Growth/Focus on help desk/uk

Ця сторінка описує роботу Команди зростання над проєктом «Фокус на довідковій службі», і містить основні активи, дизайни на рішення. Більшість поступових змін буде публікуватися на загальній сторінці оновлень Команди зростання, а деякі великі або детальні оновлення публікуватимуться тут.

Саму довідкову панель, яку ми розробили для підтримки цього проєкту, що детально описаний на цій сторінці, будь-хто може спробувати у тестовій Вікіпедії, створивши там обліковий запис, увімкнувши довідкову панель на сторінці Налаштування/Редагування сторінки, а тоді натиснувши «Редагувати» на будь-якій сторінці.

Станом на вересень 2019 року, ми завершили аналізувати експерименти, які показали, що довідкова панель не мала впливу на активізацію чи утримання новачків. Тому ми не будемо працювати над просуванням цієї функції, і натомість зосередимося на домашній сторінці новачка та завданнях новачка. Див. деталі щодо результатів експерименту тут.



Поточний стан

 * 2019-09-30: завершено експерименти з довідковою панеллю й опубліковано основні результати.
 * 2019-07-22: довідкова панель впроваджена в арабській Вікіпедії як A/B-тестування; половина новачків її не бачили.
 * 2019-03-26: опубліковано.
 * 2019-03-04: показ довідкової панелі під час читання у просторах назв Довідка, Обговорення довідки, Вікіпедія, Обговорення Вікіпедії, Користувач та Обговорення користувача.
 * 2019-02-28: довідкова панель впроваджена у в'єтнамській Вікіпедії як A/B-тестування; половина новачків її не бачили.
 * 2019-02-14: можливості пошуку впроваджені для окремих груп у чеській та корейській Вікіпедіях.
 * 2019-01-11: довідкова панель впроваджена у чеській та корейській Вікіпедіях як A/B-тестування; половина новачків її не бачили. Щоб переглянути запитання з довідкових панелей у цих вікі, перейдіть на відповідні довідкові служби:
 * Чеська довідкова служба
 * Корейська довідкова служба
 * Далі: ми працюємо над поступовими функціями заохочення користувачів ставити запитання, покращення результатів їхніх пошукових запитів та зростання імовірності того, що вони прочитають відповіді на свої запитання до довідкової служби.

Результати експерименту (вересень 2019)

 * Довідкова панель була вперше впроваджена для новачків у січні 2019, і станом на вересень 2019 ми завершили аналіз даних для визначення її впливу. Це короткий підсумок, а детальніший аналіз буде згодом.
 * У підсумку, довідкова панель не показала зростання в активності (чи користувач робить своє перше редагування) або утриманні (чи користувач повертається до редагування знову). Хоча цей результат розчаровує, наша команда має декілька інших функцій, що подають надії, з якими при продовжуємо експериментувати.
 * Довідкова панель таки спричинила незначні зміни в об'ємі редагувань (кількості зроблених редагувань), але результати суперечливі. Зросла кількість редагувань під час першого дня, але зменшилася кількість упродовж наступних двох тижнів.
 * Загалом, ми зараз не знаємо, чому довідкова панель спричинила такі результати, і в нас є багато теорій, над якими ми продовжимо роздуми. Наприклад, хоча ми сподіваємося, що довідкова панель заохочує новачків зробити своє перше редагування, надаючи інформацію про те, як це зробити, може бути, що вона віднаджує деяких новачків від редагування, бо показує багато складної документації, що може бути нудною чи лячною.
 * Хоча зростання в активності та утриманні є кінцевою метою нашої команди, ми також спостерігаємо значні показники відкривання довідкової панелі (20%) та взаємодії з відкритою панеллю (50%). Це говорить нам про те, що існує попит на такого роду довідку, яку пропонує довідкова панель.
 * Усі ці результати разом розчаровують: ми справді сподівалися, що довідкова панель матиме позитивний вплив на метрики. Хоча у нас є багато ідей, як можна покращити довідкову панель, ми вирішили не продовжувати роботу над нею у найближчому майбутньому, а натомість зосередитися на домашній сторінці новачка та завданнях новачка. Ці проекти мали хороші перші результати і вплинули на набагато більшу кількість новачків, ніж довідкова панель. Довідкова панель також буде частиною проекту завдань новачків і залишатиметься частиною досвіду новачків, який розробляє Команда зростання. Ми можемо переглянути її детальніше у майбутньому.

Короткий опис
Стикатися з технічними, концептуальними, культурними викликами на початках редагування — звичне явище для нових редакторів. У них є певні запитання і їм може знадобитися жива людина, що може на них відповісти. Більшість вікі має якусь довідкову службу, де новачки можуть ставити запитання, і такі місця є ефективними, особливо Teahouse в англомовній Вікіпедії (див. цю статтю з аналізом впливу). Проблема полягає в тому, що більшість нових редакторів не знають про існування такої довідкової служби чи як її знайти — навіть якщо вони отримують «вітальні шаблони» на своїх сторінках обговорення із посиланнями.

У нас є дві гіпотези:


 * Новачки вірогідніше шукатимуть допомоги, коли мають легкий спосіб подавати запитання.
 * Новачки вірогідніше робитимуть редагування, коли знають, де попросити допомоги.

Таким чином, проект «Фокус на довідковій службі» містить дві частини:


 * 1) Запросити нових редакторів до довідкової служби. У нас було чотири ідеї того, як їх запрошувати: дописами на їхніх сторінках обговорення, через використання банерів, електронною поштою або додаючи посилання у контексті редагування. Ми вирішили запрошувати нових редакторів до довідкової служби через додавання чіткого й очевидного посилання на довідкову службу, яке видно під час редагування, що ми називаємо «довідковою панеллю». Це робиться з таких причин:
 * 2) * Ми знаємо з дослідження Вражень нових редакторів, що важливим є отримання допомоги у контексті. Тобто дати посилання на можливість отримати допомогу треба тоді, коли користувач її потребує, і в місці, де зараз немає чіткого способу отримати допомогу.
 * 3) * У нас є відкриті запитання щодо ідеї «Запитань або чату у контексті», і це допоможе нам зрозуміти, чи є запит на таку функцію.
 * 4) Як тільки ми досягли успіху, залучивши нових редакторів до довідкової служби, здійснити покращення самої довідкової служби, щоб зробити її кращим місцем для ставляння запитань. Сюди може виходити перелік нових запитань угорі сторінки або сповіщення нових редакторів про те, що на їхнє запитання відповіли.

Команда зростання розробила частину 1 (довідкову панель) упродовж другої чверті 2018 року (жовтень—грудень 2018) і впровадила її у чеській та корейській Вікіпедіях 11 січня 2019 у рамках контрольованого A/B-тестування. Цей експеримент тривав до липня 2019. Після появи результатів може бути додано додаткові можливості до цієї функції, впроваджено її в інших вікі, або розпочато частину 2 (покращення самої довідкової служби).

Comparative review
Our team's designer reviewed the way that other platforms (e.g. SurveyMonkey, American Express, Codecademy) offer help in-context to their users (see for details). We think there are best practices we can learn from other software, especially when we see the same patterns across many different types of software. Even as we incorporate ideas from other software, we will still make sure to preserve Wikipedia's unique values of openness, clarity, and transparency. The comparisons are shown in this slide deck, and the main takeaways are:

In-context help UIs


 * In-context help is usually presented as a sticky button or tab in the bottom right of the screen
 * Clicking on help will usually open up a sticky panel over the UI offering one or more help options
 * Users are often able to search and view top help topics within the in-context help panel
 * In-context help will also link users to the dedicated/primary help center/forums
 * General/site-wide Help is usually a primary navigation option as well, and may also enable access to chat/feedback within the UI
 * Indicators of privacy and security also often shown in the expanded help UI
 * Mobile (app/web) versions typically do not have help accessible in-context but accessed as a primary navigation item that opens separately

Types of help offered in-context


 * Link to a Help Center / Help Desk
 * Top FAQs listed for that particular context
 * Live chat
 * Video/Tutorials
 * Guided tour links
 * History of previous help queries
 * Community forums - used in a couple of places where there is less expectation of immediacy in response times and level of ‘service’
 * “Report a bug” - for users to send feedback about unexpected behaviors/bugs, often with the option to include a screenshot of the UI. Implicit expectation is the user should not to expect a response.

Features of Chat/Q&A in help


 * Users are able to email questions using the chat panel when there is no “Live” agent is available
 * Users are given feedback on response time windows and where they can expect answers
 * Voice and tone of chat are friendly and personable, sometimes with emoji and gif options in chat.
 * Users likely expect a level of service, as chat is typically provided by paid customer service reps.
 * Privacy links and information about how chat history is managed are clearly shown
 * Frequently asked questions/topics common for the particular context are often presented in the same UI as an less engagement-heavy help alternative for users
 * Automated answers / “Answer bots” are sometimes offered first to try to resolve the issue before users are given the option to post their question

Review of similar MediaWiki features
As we discussed ideas for the help panel, several WMF staff reminded us that two similar-sounding features had been worked on in the past: MoodBar and Article Feedback. Those features (though no longer in use) both gave users an in-context tool for providing information, and so we think we can incorporate learnings from them. The details of this work are on, and the main takeaways are: Article Feedback Tool


 * Potential for account creation and editor activation - anonymous users who start an edit may be prompted to create an account when asking for help so that they can get feedback from the “Help team”.
 * Provide more upfront help options prior to allowing submission of free-text comments and questions - Per findings from the Article Feedback Tool, making it too easy to submit unstructured and out-of-context comments about articles leads to a high degree of noise for moderators. Whilst our hypothesis is that users who are in the editing context and seeking help for a specific task may be less likely to submit un-useful questions, providing more self-directed help alternatives upfront may further reduce volume.
 * Mechanisms to provide context to comments – The lack of context to comments in AFT was a main point of dissatisfaction for editors. For in-context help, it would be ideal if users submitting a question or comment would be able to denote where in the article or UI they would like assistance – for example being able to submit a screenshot along with their question, or being able to highlight the section related to their comment.
 * Making interactions into actual edits - This tool created a separate queue of work for experienced editors to deal with, that they couldn't manage through their Watchlists or RecentChanges, and current curate with existing processes for removing damaging content. It is important that any additional traffic we create can be managed through existing systems, which is done most easily if interactions with our feature are done as posts on wiki pages.

MoodBar


 * Capturing email for responses is an effective option – As shown in the MoodBar experiment, email notifications is an effective means of engaging new editors.
 * Clear, prominent call to action for new editors to ask for feedback/help - per high level findings, the addition of a tooltip drawing attention to the MoodBar significantly increased its use.
 * Tracking the perceived helpfulness of responses is important - It would be useful for us to track similar new user perceptions of feedback, since a poor experience from receiving unhelpful advice has been shown to negatively impact editing.

Design for help panel
Our evolving designs can always be found in this interactive prototype. These clickable mockups also contain other design ideas for future iterations of the help panel, although some elements in those mockups may be obsolete. To see the latest version of the help panel, edit a page in Beta or Test wiki after having turned the help panel on in your preferences.

The "Comparative review" and "Review of similar MediaWiki features" were critical in the design process because they helped us "dream big" to explore the space of what the help panel could eventually become. Our team mocked up and discussed many ideas that probably will not become part of the help panel unless we see that earlier, simpler versions are successful. First, we are going to work on an initial version of the help panel to be deployed in January 2019.

Initial version
In the initial version of the help panel, we want to answer these questions:


 * Will newcomers click on a clear option to get help during the editing experience?
 * Do newcomers seem more interested in reading content to answer their own questions, or in asking a question for others to answer?
 * Will newcomers take action to write and post a question to the help desk?
 * Will the presence of the help panel increase new editor retention?

Therefore, we have decided to include these elements in the initial version, detailed in T206717 and T209318:


 * A call to action in the editing context.
 * A panel that opens containing links to helpful existing pages.
 * The ability to ask a question from that panel, and for that question to be automatically posted to the wiki's help desk.
 * The ability to add an email address to their account if the user does not already have one, and to modify their email address if it is not yet confirmed (and then to receive a confirmation email upon submitting).
 * The ability to turn off the help panel by clicking through to Preferences.

The mockups below show initial designs for that functionality as of November 2018 (to see the most up-to-date designs, use this interactive prototype). Right now, we will show this only to newcomers (meaning new account holders who are not auto-created). We also know that the wording in the feature is very important here, because it is critical that newcomers understand where and how information they write will be posted, and when and where they can except a reply. These mockups only contain some initial drafting of the wording, and we'll continue to refine it. We are hoping for strong ideas from community members, so please post any ideas on the talk page.

Business rules for initial version
Below are the current rules we're using to determine who receives the help panel and how it works. These may change as our team and the community continues to discuss and learn from the feature.


 * Users: the help panel will be a feature that can be turned on and off in user preferences. When it is deployed in January, it will be turned on to only newly created accounts (not auto-created) from the deployment date forward (except for a control group that will not have the feature).  All other users whose accounts were created before the deployment date will have the feature turned off, but will be able to go to their preferences to turn it on if they wish to try it out.  We will also be embedding an option to turn the help panel off inside the feature.  Our team discussed the possibility of turning the help panel on for all users, but wanted to first learn about how new users interact with it, and we want to make sure not to flood help desks with incoming questions.  See this Phabricator task for the discussion.
 * Namespaces: the help panel will be available in all namespaces. Our team discussed limiting the feature to only the main article namespace because the help documentation linked in the panel is mostly relevant to that namespace.  Ultimately, we decided to make it available in all namespaces so that we can learn in which namespaces people are most commonly looking for help -- we know that new editors struggle to edit the Talk namespace.  We will also encourage communities to develop documentation relevant to editing other namespaces (particularly the Talk namespace) so that we can make those links available in the appropriate namespaces.  See this Phabricator task for the discussion.
 * Headers: the help panel will automatically post users' questions to their wiki's help desk, and will automatically generate a header for that post. We have decided that the header will include the title of the page from which the question originates (with a link), as well as a timestamp to distinguish it from questions that may have originated from that some page.  Users will be able to decline to include the title in their header, if they consider it sensitive.  See this Phabricator task for the discussion.  Our preference is to number the posts instead of including a long and redundant timestamp, but that will require additional engineering work for a future version.

Wording for initial version
The wording for the help panel is complete, and the current state can be seen in the interactive mockups. Some of the most important things we have been considering in the wording are:


 * How to make it clear that by asking a question in the help panel, users will be posting in public?
 * How to encourage users to add their email address, since that is the best way for them to find out when they get a response to their question?
 * How to give users the option of excluding the title of the page they're editing from the automatically-generated header in the help desk, if they want to keep that private?
 * How to correctly set expectations about how quickly a user can expect a help desk response?
 * What to include in the automatically-generated header in the help desk?

Future versions
In determining the initial version of the help panel, many ideas for features were set aside to be evaluated later on. Many of them are visible in the initial mockups here. The following is a list of capabilities that are either being built for the help panel, or may be built in the future:


 * Nearer term
 * ✅ Search: the ability to search help pages. Users found this option appealing during testing, and it was built in T209301 and deployed on 2019-02-14.Help panel kowiki search 2019-02-15.png
 * ✅ More contexts: since help desks have not yet been overwhelmed with incoming questions, we are thinking of exposing the help panel to newcomers in contexts beyond editing -- perhaps while they are viewing pages in the Help or Wikipedia namespaces. We thought of this because the EditorJourney analysis showed that large portions of newcomers viewed pages in those namespaces during their first 24 hours.  Currently being built in T215664.
 * Greater affordance: so far, it looks like a minority of users who see the help panel button actually open it up. We could attempt to make it more visually obvious that it is a recommended place to start.
 * Vary links with context: the help panel contains five links to help pages, and about half of users that see them click on one. Different links are probably valuable in different contexts.  For instance, there might be some links for visual editor and some for wikitext.  Or some that are helpful on a talk page and some on an article page.  This is being worked on in T211117.
 * Longer term
 * Live chat: allowing newcomers to immediately chat with experienced editors right from the help panel. This would be a major project with many challenges.  See this page for our notes so far.
 * Suggested answers: many questions that users asked may have already been answered before, and we might be able to provide suggested answers as users type. This would be relevant once many more questions have been asked.  Ticketed in T209327.
 * Feedback on responses: newcomers may find the responses to their questions more or less satisfactory. By allowing newcomers to rate their responses, we may increase higher quality responses, and make it possible to surface the best ones to future newcomers.  Ticketed in T209332.
 * Marking question context: newcomers may have questions related to very specific elements of the editing experience. This idea would allow them to indicate exactly where on the page their issue is occurring.  Ticketed in T209328.
 * Templated replies: research shows us that the tone of a reply to a newcomer can make a difference in whether they edit again. We may be able to help people answering questions to format their replies in a nurturing way.  Ticketed in T209331.
 * Anonymous editors: though our team is focused on registered newcomers, it is possible to make the help panel present for anonymous editors, though it will be more difficult for them to find out that they have received a response. Ticketed in T209325.

User testing for help panel
During the week of November 26, 2018, we used usertesting.com to conduct eight tests of the help panel interactive prototype with internet users unaffiliated with the Wikimedia movement. Four tests were done on desktop and four were done on mobile. In these tests, respondents are compensated for trying out the mockups, speaking aloud on what they observe, and answering questions about the experience. As our team's designer described on the Phabricator task, the goals of this testing were:


 * 1) Gauge the discoverability of the help pane call to action and help pane
 * 2) Identify improvements to the usability of the help pane:
 * 3) * Do users understand they can edit and use help links at the same time?
 * 4) * Are users able to successfully follow the steps to post a question?
 * 5) * Is there anything users that would like to be able to do from the help pane that they are missing?
 * 6) Gauge user reactions to the help pane and expectations of how their questions will be answered.

Summary of findings


 * All users found the help panel contents to be very useful in getting help for editing.
 * No one had issues with having the article title included in the question.
 * Most participants would post a question to the help desk as a last resort after trying to help themselves through clicking on links, with two people saying they would likely not post at all as they would want a more immediate response.
 * One user said they would more likely just Google the editing help over the options shown.
 * Whilst it was understood that the Help desk would be answered by volunteers, many participants wanted more reiteration and clarity of expected wait times.
 * Clear layout of options, shown in the order in which almost participants said they would seek for help.
 * Discoverability of the help panel call-to-action may be reduced in the case when the user is using the Visual Editor or wikitext2017 editor because those editors have a competing “?” icon.
 * One user suggested having an example question in hint text.
 * One user wanted more information shown about when their question was viewed and by how many people.
 * Two users mentioned the help recommendations shown on the Help Desk seemed disjointed from what was shown in the help panel.

Recommendations (not all of these will be implemented)


 * Prioritize the Searching help task inside the help panel.
 * Provide clearer times on both the review and confirmation screens for when a newcomer should expect a response from the help desk.
 * Add a more specific help question sample in the placeholder/hint text.
 * Experiment or A/B test alternative text on the initial “Ask a question” call-to-action.
 * Show a first-run tooltip/pulse indicator to highlight the new help panel.
 * Add an additional menu item to existing editing toolbar help on Desktop VE or Wikitext2017 which opens the help panel.

Measurement and experiment plans
High-level questions

These are the main things we want to find out from the help panel.


 * 1) Does the presence of the help panel lead to questions being asked and answered?
 * 2) Does the presence of the help panel increase editor activation (making their first edit)?
 * 3) Does the presence of the help panel increase editor retention (coming back to edit again)?
 * 4) Does the presence of the help panel increase the proportion of constructive edits?

Controlled experiments

See this page for the detailed experiment plan.

In order to understand the help panel’s impact on editor activation and retention, we propose a six month A/B test. During that test, 50% of new registrations on target wikis will have the help panel enabled by default, and 50% will have it disabled. We anticipate that we will be able to detect 10% changes in activation after about one month, and 10% changes in retention after about six months. We are likely to be running other experiments on the target wikis at the same time, for example, testing variants of our welcome survey. Therefore, assignment of users to treatment and control groups for all tests will have to be coordinated so that we ensure the distributions are not biased.

Specific measurements: quantitative

''These are specific measurements that help us answer the high-level questions. These are measurements we will be able to do programmatically. See this EventLogging schema for the exact details on the data that is being recorded and stored.''


 * 1) What is the context the user is in when they start interacting with the help panel?
 * 2) What percent of users open the help panel?
 * 3) What percent close the help panel without using any part of it?
 * 4) What percent click one or more of the help links?
 * 5) How far do users go in the workflow of asking a question?
 * 6) What percent of users turn the help panel off?
 * 7) What is the average length of questions asked via the help panel?
 * 8) What percent of users click any of the links in the final confirmation page of asking a question?
 * 9) What percent of users who post a question return to view the answer?
 * 10) Does interacting with the help panel alter the probability of abandoning an edit session?
 * 11) What percent of users use the help panel more than once?
 * 12) Are newly registered users with an email address likely to return to view the answer to their question?
 * 13) What percent of newcomers that had no email address add one when asking a question?
 * 14) What percent of newcomers confirm their email address (within 48 hours) after asking a question?
 * 15) What percent of newcomers ask a question without an email address?
 * 16) What percent of newcomers submit a question without including the title of the page they were editing?
 * 17) How does help panel usage vary with welcome survey responses?

Specific measurements: qualitative

''These are specific measurements that help us answer the high-level questions. These are measurements we will need to do manually, by counting and reading the contents of help desks. Doing these programmatically would be an inordinate amount of work.''


 * 1) What percent of questions get answered?
 * 2) How quickly do questions get answered?
 * 3) How often do newcomers edit the question they asked?
 * 4) What kind of questions do people ask and which ones are more likely to get answered?

Usage counts
After about two months of being deployed to half of new accounts in Czech and Korean Wikipedias, and two weeks of being deployed to half of new accounts in Vietnamese Wikipedia, these are the numbers (as of 2019-03-28):


 * 3,343 users have seen the help panel button
 * 566 users have opened up the panel
 * 225 users have clicked a link in the panel
 * 51 have run searches
 * 51 users have submitted a question to the help desk (Czech: 34, Korean: 8, Vietnamese: 9)

Leading indicators
The help panel's experiment plan defines a set of leading indicators that the team evaluates in order to determine whether the feature is behaving as expected, and whether there are any urgent problems that need to be solved.

Using a month of data, we published an initial evaluation of leading indicators here. In summary, the help panel seems to be behaving in a healthy way, with good numbers of newcomers opening and using it. The analysis identified a couple areas for improvement that the team has taken action on:


 * Because we wanted to increase the number of newcomers who open the panel, we started showing it in additional contexts on March 4, 2019. Newcomers now see the help panel when reading in the Wikipedia, Help, and User namespaces.
 * Because we saw that in Korean Wikipedia very few users ask questions, we built the search feature so that newcomers would have an easier way to find helpful information on their own.

Experiment results
See results above.

Resources

 * More on this feature: The help panel contains a link to learn "More about this feature". That link will lead to this page, which will hopefully answer user questions about how the feature works.  Feel free to translate it into your language!
 * Best practices: Because many communities don't have a lot of experience concerning help desks, the WMF Community Relations Team has assembled on a page with some best practices that can help communities have more successful collaborations with newcomers. Please feel free to translate that page into your language!