Wikimedia Apps/Team/Android/Communication/UsertestingJuly2021

Background
The Android team is working to improve communication systems in the Android app. We currently support all notifications and alerts in the Android app.

However, when users are in the app, notifications are not easy to find. We are planning to make them more obvious.

Our July 2021-September 2021 update will make it easier to find notifications in the app and make them more obvious on the lock screen. By December 2021, we will build an intuitive inbox and interface in the notification home center, with the Android system elements in mind.

July 2021 through December 2021 we will focus on logged-in users that have made at least one edit. We will build on our preliminary work from earlier months to make alert awareness for logged-out users better in the beginning of 2022. We plan to explore onboarding experiences to communication tools for users that are logged out – help them find them. This will be in addition to other positive reinforcements and onboarding workflows for logged-in users.

Before making more changes to notifications and messaging in the app, we want to gain an understanding of intuitive placements, features and workflows for our users in the app. This project page collects initial user research. We ask that participants in our research comment on this discussion talk page with their responses to the protocol below or email us at android-support@wikimedia.org.

Research questions

 * When asking a user to check their notifications, in the app, where do they click?
 * Find out about how discoverable the various entry points presented are for notifications (how easy they are to find)
 * What flows and actions do users expect when they have push notifications turned on compared to those that have it turned off?
 * What are the expectations of what a user will see if they click a bell compared to an inbox and what are the drawbacks of having just one set of notifications instead?
 * Do users believe elements of the user talk page should be in the notification center?

Protocol
1) Discoverability: Imagine that you opened your Wikipedia app to check your notifications. Which version of the app makes it clearest to you that you have a new notification? Please describe where on the screen you would tap to get your notifications. Please rank the variants below by how easy it is to find the notification icon/button.

Variant A 👇

9) We currently plan to incorporate an interface for quick reactions / default replies after tapping the aforementioned “Reply” field. In the screen below, you’ll see one of the explorations representing the concept of quick reactions. We are not planning to use emojis but would like to instead leverage common phrases, similar to how we e.g. have templates for welcoming newcomers in various ways or how admins can choose common reasons to block someone. What are some common replies or phrases you use when interacting with other editors on-wiki?

10) We’re currently working to make sure important Wikipedia notifications are seen inside and outside of the Wikipedia app. We are looking at notification reminders (e.g. receive weekly notification reminders about a revert until the notification is marked as read). Notification reminders will be modifiable through user settings. Please select your reaction to this proposed functionality.

A) Yes, I’d love to see this functionality.

B) No, I don’t like this functionality.

C) I am indifferent.

Next steps
Once we have gathered feedback regarding the questions above, we will synthesize it and share a summary, along with updated mocks that incorporated the feedback we've received.

Primary feedback audience
We welcome feedback from all current and prospective Wikipedia editors.

However, we are especially interested in hearing how our tools potentially impact:
 * English Wikipedia editors in India with visual impairments
 * Hindi Wikipedia editors
 * Arabic and French Wikipedia editors in Morocco, Egypt, DR Congo and Mali
 * English Wikipedia editors in Nigeria
 * Indonesian Wikipedia editors
 * Female and Non-Binary Japanese Wikipedia Editors

The groups above have been selected based on 1>Wikimedia Apps/Team/Android/2021Roadmap|research the team conducted earlier this year about how current audiences and potential growth areas in alignment with the WMF Product Strategy.