Wikimedia Apps/iOS Suggested edits project/Activity Tab Experiment
Background
[edit]In a recent study on Editing and Reading on the iOS App, we saw that notifications about edit counts and activity related to their contributions were motivating for some new editors. One experienced editor also mentioned feeling encouraged by seeing their edit count on the desktop version. But, unstructured editing on the iOS app requires using Wikitext, which is intimidating to most newcomers.
We know from our recent experiences with Personalized Year in Review that viewing insights is motivating for both readers and editors, and that folks are willing to create an account to have access to them.
Our drafted is part of the 2024-2025 Annual Plan
| Key Result | iOS team hypothesis | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Wiki Experiences, Key Result 1.2
Constructive Activation: Widespread deployment of interventions shown to collectively cause a 10% relative increase (y-o-y) on mobile web and a 25% relative increase (y-o-y) on iOS of newcomers who publish ≥1 constructive edit in the main namespace on a mobile device, as measured by controlled experiments. |
If we temporarily present a population of new account holders with an invitation to “add an image via Suggested Edits within an Activity tab, we'll learn if this explicit call to action, and corresponding structured workflow, is ≥25% more effective at increasing constructive activation than a generic invitation to "Edit" Wikipedia presented in the same place. | In progress April 2025 |
How will we know we were successful
[edit]Validation
[edit]- KR 1.1 Users in the experiment group with access to Add an image in their activity tab have a 25% higher constructive activation rate compared to those who did have access (or control group)
- KR 1.2 15% of users who engage with the Activity tab click on the prompt for unlocking insights
Guardrails
[edit]- Revert rate for edits from users who engaged with Activity tab does not exceed 18%
Curiosities
[edit]- What other features are users looking for in the activity tab? What did they expect to see there? (Survey)
Experiment Requirements
[edit]- The activity tab should be a temporary experiment
- Reading **history** should still be accessible for users who opt not to log-in or engage with the Activity tab
- All users in target audiences see the new Activity tab
- Logged-out users
- See prompt to log-in/create an account for insights
- Logged-in users
- Control: Prompt them to edit to make their editing stats increase
- Variant: Prompt them to add an image to make their editing stats increase. Show entry point to Add an image
- Both: Display at least one reading insight
- “Add an image” is available to users under 50 edits for the target audiences in the experiment group
- Editing stats increase after someone makes an edit
- After engaging with the Activity tab, users are asked for their feedback through an in-app survey or Google Form survey
Audience
[edit]Our audience is newcomers, and new account holders. We plan to run a short, 15-day experiment in the following languages. We chose these languages because they already have the Growth Image Recommendations feature available to newcomers on Web (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth/Deployment_table)
- Chinese
- French
- Turkish
- Spanish
How you can follow along
[edit]We have created Activity Tab Experiment as our Phabricator epic. We encourage your collaboration there or on our Talk Page. There will also be periodic updates to this page as we make progress on the experiment.
Translations
[edit]If you are interested to help add translations, this feature uses the Wikipedia iOS Mobile Group. Search "activity-tab" to find the relevant translations. Translations are especially welcome for our experiment languages of Chinese, French, Turkish, and Spanish.
Designs
[edit]The activity tab will have 2 variations, as shown below. Group B will see a generic invitation to edit that leads to the iOS FAQ Page for editing. Group C will see an invitation to add images using "Add an image". For both groups, after they edit, their edit count will go up, and they'll have access to their contributions.
Updates
[edit]May 2025
[edit]The experiment is running and we’ll evaluate its success after 30 days (T391997)
April 2025
[edit]We released the experiment to external testers on Chinese, French, Spanish, and Turkish Wikipedias, and we’re monitoring for issues!