Desktop Improvements:�

Finishing the project�and�changing the skin on wikis

rock steady

Agenda

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1. Goals overview & current status of the project
2. Discussion of deployment plans
3. Q&A

Goals overview�&�current status

We, the Web team from the WMF, are working on various improvements to the desktop interface.

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Our goal is to make our interfaces more welcoming to readers and editors, especially from emerging markets.

Context:

Goals overview & current status of the project

What are our goals and targets?

Goals:

• Make Wikimedia wikis more welcoming to new readers and editors
• Increase utility amongst readers and maintain utility for existing editors

Targets:

• Increase trust and positive sentiment towards our sites - measured qualitatively
• Increase in utility proxied by usage of common actions such as search and language switching - measured quantitatively
• Additional: monitor core metrics throughout the process to identify any other significant effects of the changes
• Additional: discussed A/B testing along with fundraising banners

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Goals overview & current status of the project

In what ways will things improve?

• Bring the content more into focus
• Provide easier access to everyday actions (e.g. search, language switching, edit)
• Put things in logical and useful places
• Increase consistency in the interface with other platforms - mobile web and the apps
• Eliminate clutter

What we don’t want to do:

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• Interfere with the article content
• Remove any functionality
• Drastically change the layout
• Redesign the site

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Goals overview & current status of the project

Release strategy

Working with partner communities:

• People here receive Vector 2022 ON by default
• Logged in people can opt-out if they wish.
• Logged-out people cannot opt-out

All other wikis:

• People here get desktop refresh OFF by default
• Logged-in people can opt-in if they wish
• Logged out people cannot opt-in

Now, we are ready to begin scaling our work so that all wikis receive the new skin by default

Goals overview & current status of the project

Current Wikis (36)

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• Basque Wikipedia
• French Wikipedia
• French Wiktionary
• Hebrew Wikipedia
• Persian Wikipedia
• Portuguese Wikiversity
• Office Wiki
• Bengali Wikipedia

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• Korean Wikipedia
• Portuguese Wikipedia
• Serbian Wikipedia
• Turkish Wikipedia
• Venetian Wikipedia
• Wikimedia Incubator
• German Wikivoyage
• Collab wiki
• Strategy wiki

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• Vietnamese Wikipedia
• French Wikiquote
• Portuguese Wikinews
• Polish Wikinews
• Thai Wikipedia
• Vietnamese Wikibooks
• Moroccan Arabic Wikipedia

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Goals overview & current status of the project

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• Japanese Wikipedia
• Arabic Wikisource
• Catalan Wikipedia
• Polish Wikisource
• Chinese Wikinews
• MediaWiki wiki
• Wikimedia Foundation
• Governance wiki

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Timeline

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We are currently discussing our changes with our largest Wikipedias. We hope to begin bringing these changes as the default for all readers and editors in early September 2022

Over the next months, our focus will be on discussing the changes across communities and Affiliates and beginning to gather consensus for deployment

We will also be updating our documentation, fixing bugs, and working on new requests

Our Process

1. Problem identification research with both readers and editors

We study the way people used the site and identified the largest problems. We did this by interviewing readers and editors across multiple countries and locations. (See the links: Research and design: Phase 1, Research and design: Phase 2.)

• Prototype development and testing

We build out the ideas of a feature and begin showing solutions to our audiences.

We test with readers and editors through interviews and wider rounds of prototype testing. Each prototype was tested by approximately 200 editors on average. (Example).

• Refining and building

We take the feedback from the prototype testing and refine or change the prototype based on what needs were identified.

• A/B testing and other quantitative testing on pilot (early adopter) wikis

We perform quantitative testing for whether the feature works as expected based on the criteria of success we have previously defined. If we get negative results from our test, we change the feature and test again. During this phase, we also monitor usage across all wikis, including English Wikipedia, where many account holders are already using the new skin.

• Scaling

We deploy to more wikis and continue monitoring the way people are using it so that we can flag any issues.

Beginning

Finalized Feature

Overall impact

Positive Impacts:

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• An average of 88% of active users with accounts decide to keep our changes
• Search sessions initiated increased by 40% during our A/B test period
• The majority of readers who collapse the sidebar once leave it collapsed
• More than 80% of surveyed editors reported positive experiences with the sticky header and table of contents during user testing
• The new table of contents increases navigation to different sections by 50% for logged-in and logged-out users

Iteration:

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• Our new language switcher, while more discoverable by new users, was difficult to find for existing users, leading to a 30-40% decrease in language switching by logged-in users
• After iteration, the new language switching performs comparatively or better than the old

Current Status

Collapsible sidebar to allow focus on content.

New search widget that provides context on the search query including description and images. Our research indicated this led to a 40% increase in search sessions initiated!

Access to languages from the top of the page improves access for multilingual speakers

New user menu that collects all user tools

Goals overview & current status of the project

Current Status

A sticky header with commonly used tools.

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In an A/B test that compared this version to the previous layout, we noticed a 16% decrease in scrolling among logged-in users

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Goals overview & current status of the project

Current Status

A sticky header with commonly used tools

A table of contents that is always available

Goals overview & current status of the project

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In an A/B test that compared the new ToC to the old, we saw that the new ToC increases the amount people visit different sections of an article by 50%

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Current work: ToC updates and Visual Enhancements

Updates to the ToC based on feedback, making it collapsible and easier to read

Demo

https://di-collapsible-menus.web.app/Flamingo

Focusing on working with our communities

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• We are taking an approach designed to prioritize all voices across wikis
• Involving a wider group of editors in prototype testing
• Taking the conversation outside of village pumps - involving affiliate groups and having specific focus on office hours and community events such as the Hackathon, Wikimania, etc
• Participation in the movement strategy forum - designed for communication across languages
• Working with ambassadors, translators and interpreters to design office hours with live translations

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Join our events!

Opt-in and communication banners

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• As part of our overall outreach, as well as to collect valuable feedback from readers and editors, we will be launching banners encouraging folks to opt into the interface
• These banners will also contain a survey on the experience of users with the new site, as well as on overall affinity for Wikipedia

Webpage

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Q&A