aloud’ so the researcher understands better what you do and why. Here is a video that shows ‘thinking aloud’ when trying out a website

Is this a test to see if I use Wiki* correctly?
No. We assume, no matter how you use it, that there are reasons for how you do it. Usually workarounds and “wrong” uses reveal barriers and social values, so they are actually very useful for us to understand and explore.

Why do you have a participants’ list?
The participant list is made up of people who would like to take part in tests, interviews or surveys. Most people also indicate their skill levels and their interests. By collecting this information upfront, we are able to contact the people who the interview or testing is most likely relevant for. This way of contact also reduces messages that are not interesting for many people. For example, if we would just post our messages in the chat or telegram, all experts would read our call for beginners (or vice versa). If this sounds interesting to you, please sign up for our mailing list.

Why is the participant list managed via Mailchimp instead of on-wiki?
For the participant list to be useful, we store contact information (like the email address) and other data (e.g. whether this person is interested in Wikipedia or Wikidata or both). As this is sensitive data, we need to store and manage it safely and in compliance with GDPR, a law that regulates dealing with data. Among other things, the law suggests that: These requirements are hard to comply with without using a specialized tool, such as Mailchimp.
 * people should be informed about how we use the data
 * should give their explicit consent for their data to be stored
 * store this data safely

What happens after I sign up to your participants list?
We will send you an email when we think we could need your help in our research. We select the pool of users we will send emails to based on the questions you fill out at signup.

How often will I get emails?
Announcement emails for possible user research sessions are not very frequent and usually are a mail each month or less. The frequency varies a bit from participant to participant, as we only write emails to people whose profile (as defined in the sign up survey) matches our research needs.

Do I need to be an expert in editing Wikipedia or Wikidata?
No. We want to hear from users with a wide range of experience and beginners are as welcome as experts. We have actually had a shortage of users with less experience to reach out to!

Do I need any specific hardware or software to participate?
The hardware and software requirements are pretty basic. For most kinds of research, you should have a microphone – if you have a laptop, this is usually built-in.

Is there compensation for doing research with Wikimedia Germany?
Starting in 2021, we will compensate for researcher-directed methods which usually require an online- or offline-meeting or even specific preparation by the users. Any research method has a base rate of compensation, roughly scaled to how time consuming the activity is. The base rate is adjusted to the average costs of living at the place you are at.

How is the compensation paid?
Compensation is paid via gift card. We will inform you about the gift card options via email when we are setting up a session. The options depend on the country you are living in. We sadly can’t pay cash. You can also choose to donate the compensation amount to a WM chapter or NGO.

Why is there compensation at all?
The user research is geared at improving the infrastructure, similarly to software development. Thus, it is set apart from the voluntary content and administration work on Wikipedia and Wikidata.

User research should also cover a wide range of users and their activities across cultures to understand the impact of any changes made on the community as a whole, not just the most committed volunteers or those with the most free time. Compensation helps us reach the widest possible range, including those who may not be able to afford to give an hour of uninterrupted time otherwise.

Additionally, we want to follow the Recommendations of the Wikimedia Movement Strategy which says: “While curating, editing and contributing content are the most important activities of our Movement, we know that there are other significant contributions to move us towards knowledge equity and knowledge as a service. These include public policy and advocacy, capacity building, outreach, research, organizing, and fundraising. For the growth and sustainability of our Movement, these activities need to be better recognized and sometimes compensated in certain contexts.”

Will any feedback on Wiki be compensated now?
No. We will only compensate for researcher-directed methods which usually require an online- or offline-meeting or even specific preparation by the users.

There will be no change for giving your opinion on mockups or screenshots on Wiki or for short, Wiki-focused surveys.

There might be some edge cases e.g. like a longer survey, where we need to decide on a case to case basis if there is compensation or not.

What if I can’t take any money?
Many people are not allowed to take any money due to compliance regulations. You are not forced to receive compensation. There is always the option to decline compensation or ask us to donate the money to an organization you choose.