User:Dilshak/Welcoming new contributors to Wikimedia Labs and Wikimedia Tool Labs

Welcoming new contributors to Wikimedia Labs and Wikimedia Tool Labs

 * Public URL: Proposal : Welcoming new contributors to Wikimedia Labs and Wikimedia Tool Labs
 * Bugzilla report: (link to the related report at http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org )
 * Announcement: (link to the announcement of your proposal at the wikitech-l mailing list.

Name and contact information

 * Name: Bhagya Kandage
 * Email: dilshak@gmail.com
 * Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka
 * Typical working hours: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. (+0530 UTC) [Available on Request as well]

Synopsis
Proposal wishes to provide solutions and improvements for the difficulties addressed in Welcoming new contributors to Wikimedia Labs and Wikimedia Tool Labs mainly under following sections :
 * 1) Difficulty in matching new contributors with existing projects
 * 2) Need for improvement of documentation for newcomers
 * 3) Inability to distinguish / track active and abandoned projects distinctly.

In order to overcome addressed problems, solution outline of the project proposal mainly consists of following improvements and solutions focused on two main user groups : Solution outline can be sub-categorized as follows : in order to provide better search functionality for users with particular project interests.
 * 1) Random helpful volunteer
 * 2) Specific user with a particular project idea
 *  Improvement of current documentation to provide ease of use for new users 
 * 1) Update documentation to provide gist and introductions where needed, so that a new comer is aware about the relevant page's purpose
 * 2) Adding of document maps, in order to facilitate the user with back and forth navigation, will also build user's awareness on Wikimedia Labs documentation base.
 * 3) Provide graphically enhanced solutions where necessary to facilitate better user experience. Highlight important links where necessary.
 * 4) Improvements on current images added to documentation, include with concise descriptions for better explanation.
 * 5) Use of infographics and illustrations to depict Important information where required. Rather than a wordy description, new users can grasp info easily and effectively.
 * 6) Addition of FAQ and help info, so that user has access to them where required.
 *  Maintenance of available project list and improvements to project tracking 
 * 1) Refactoring of semantic search page where all available projects are listed. Involvement of existing project volunteers to finalize project documentation and status of projects.
 * 2) Grouping of projects into abstract categories and sub categories accordingly. Addition of tags for each project to enhance search.
 * 3) Implementation of proposed process to add flags to keep track of project status (such as new, In progress, Completed, On-hold etc.) Allowing project list data to be sorted according to project status flag as well.
 * 4) Implementation of a separate search tool for project search including advanced search features such as search by
 * 5) project criteria
 * 6) tags/key words
 * 7) project status
 * 8) contributors etc.

5. Use of infographic solutions (such as pie charts) to illustrate details on current projects With depiction of information in such manner, solution can be further enhanced to allow the user to click on a particular portion and navigate to projects in particular status / category. In other words, it will serve as a refined search giving the user the opportunity to directly jump into their area of interest.
 * 1) abstract categories and percentage or number of active projects under each category
 * 2) Percentage of projects in each status (new, on-hold, completed etc.)

Further information related to above suggestions is discussed in detail here : Feedback review on existing issues and required improvements.
 * Possible mentors:

Deliverables
Please describe the details and the timeline of the work you plan to accomplish on the project you are most interested in (discuss these first with the mentor of the project):

About you

 * Education completed or in progress:


 * How did you hear about this program?


 * Will you have any other time commitments, such as school work, another job, planned vacation, etc., during the duration of the program?


 * We advise all candidates eligible to Google Summer of Code and FOSS Outreach Program for Women to apply for both programs. Are you planning to apply to both programs and, if so, with what organization(s)?

Past experience

 * Please describe your experience with any other FOSS projects as a user and as a contributor:


 * Please describe any relevant projects that you have worked on previously and what knowledge you gained from working on them (include links):


 * What project(s) are you interested in (these can be in the same or different organizations)?