Wikimedia Apps/Team/Android/Design
Overview[edit]
This page provides a general introduction to team practices when working with design on the Android team, as well as background on significant changes and activities related to design.
Design activities[edit]
Timeline of major design features released[edit]
May 2018 | Re-evaluate navigation paradigm: Article stack ⇄ Feed interaction |
Apr 2018 | Multilingual support {T160567} |
Apr 2018 | Offline support improvements - storage and sync settings and capabilities {Phab tag: Android Offline} |
Feb 2018 | Synchronized reading lists (cross platform) {Phab tag: Synchronized Reading Lists} |
Dec 2017 | The 'Fortune cookie' release contained a number of updates and additions to the UI:
|
Sep 2017 | Offline Library - user concept and usability testing of V1 prototype |
Aug 2017 | Dark mode colors updated on Android {T172984} |
May 2017 | Google app backups enabled {T130331} (NOTE: this is different from reading lists syncing, this merely means users can keep reading lists and other app data during factory resets or device updates) |
May 2017 | Updated Reading list cache behavior & improved usability {T155868} |
Apr 2017 | Turkey blocks Wikipedia [1] |
Mar 2017 | Title descriptions editing {T145813} - released to limited wikis |
Dec 2016 | Community consultation on Micro-contributions {Consult page} |
Sep 2016 | Navigation changed from Hamburger to bottom nav {T141162} |
Jul 2016 | Feed introduced on Android {T129076} to largely positive feedback [2][3] |
Apr 2016 | V1 of (multiple) reading lists {T120108} |
Other planned features[edit]
- Improve Nearby {T142431}: add search + other features, learn from iOS Places
- Micro-contributions - extend wikidata description usage, and/or implement another micro-contribution
- Mobile app editing features - in-app editing, watchlists, Talk pages, etc
- Investigate Instant apps
- Investigate IoT device integrations – “Talk to” Google Home apps, Chromecast, Watch
- Investigate Google Assistant/Now integration
Other design activities:[edit]
- Accessibility review & overhaul
- Improve motion design, add transitions to enhance fluidity of app
- Visual updates/improvements - font & theme options, contextual article toolbar, further customizations
Resources / Related reading[edit]
Overview[edit]
- Wikimedia Apps Design (presented at the apps offsite in Oct 2017)
- Android Aspirations (rho@ put this together to compare 2016 vs 2017 team goals)
- Android Workflows Research from 2016
Feed[edit]
- Android Feed 2.0 deck
- Comparative review of Feed customization apps
- Major Phab tasks related to above: Improve Random; On this Day; Customize
- Feed 1.0 user survey results (that partially informed Feed 2.0 work)
Reading lists[edit]
- Usability improvements from V1: T155868 | Reading list v2 walkthrough
- Synced reading lists:
- Mediawiki overview
- Survey results for Reading list usage - conducted on iOS & Android, a key finding was the extent to which people wanted sync on the web
- Phab board for “Synchronized Reading Lists”
Offline Library[edit]
NOTE: This used to be called “Collections”, then “Offline compilations”…
- Mediawiki overview of “Offline support”
- User research – concept & moderated usability testing on a ‘V1’ was conducted with New Readers in India, as well as ‘Classic’ readers
- Recommendations & next steps (based on findings from both studies)
- More initial docs: Design brief | Comparison: Offline Library vs Reading lists
Micro-contributions[edit]
A community consultation was conducted in Dec 2016 to gauge support for different types of micro-contributions to potentially introduce after description editing.
- Phab ticket {T150667}
- Consultation page + Outcome
- Design brief for each idea
Wikidata description (aka Title description) editing[edit]
- Background info: Phab EPIC T145813 | Design brief
- Usertesting results
- Analytics / Instrumentation
- ENwiki pushback: We slowly rolled out this feature a few language wikis at a time, and it’s now on every wiki except EN. For some more background info on the enwiki community pushback on this feature, read this and/or this.
- Further development: aside from enwiki concerns about wikidata, it’s worth noting this is the first addition of an in-app editing feature that has been quite successful and in general supported by the Community. It could be an easy-ish quick win to extend its usage by providing more opportunities to use it in the app – some tasks on the backlog to consider.
Nearby/Places[edit]
An iteration of Nearby renamed ‘Places’ was added the iOS app earlier this year. There are a number of improvements we can take from iOS back to Android.
- {T142431} Ticket for adding search to Android’s Nearby feature
- {T130889} Original EPIC task on iOS
- Mediawiki page for the iOS feature
Notifications/News[edit]
- Deck for iOS In the News implementation
- Old Notifications secondary research by SSmith@
Working with design[edit]
Design documents & tools throughout the process
- Begins usually in compiling a DESIGN BRIEF, which typically outlines the Goal, User story, research required and main flows. [Example design brief]
- Once the team agrees on a piece of work, populate the PHABRICATOR board:
- Guide to writing user-centric Phab tasks with, & for Design, w/ more sample tickets
- Sample Design feature task format
- Sample Bug task format
- Each release board is named after a food item for each letter of the alphabet (Enchilada, Fortune-cookie, etc)
- Sharing MOCKS, PROTOTYPES and TRANSITIONS is done via:
- Invision – usually preferred since it is public and easy to update
- Zeplin – good for Devs to see redline mocks and get assets (Invitation required to access the Wikipedia Android board)
- Misc interactive prototypes and non-interactive videos to show transitions etc on Github & YouTube
- Phabricator tickets/ ‘Pholio’ – less common since constantly uploading images to Phab is tiresome
- REVIEWING work-in-progress:
- Downloading bleeding edge updates on Wikipedia Alpha to a device
- Use Android Studio and Emulators to review patches not even pushed to Alpha yet via copying from Gerrit
- Android Tool - nifty tool to screencap or screencast your mobile
- USER TESTING
- Unmoderated testing on Usertesting.com (users provided by the site)
- Moderated/Guerrilla testing:
- Typically uses a specific cut of the Wikipedia Alpha build
- 3rd party research agencies have been helping with this since our mobile apps researcher left WMF
- Both Android and iOS share a pool of participants specifically recruited for testing mobile apps to use for in tests and surveys
- Beta app - used to test new features slightly before release to production
- A/B testing - As of 2018, limited to testing localized graphics in Play store listings
- Community input – depending on the feature, RfCs and community consultations are conducted on mediawiki, etc
Gathering feedback and data[edit]
- User feedback
- Surveys using Qualtrics and Google Forms
- Reviews (via Google Play console for Prod and Beta)
- Email feedback (via OTRS)
- Crash rates (Hockey app)
- Social Media mentions
- Chore wheel - Every person on the team has to review the feedback from different sources and send out an email to [[1]] – Read the protocol which gives instructions on the various sources.
- App analytics – somewhat fragmented, but some sources are:
- Play Console
- Pivot
- Hockey
- Hive
- TBD – there are ongoing discussions as of early 2018 to improve access to an analytics UI for those who are not familiar with running Event logging queries.
References[edit]
- ↑ Wikimedia blog post about the ban in Turkey https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/04/30/turkish-authorities-block-wikipedia/ As a way to reduce the number of Turkish user complaints, we subsequently added a note on the Turkish Play store ~31-May-2017 advising users of this ban.
- ↑ Some media coverage of the initial Android Explore feed release:
- ↑ Selection of quotes from Play store reviews:
- "Newly added 'explore' option is simply wonderful!"
- "After this latest update I have to say that the design is even more beautiful than before"
- [Russian] "It was already easy-to-use, but the new update made it even better"
- "Very interesting new update, I really like the new interface"
- "This new version is so much better than the website and does a really good job of material design"
- "Beautiful minimalist design, smooth, and great features always being added."
- [Turkish] "...in better condition than all previous updates with the latest update. It is now possible to stay in a lot more interaction with the application."
- "Finally, some great design!..."
- "Its great to see a beautiful makeover of wikipedia..."
- "The latest update gives the App a new look, and I like it a lot. Well organized and easy to navigate; a job well done."
- "The new interface with material design is spectacular"
- "Phenomenal app. Extremely well laid out and user friendly. Gets better with every update."