Page MenuHomePhabricator

Make the new design of mobile watchlist opt-in
Open, Stalled, LowPublic

Description

Description

Following T235414, Mediawiki core Watchlist for AMC users has been deployed. The assumption was that people wanted the filter functionality and the ability to navigate directly to user pages, talk pages, etc. via the additional links. Thus far four editors have criticized this watchlist page (see discussions here and here). The issues that have been identified are:

  • Hyperlinks are small and it is hard to to click the correct link without zooming the screen, sometimes resulting in accidental clicks
  • The page loads slowly
  • The filters at the top of the page take up a lot of space and require extra scrolling to get past
  • The rollback button is too prominent given its low usage

Open questions

Given this feedback it would be good to know:

  • has the rate of people turning Advanced mode off gone up since we released the updated Watchlist page?
  • are people using the filters on watchlist?
  • are people clicking on links other than “diff”?

Options

  • We can make this depended on AMC (editors would get to choose whether or not enable the new style of watchlist after they enable AMC)
  • Or we can make it independent. Any logged-in users would be able to use the new style if they enable the new setting.
  • Or we can just refine it's design. Make the links big enough to make it easier to click them. And do other refinements.
  • ...

We will need to refine it's design more. At this point, I think the best course of action would be to make the new watchlist opt-in as there are some people who prefers the old watchlist. I'll assign this task to the product owner for review.

Event Timeline

@Count_Count I am sorry if I missed some points. Feel free to raise them here.

We can do this in these following ways

  • We can make this depended on AMC (editors would get to choose whether or not enable the new style of watchlist after they enable AMC)
  • Or we can make it independent. Any logged-in users would be able to use the new style if they enable the new setting.
  • Or we can just refine it's design. Make the links big enough to make it easier to click them. And do other refinements.

I apprehend that we will lose more AMC users if we do not address this problem.

A summary of the feedback given by @LeeVilenski

I can see what is trying to be achieved here, something similar to the regular watchlist, but in using it over the last couple of days, I've found it to be buggy and slow. I actually appreciated the ability to previously click a change, and it show the diff as default, whereas now, to get a diff, it's quite small to accomplish (completely doable, mind). The biggest bug is to have the watchlist suggest there are new pages to load, but then either loading the same results, or reverting back to an earlier watchlist.

  • "Clear the watchlist" button is not needed as many people wouldn't probably use it and there is a chance that editors may click it by accident. I think we will need to analyze it's use on mobile and if the number is low it can be removed.
  • Site wide announcements (RFA, ArbCom notices) just fills up most of the top of the watchlist. This compels editors to scroll down a bit more to see the first entry of the watchlist. Also closing/hiding those notices is not apparently possible in mobile.

If I click and item on the watchlist then press back, it will return to the correct location - great. However, it usually jumps back and forth a bit.

  • And due to the current position of the Rollback link, editors and admins with the rollback right accidentally rollbacked good edits, trying to view another item in the watchlist.

Took a quick look at opt-outs and it seems we did get a very small increase in opt-outs after the release, but nothing too significant:

Screen Shot 2019-11-05 at 5.43.55 PM.png (1×1 px, 186 KB)

@MNeisler - do you think you could look into the following questions:
On the AMC watchlist page, are people using the filters on watchlist?
On the AMC watchlist page, are people clicking on links other than “diff”?

@ovasileva - Yes, I created a subtask to look into further (T237750)

@ovasileva - Yes, I created a subtask to look into further (T237750)

Thanks @MNeisler!

ovasileva changed the task status from Open to Stalled.Jan 7 2020, 9:18 AM
ovasileva triaged this task as Low priority.