User:RSchoenbaechler (WMF)/2023-07-08 iOS Watchlist Update

Experienced users outreach

Disclaimer: Design suggestions to be discussed with the iOS team on August 8, 2023

The outreach was targeted at app, experienced, and cross-platform users. Six people participated. Here’s a summary of the user feedback on MediaWiki for the new iOS Watchlist feature:

1. Proposed flow to add an article to a Watchlist: Users appreciated the straightforward flow but suggested clarifying the language for changing the expiration date. They recommended including a 1-year expiration date for parity with the web version. They considered repositioning the "Watch" button to the bottom toolbar for more frequent usage, possibly replacing the "Theme" button.
   • Design suggests adding a "1-year" option to the Watchlist expiry action sheet and moving the "Theme" button instead of "Share" to the overflow menu (Phabricator: T335816)
2. Usage of Watchlist expiry: The usage of the Watchlist expiry varies based on the individual's app usage pattern. Some would use it nearly once a month, while others said they would use it every day or every second day. Some users who use the app primarily for reading rather than editing do not anticipate using the feature often.
3. Accessing the Watchlist: Users would prefer the Watchlist to be accessible directly from the bottom toolbar. They suggested replacing the "Search" or "History" buttons with the Watchlist button for convenience. Some also mentioned integrating it with the notifications (bell) icon.
4. Proposed Watchlist home designs: Overall, users appreciate the Watchlist Home design. They emphasized the need for a robust filter system for customization. They also suggested adding web features like the diff tag and minor/bot abbreviation.
   • Design suggests considering a "Visited/Unvisited" state for Watchlist items similar to "Read/Unread" within iOS Notifications (e.g. reduce the contrast of visited items). This change might be tough to be implemented since no service syncs a Watchlist item’s "Visited/Unvisited" state across platforms (Phabricator: T337313)
5. Consistency with the rest of the app: Users agreed that the proposed Watchlist design feels consistent.
6. Proposed filter options for the Watchlist: Users noted the need for more specific user status filters and the option to hide one's edits. They would also like an option to search for all changes for a particular page.
7. Proposed diff designs: Users found the proposed diff designs clear and user-friendly. However, they noted the need to show the edited section in the diff summary and the potential tags.
   • Design suggests including tags in the diff view details (Phabricator: T337313)
8. Proposed diff actions: Users appreciated the features such as navigating through changes, undo, thank, watch/unwatch, share, and rollback. They suggested clarity on the difference between "undo" and "rollback". They also proposed the possibility of saving preferred undo reasons for frequent patrollers. They wanted a more straightforward way to adjust and select revisions.
   • Design suggests considering a different icon (e.g. heart) or additional label for the "Thank you" action, as it was unclear to participants where the action could be performed, per participant answers in #9. (Phabricator: T337313)
9. Improving Watchlist functionality from Desktop or Mobile Web Wikipedia: One user mentioned using a desktop gadget that shows the diff content directly in the watchlist, suggesting this might be a valuable feature to incorporate into the app.

New users usability tests

We carried out a user testing study with eight participants who varied in terms of language, gender, country, age, editing experience, and device:

#	Gender	Language	Country	Age	Edited before	Device
1	Female	Spanish	USA	49	No	iPhone 13 Pro Max
2	Female	Chinese	Australia	28	No	iPhone 14 Pro
3	Female	Spanish	Japan	25	Yes	iPhone X
4	Male	Punjabi	United Kingdom	32	Yes	iPhone 14 Pro
5	Female	Chinese	USA	24	Yes	iPhone 14 Pro Max
6	Female	English	United Arab Emirates	30	No	iPhone 14 Pro
7	Male	Chinese	China	19	No	iPhone SE
8	Female	Spanish	France	19	No	iPhone 12 mini

The user testing has provided valuable insights into areas of improvement for the iOS Watchlist feature. The team has explored solutions to address the identified issues. The primary areas that were examined in the study include:

Article entry point

Explorations to improve article entry point discoverability

The major challenge observed was that users had difficulties finding the entry point to add an article to a Watchlist. Out of 8 participants, 5 expected to add an item to the Watchlist via the “Bookmarks” icon. To address this issue, a few solutions were proposed, including making the Watchlist more discoverable, adding labels to toolbar items, allowing toolbar customization, and potentially combining "Save to reading lists" and "Add to Watchlist" under one action.

Onboarding to feature

6/8 participants found the onboarding process clear and compelling. However, 2 out of 8 participants skipped the onboarding completely.

Watchlist expiry

All participants demonstrated an understanding of the Watchlist expiry feature and how to use it.

Navigating to Watchlist

Design suggestions to optimize accessing the user’s Watchlist from the article.

Navigation to the Watchlist was found to be a major issue. All participants could not navigate to the Watchlist, and they expected to find the entry point for the list in the article.

Design suggests to include a direct link to "Watchlist Home" in the toast message after the user adds an item to the Watchlist to make accessing the Watchlist easier (Phabricator: T335816)

Understanding of Watchlist home

Most participants (5 out of 8) understood the purpose and utility of the Watchlist home.

Understanding of Diff screen

Design suggestions to optimize the understanding of the diff screen for new users (label change).

Participants showed mixed understanding of the "Diff" screen, with some struggling to understand the “From” and “To” information and technical terms like “Bytes.

Design suggests to clarify "From" and "To" information for users by using more explicit labels like "Previous edit" and "Displayed edit". Further explorations include collapsible "Previous edit" information to ensure the user focuses on the displayed edit (Phabricator: T335579)

Understanding in general

Most participants (7 out of 8) demonstrated a good understanding of the Watchlist feature.