Reading/Web/Advanced mobile contributions/Navigation prototype feedback

Over the past couple of weeks we have been working on iterating our mobile navigation design ideas based on the feedback we received from editors during Wikimania and afterwards. Below is the updated prototype for our navigation. We are interested in your thoughts on the layout of the navigation, as well as on the expanded set of links available. Any and all comments are appreciated!

Instructions

 * 1) Please go to the prototype on a mobile device: https://people.wikimedia.org/~pmiazga/mobile_contributions/
 * 2) Create a new section on this page using the form below (it will be pre-filled with the questions for you to respond to).
 * 3) Fill in your feedback in your newly created section.



ⓘ If you would prefer to send feedback via email, please send to Olga Vasileva at olga@undefinedwikimedia.org.

⚠ Keep in mind that since this is a prototype most of the links don’t actually work, and there might be other bugs or quirks that you’ll come across. ⚠ The new section form unfortunately isn't compatible with the visual editor (VE). If you are using the visual editor, please manually create a new section and copy & paste the feedback questions (listed below).

Preview of feedback questions
1. What Device and browser are you using?

Take a minute or two to orient yourself. Click around the mobile navigation at the top of the page and see what is different. Keep in mind that since this is a prototype most of the links don’t actually work, and there might be other bugs or quirks that you’ll come across.

2. What are some of your initial impressions (do you find anything confusing? Convenient? Particularly notable?)

3. Is anything particularly hard to find?

4. Is anything missing?

Try navigating to the following places, adding any feedback you have

5. An article’s talk page

6. Search

7. Your own talk page

8. The wikidata item for a page

9. The history of a talk page

10. Community portal

11. Your sandbox

12. Notifications

13. Final thoughts? Anything goes...

Daylen
1. What Device and browser are you using? iPhone 6 and Safari

'''Take a minute or two to orient yourself. Click around the mobile navigation at the top of the page and see what is different. Keep in mind that since this is a prototype most of the links don’t actually work, and there might be other bugs or quirks that you’ll come across.'''

2. What are some of your initial impressions (do you find anything confusing? Convenient? Particularly notable?) As a Wikipedia editor, I realize that the star icon is for adding a page to your watchlist; however, it seems more like an add to favorites button for the general public. The languages button looks more like a translate button, I would rather see it in the search or up to the right of the article title. The history button should be moved up with article and talk. The language/watchlist/history/edit toolbar shouldn't scroll down with the page, I doubt someone would change the page's language in the middle of an article. Under the user icon, the beta button seems to just be cluttering the interface, it can already be accessed under preferences.

3. Is anything particularly hard to find? The edit button is definitely harder to find that it should be. A text label should go along with it, as the icon is unclear.

4. Is anything missing? I'm not sure how it would handle banner templates. Categories and navboxes are still missing.

Try navigating to the following places, adding any feedback you have

5. An article’s talk page The new section button is super unclear. No message that this is about discussing changes to the article, not a general message board about the topic. The prototype is missing edit buttons next to the sections.

6. Search The Wikipedia wordmark stays in place while typing the search. Also, the search doesn't work (nothing happens when I press enter).

7. Your own talk page The search doesn't work.

8. The wikidata item for a page The link under the menu isn't working.

9. The history of a talk page Very cluttered. The text went from very spaced out to squeezed. The links are so small now, they are hard to press. A back to article button should also be present.

10. Community portal None of the links in the hamburger menu function on my phone.

11. Your sandbox Link not working. However, I can see the link turn grey when I click on it, which unveils that the shovel icon has a white background.

12. Notifications I really like this; however, an exit button should be in the top right corner.

'''13. Final thoughts? Anything goes...''' Dark mode, please!

Amire80
1. What Device and browser are you using?

Samsung Galaxy S7, Firefox.

'''Take a minute or two to orient yourself. Click around the mobile navigation at the top of the page and see what is different. Keep in mind that since this is a prototype most of the links don’t actually work, and there might be other bugs or quirks that you’ll come across.'''

2. What are some of your initial impressions (do you find anything confusing? Convenient? Particularly notable?)

The icons are spread evenly along the top bar. Not especially useful, but not bad either.

3. Is anything particularly hard to find?

The languages icon is the important thing for me. It is at the same place, so it's not worse than it used to be. However, I have a strong suspicion that a lot of people who would read it in a different language don't know that "文A" means "You may find your language here". It's an icon that designers on several websites use, but I don't know how well was it tested with users who actually need to find a different language.

4. Is anything missing?

Nothing that I can immediately see.

Try navigating to the following places, adding any feedback you have (note: most of the links don't actually work when you tap them, just find them in the nav if you can)

5. An article’s talk page

Found the "Talk" icon underneath the title was easy, and clicking it did what I expected. Great! (Now, if only writing on talk pages was as convenient...)

6. Search

It's at the top, at the usual place. No comments.

7. Your own talk page

Tapped the person icon, and the "Talk" icon was there. Pretty OK.

8. The wikidata item for a page

"View Wikidata item" under the three dots menu. Found it quickly and easily. It's the one that I'll probably use the most often!

9. The history of a talk page

The clock icon in the middle of the bar. Easy to find. It's a shame that the history page has such a messy and outdated design :(

10. Community portal

Under the three-stripes icon, easy to find. It will be a challenge to make the actual page work well in all languages, though, because it's heavily customized everywhere differently.

11. Your sandbox

Easy to find under the Person icon. I doubt that it's very useful, though. Sandbox was useful on the desktop fifteen years ago, when people needed to play with wiki syntax a lot. By now the focus on both mobile and desktop should be on letting people do things intuitively immediately without having to test in a sandbox. The wiki approach is supposed to be focused on letting all people edit quickly and not on learning wiki syntax tricks.

12. Notifications

In the bell icon, easy to find.

'''13. Final thoughts? Anything goes...'''


 * 1) Please see the interlanguage links icon comment above. It deserves its own attention and testing with people who are not experienced editors like I am. In particular, it will benefit the most from testing by showing people an article in a language they don't know and seeing whether they are able to find an article in a language they do know. This is supposed to be this icon's real purpose.
 * 2) "Download PDF" is not so necessary for Wikipedia articles when using Firefox on Android. The browser has its own PDF saving function and it works very well, even in hard to display languages such as Urdu and Burmese. I don't know about other browsers, however. It's possible that the "Download PDF" button will be popular in some countries that need better offline reading support, but you should give some thought to whether it should be so prominent to everybody. I'd imagine, for example, that the Wikidata button would be much more useful for
 * 3) Same for "Print". I never printed anything from my phone. Maybe it will be useful for some people, but please think whether it should be so prominent.
 * 4) (Going back to languages yet again, one could argue that reading in other languages is also something that not everybody needs, but this does have to be discoverable because the people who need it, really need it.)