Background

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 another 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?

Target audience

The audience for the project would be experienced editors who use iOS (new or old app users) and new contributors that are iOS users.
Languages: English, Chinese, German, Hebrew

Research Goals | Questions

Create native iOS talk pages that mirror the desktop experience.

• Actions: Do participants have access to the primary actions on talk pages (eg. replying to threads, creating new topics, etc.) Can participants navigate further to their necessary destinations?
• User interface: Does the UI fit with the iOS experience?

Evaluate feature usability.

• Placement: Can the participants find the article/user talk page? Does the location work with their current workflow?
• Navigation and orientation: Can participants easily navigate through the feature and find the necessary information?
• Can new contributors identify the difference between article vs user talk pages?

Create a better sense of timeliness and participation

• Activity: Do participants understand which topics are active/inactive?
• Participation: Can participants easily identify the authors of the threads and topics?

Check whether the nature of talk pages is known.

• Transparency: Do new contributors understand the public nature of talk page messages?

Approach

Test format & participants
Depending on the target audience the test format might differ but might include...

New contributors: For tests that require participants that are new to Wikipedia UserTesting.com will be used to recruit, record sessions, and test the designs.
The test will be remote, unmoderated, and task-based. Participants will be given 10-15 minutes to complete tasks and make decisions about the designs.

Experienced contributors: Recruitment for tests that need experienced contributors will be different. They will be recruited by:

• Emailing contributors that have shown a previous interest in testing
• Reach out to the community through MediaWiki and emailing lists.

List of tests

• Test a basic prototype with new contributors using usertesting.com T305743
• Send out a survey to experienced contributors in target languages (English, Hebrew, German & Chinese) asking to review early talk page mockups. T305745
• Do follow-up tests if necessary. T309906
• Test beta build with new contributors using usertesting.com T315571
• Test beta build with experienced contributors (EN, AR, ZH, DE)