I have been on wikibreak for some months, but today creating a new article.
I tried uploading a photograph from a US government source, using the
"Upload from a government source" on Commons. I totally missed the license
selector, which is hidden beneath the edit tool buttons box. Commons
wouldn't let me upload without choosing a license, so I got a warning and
then searched for ~15 seconds before I found it.
Of course I know a license needs to be selected, but I thought perhaps it
was auto-selected as public domain, being that I was on the government
source upload form and that I did specify the source in the "Original
source" field.
Since the license selector is required and much of the other stuff is
optional, the license selector needs to be at the top of the form, just
beneath the Destination filename field.
For the "Original source" field, this needs to be a multiline text field by
default, if the intention is for the user to "Give as much information as
you can". No one should ever need to click the "more lines" button to the
right of the field to get additional space. The additional space should just
be there.
I know usability of Wikimedia Commons is being addressed. It would be good
to get the upload form fixed sooner than later, and hope my feedback is
useful. If someone with my level of wiki experience is failing at doing
uploads, newbies would be totally lost.
-Aude