Conduct Comparative Review for Explore Feed
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Authored By

	JTannerWMF
	Oct 22 2025, 5:15 PM

Description

Hypothesis

If we investigate how readers currently use and perceive the Explore Feed, we will identify the key usability, relevance and freshness gaps preventing it from becoming a high engagement and retaining feature.

Task

Conduct Comparative Review from peer apps
OPTIONAL: Survey or interview app users about expectations, opportunities and frustrations with our existing explore feed. Users should be a mix of iOS and Android users

Comparative Review Requirements

Complete and shared with Explore Project channel by December 13 so that it can be published on wiki by PM
Include the following peer apps or sites:
- Wiktok
- TikTok
- Pocket
- Medium
- Google and Apple News
- Remaining choices are up to the designers
Consider the following elements for the comparative review
- Feed formats
- Content Preview Style
- User elements that lead to customization and personalization (e.g. Onboarding)
- Feed freshness indicators
- How topic areas are delineated
- Content Types
- Gesture types

When handing off comparative review ensure it includes:
- Highlights/Key Insights
- Gaps between our current explore feed and industry standards
- Recommendations of changes we should explore in the prototyping stage
- Any differences noticed for Android vs iOS

Due Date: December 13

Details

Other Assignee: DTorsani-WMF

Related Objects
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		Status	Subtype	Assigned	Task
		Open		JTannerWMF	T407990 Explore Feed Revamp 2025-2026
		Open		TLessa-WMF	T408006 Conduct Comparative Review for Explore Feed

Event Timeline

JTannerWMF created this task.Oct 22 2025, 5:15 PM

JTannerWMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Oct 22 2025, 8:55 PM

@DTorsani-WMF and I collected the iOS screens: https://www.figma.com/design/73yyobmXtw7CfzfLCsvrTY/explore-feed?node-id=7011-131&t=q1VI2YGDOjyzeLkM-1 and Derek grouped them into meaningful categories: https://www.figma.com/design/73yyobmXtw7CfzfLCsvrTY/explore-feed?node-id=7057-158

Added Android examples of the following apps:
• Medium
• Google News
• Flipboard
• Tiktok

The goal of getting a sample of Android apps is to check if there are notable differences in the experiences on different platforms.

Missing Snapchat and Reddit - @DTorsani-WMF I think the emulator blocks me from accessing those apps. Could you please collect those screenshots? It is marked on Figma. Thanks!

@TLessa-WMF Added Snapchat and Reddit on Android to the Figma audit.

cooltey triaged this task as Medium priority.Oct 28 2025, 4:15 PM

JTannerWMF moved this task from Needs Triage to Android Release - FY2025-26 on the Wikipedia-Android-App-Backlog board.Oct 28 2025, 4:17 PM

JTannerWMF edited projects, added Wikipedia-Android-App-Backlog (Android Release - FY2025-26); removed Wikipedia-Android-App-Backlog.

JTannerWMF moved this task from Epics in Progress to Design Doing on the Wikipedia-Android-App-Backlog (Android Release - FY2025-26) board.

Scheduled a meeting with Mike (Oct 29) to discuss the survey, so his team can better understand how this task fits among their other priorities.

Derek added Comparative Review slides to the Explore Revamp deck. Tais will add notes about tablets.

I asked that the designers also consider the following before closing the task:

How are people indicating the recency of content (date, X days/hours ago, and
Aside from NYT are we seeing other more text based apps (Medium, Flipboard, Apple New) allowing users read sections from the feed or is it just like ---> Go read this long article. I am really interested in allow users to discover snackable content.
Did buzzfeed or another app tease games in their feed if so what did that interaction pattern look like?

JTannerWMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Oct 31 2025, 8:36 PM

Research plan draft done: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IjC552dalqfLORVjPwDt6SW_HH48LNXJC0VyeDLOpVg/edit?usp=sharing
Ticket created for design research team (in-depth qualitative research)
We will talk to design research team in the next Explore feed sync to align on in-app questions and other details

The design research team will support us on this task. Their brief is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jtahnVEcZRclr8kuy_kUPmPtJPxbkuXEgww7l27G-_Y/edit?usp=sharing

As part of this work, I put together some wireframes with different styles of feeds for our audience to react to: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14NOkEegElX5gWJUTUv-RcanBiR713tg3q9JifbqcVBk/edit?usp=sharing

@DTorsani-WMF has been working on some early explorations as well: https://www.figma.com/design/VwBaV9KZ7LWfOY2dt1BJyQ/app-redesigns--25?node-id=120-2627&t=ktbcscPbnTnSJak7-1

Images to support Qualtrics survey were created and are all here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UlU25PqaxkFScyvx4b3QJKYYHSfHCttt?usp=sharing

NOTE: Currently checking with Android team about "continue reading" - so the image that starts with [M] may have a missing component and maybe it will be updated.

TLessa-WMF moved this task from Design Doing to Ready for PM signoff on the Wikipedia-Android-App-Backlog (Android Release - FY2025-26) board.Dec 12 2025, 5:30 AM

Hypothesis closed.

List of deliverables

Comparative review:
Broad visual comparative review in Figma
Focused comparative review analysis with insights

Current state of the Explore feed in Wikipedia:
Map of the current state (Android: Phone + Tablet / iOS: Phone + Tablet)
Gap analysis

Current perception by users:
Explore feed survey

Non-app users perception:
Explore Feed Qualitative Research

TLessa-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Dec 12 2025, 5:35 AM