Wikimedia Apps/Team/iOS/Communication

Introduction
Communication is the backbone of collaboration on Wikipedia. The iOS team is looking forward to bringing a more fully featured set of communication and talk page tools into the app. Currently, there is a mix of native and non-native iOS talk page experiences. During this project we are looking to update the existing native user talk page and add native article talk pages so that contributors, across experience levels, can intuitively and confidently communicate with one on iOS and across platforms.

The focus will be on the following design themes:

Timeliness & spatial awareness: Where and when is the conversation happening? How might we design features that help Wikipedians (new or old) to have a better intuitive sense of the activeness/freshness of a conversation? How might design help to facilitate better, civil and more timely conversations across Wikipedia?

Modernization, not complete transformation: Improve, don't replace. Talk pages belong to the Wikipedians who use them. How might we honor and respect the years of community work that have gone into the evolution of Talk pages, while improving their utility and civility for all?

Below are screenshots of the current article talk and user talk pages:

Research
Since the Android and Editing teams have worked on talk pages previously, their work was looked into as well as existing research about different Wikipedia namespaces in the beginning of this project. The aim of the research was to map the talk page ecosystem and better understand who uses the pages. The research was consolidated into personas, task model diagrams and journey maps that included the experience of senior editors as well as readers. The senior editors were grouped by different social roles they play on Wikipedia such as: moderator, topic expert, wordsmith, policy guide and page architect.

The team made the decision to primarily focus on a target audience of editors who were considered to be ‘moderators’. These community members help discussion flows without getting too involved, perform and summarize administrative tasks and ask questions of other editors. These type of contributors would do tasks like approve or refuse other editor requests.

Design Exploration
Different iOS talk page designs are being explored, where many of the components are being adapted from the Editing and Android teams talk page research and designs. The new designs  intend to:


 * Provide a bigger visual distinction between article and user talk pages.
 * Show editors more detailed information on topic pages
 * Better indicate when threads are active or inactive
 * Test different types of threading for nested replies

Below are some examples of early potential designs that show a) an article talk topic page b) a reply screen in default and black reading mode and c) a menu with additional actions.

Usability Testing
Usability tests will soon be ran with early iOS designs to test the following:


 * The title and header of the pages
 * The menu, tab and navigation bar content
 * Page threading and replying
 * Different entry points

Testing and feedback
For this project we will be testing prototypes earlier and testing more frequently. If you are interested you can:


 * Participate in our usability testing by emailing us at: [email].
 * Any feedback is very welcome on Talk:Wikimedia Apps.
 * You're welcome to become a beta tester