Onboarding new Wikipedians/user testing

We conducted three remote user tests.

Background
We asked users to complete the following tasks.


 * 1) Create a new account on Wikipedia. (Use any name and password you prefer. Email is optional.)
 * 2) Take a moment to scan this page [Ed. Special:GettingStarted]. What do you think this page is asking you to do? What do you expect to happen next if you click on any of the links?
 * 3) Follow the instructions provided to get started with editing. Take no more than 10 minutes. If you get stuck, don't worry. We're looking to learn how to make this experience easy for people, so detailed feedback really helps, even if you aren't sure what to do.
 * 4) If you're finished, close your browser tab or window. Imagine you might be meeting some friends for dinner, and want to end your Wikipedia session.
 * 5) Now let's say you're back from dinner and want to go back to editing Wikipedia. Open a new browser tab or window, and return to Wikipedia. Please talk through the process. If you're not logged in, please log in again.
 * 6) If you completed an edit in step #4, where would you expect to find this edit?

Test one



 * Did you edit Wikipedia before this test, even once?: No, I have never edited on Wikipedia.


 * What frustrated you the most? What improvements would have made the process easier?: The editor was very stratightforward, however it took me a few moments to see the 'edit' tab, top right. If it were easier to see I would have more quickly understood how to navigate between regular layout and edit.


 * What did you like about the process, if anything?: I liked the editor. It could have been much more imposing and intimidating, but the layout was friendly and easy to understand.

Test two



 * Did you edit Wikipedia before this test, even once?: No, never.


 * What frustrated you the most? What improvements would have made the process easier?: I didn't see anything that I would really consider instructions. There were notes but nothing to walk me through or really explain anything about the process. I would want more step by step 'how to' instructions.


 * What did you like about the process, if anything?: I like that you can edit these pages, but other than that I didn't like much because everything seemed so difficult and too big project.

Test three



 * Did you edit Wikipedia before this test, even once?: No, I did not edit Wikipedia before this test, not once.


 * What frustrated you the most? What improvements would have made the process easier?: What frustrated me the most was not being able to go back and locate my edit. I don't feel the editing process was that hard, just finding what I edited was difficult. I would improve this by adding a button to see what you've edited in the past, that would make it easier.


 * What did you like about the process, if anything?: What I like about the process was the simplicity of it. It seemed pretty easy to do the actual editing.