Timeline: Sharing recommendations by end of January
Background
The Mobile Apps teams are officially part of the Readers teams at the Wikimedia Foundation. Given this, we are focused primarily on improving the Mobile Apps for reading and browsing Wikipedia. We will not be investing in building a native visual editor in the next few years, and doing so would take multiple years to implement. At the same time, the Growth team and contributors teams are researching and investing in how we can improve the Mobile Web editing experience. Mobile Web already has the visual editor, and is continuing to improve it. At this point in time, it makes sense for the Mobile Apps to consider how we can elegantly pass users over to the Mobile Web editing experience if they are seeking the visual editing experience.
Desired outcome
Identify if there's a possibility for passing who initiate an edit from Apps to Mobile Web in a way that is transparent and easy to understand.
User stories
- As a new editor who has the app installed, I want to learn that I can use the visual editor, so that I can easily make edits to articles without engaging with Wikitext.
- As an experienced editor who is also an app user, I want to be able to keep the Wikipedia App installed for reading and browsing, but opt to use Mobile web’s visual editing interface when I need to make edits.
Current state
- If you open a non-mainspace page, it is displayed in a wrapped webview, where you can edit it using the Mobile Web's visual editor.
- On the Android app, there is no equivalent state
- If you open your user page and it does not exist yet, you are pointed to your default browser
- If you open a non-mainspace page, you are able to edit it using the App's source editor
Flow
Flow 3: Default to Visual editor (either app)
- If users click the edit button, drop them immediately into visual editor of that page within a Webview of Mobile Web. They should stay signed-in if possible, or prompt them to sign-in on if necessary.
- After finishing their edit within the Webview, they should return to the App's article view, with the successful edit showing in the article
- If they tap the "Share" option and open the webview in the Browser, they should be routed to the same article open in Mobile Web visual editor on the browser.
- Add a settings option for having "edit" default to native in-app source editor, or visual editor on Mobile Web
- Notify users via one-time onboarding (triggered when they press "Edit" for the first time) that editing will now open in Mobile Web. They change their default behavior any time in Settings
- Based on community feedback from English Wikipedia, this would be a strong option: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28WMF%29#Planned_short_test_of_mobile_banners_promoting_the_Wikipedia_app
Research Questions
- Do users understand how to switch between source editing and visual editor?
- Do users understand the benefit of the visual editor immediately? Or should the app offer onboarding before dropping them into visual editor
- Do users want to be able to set a default behavior for editing (Visual vs Source editing) in Settings?
- Do any users get confused by editing within the webview by default?
- Do they believe they stayed in the app the entire time?
- Does anyone try to keep navigating within the webview after editing
- Do users understand how to preview their edit afterwards?
- Do users return to reading the article? Or would they try to continue reading in the Webview
- Do any users want to switch back to source editing? If so, are they able to successfully do so?
Target Audience
- [to be confirmed] At least 5 users [Nice to have] 10-15 users
- Languages: English [Nice-to-have] 1 non-English language (Japanese, German, or Spanish)
- iOS and Android users
- New editors (those with fewer than 100 total edits)
- Wikipedia readers who might be interested in Editing (does not have to be limited to App-users)
- Editors who prefer Visual Editor
- Ensure we do not have an overrepresentation of editors who exclusively use source editor / wikitext, identified via screener question or those who have 500+ edits all time
To dos
- Collect and review existing research on how users understand and utilize Visual Editor (ask Bethany/Mike about relevant research)
- Review potential user flows with PM and Lead engineer for each app
- Meet with Editing team to review flows
- Create clickable prototypes in Figma for both flows (base on current screenshots from the Apps)
- Create protocol and run it by PM and Design Research
- Process feedback from conducting testing on userlytics
- Share outcomes and recommendations with the team