Reading/Multimedia/Media Viewer/Improvements



Here is our plan for Media Viewer improvements, to be designed and tested in August 2014, then developed in September and released in October 2014.

Goals

 * Our primary target users for Media Viewer are readers and casual editors.
 * For these users, we aim to make Media Viewer easier to use and more informative.
 * For power users, we aim to make it easy to disable Media Viewer if they don't want it.
 * For all users, we want to address any critical performance or licensing issues.

As part of this new release, we also aim to clarify the relationship between Media Viewer and the File: description page:
 * Media Viewer offers a quick preview for browsing images, right where you are.
 * The File Page remains the place where you can get (and edit) all the details and file metadata.

For more information, view these slides.

User Benefits
We are developing a new 'minimal design' to deliver key benefits more effectively to our target users: readers and casual editors.

Here are the benefits we aim to offer to these casual users, based on feedback we collected through surveys and talk pages. Features or improvements that can support those benefits are shown in parenthesis. We have prototyped these improvements and are now testing them with target users.

Primary benefits

 * preview larger images (click on thumbnails to view them in Media Viewer)
 * learn about the image (read full caption and/or full description)
 * get more details (go to file page)
 * browse related images (next/previous)
 * enlarge image (see original file)
 * disable Media Viewer (cog icon to opt out)

Secondary benefits

 * share this image (copy the file link)
 * download this file (select size you want)
 * find out who created this file (author, source, license)
 * go back to article page (close Media Viewer)
 * re-enable Media Viewer (cog icon on file page)

Prototype
We have created a rough prototype of our new 'minimal design', to deliver the above benefits more effectively to our target users. That new design is shown at the top of this page -- and can also be viewed here.

Here is where you can test the new Media Viewer prototype on our 'slow' alpha site:

Demos:
 * Lightbox demo
 * London
 * Berlin

User Test pages:
 * Rapa Nui National Park (test article 1)
 * New York City (test article 2)

(please don't edit either page, as they are being used for our ongoing user research)

Design and Research
Here are some of the design and research tasks we are working on in August 2014:
 * Design and build a working prototype - √ Done
 * Write a research plan to test how proposed features serve key benefits - √ Done
 * Write a script to validate whether or not each key feature is usable- √ Done
 * Complete the prototype and metrics, so it can be tested starting on 8/21- √ Done
 * Recruit 6 readers, 3 casual editors -- and 3 power users- √ Done
 * Complete user research by Fri. 8/29
 * Complete research analysis by Wed. 9/3
 * Complete design specs by Fri. 9/5
 * Start planned feature development (first features to start on 9/3)
 * Discuss other suggestions for improvement in community consultation (8/28-9/7)

Development Tasks
Here are development tasks we're considering for Media Viewer in September, based on what we are learning from our ongoing user research and upcoming community consultation.

Ready for development

 * Display a more prominent link to the File: page ('More details' button).
 * Show a caption or description right below the image.
 * Expand or collapse long captions or descriptions.
 * Move license label below the caption (link to deed or file page).
 * Enlarge an image by clicking on it (replaces 'view original file' button).
 * Move 'Use this file' and 'Download' buttons to the right side of the image.
 * Remove 'File Usage' list from the metadata panel (other data under review).

Design needed

 * Improve design of 'Disable' function (e.g. smaller 'settings' dialog, disable confirmation guider, don't force re-enable dialog unless you click cog icon)
 * Design 'Enable' function (cog icon over image on File page shows panel to 'enable' Media Viewer on that site)
 * Show clearer indication of authorship (e.g. "By" label -- or an icon before the author’s name)
 * Show a (tm) symbol at the end of the license label if required (e.g. for trademarked logos)
 * Show an indicator near license when supplemental notices are needed ('view terms' link? yellow warning triangle?)
 * Tweak UI for 'Download' function (separate button, panel for selecting sizes, don't start download until user explicitly asks for it)
 * Tweak display of 'View in browser' in download panel (don't show this until the user has selected a file size?)
 * Tweak copy for 'You need to attribute the author' sub-panel (e.g.: 'You must credit the author: Click for attribution and license')
 * Replace tooltip for 'Use this file', to make its use clearer (e.g.: 'Share / Embed')
 * Add a ‘close' icon for the download and share panels?
 * Determine how to display any other legal notices (e.g. personality rights, trademarks)
 * Determine how to display any community-required metadata (e.g. file name, size, resolution)
 * Decide how much metadata to display below the fold (e.g. legal or community requirements)
 * Add links to the help page and the feedback page (e.g. below the fold, or other location TBD)
 * Create a Guided Tour showing what's new when they first see the new design (pointing to to disable option)
 * Improve design of Thumbnail hover menu (e.g.: show 'preview', 'details' and 'settings' - not download)
 * Create mockups/screenshots for key functions above, then upload to Commons (with all credits, use only images we own)

Other improvements

 * Use 'tri-state' preferences to track opt-in, opt-out and default states separately
 * Easier cross-wiki disabling of the tool, if feasible (currently per-wiki, like all preferences)
 * Speed up image load by pre-rendering thumbnails in all sizes on the back-end
 * Only show the description that’s in your language (if there is more than one language).
 * Display performance histogram for MediaViewer and File page
 * Community outreach to improve remaining attribution/display issues with some templates

These proposed tasks will not be scheduled until we get the research analysis; but in the interest of time, we are preparing development cards for them now, for later prioritization.

Related pages

 * m:Community Engagement (Product)/Media Viewer consultation, project summary and update, with current discussion on its talk page
 * Multimedia/About_Media_Viewer, project rationale