Google Code-in is open to tasks related with user interface. Are you in?
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Google Code-in: are you in?
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 10:51:21 -0700
From: Quim Gil <qgil(a)wikimedia.org>
To: Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Google Code-in has been announced:
http://www.google-melange.com/gci/homepage/google/gci2013
This is about 13-17 year old students performing tasks that can be
isolated and a skilled contributor would complete in a couple of hours.
The tasks mjust have a mentor and can be related to code, documentation,
outreach, QA or UX. Participants get one point for each task completed
and they can complete as many as they can between 18 November and 6 January.
Wikimedia can apply thanks to our participation on GSoC 2013. The
deadline is 28 October. Only 10 organizations will be accepted.
I think we should apply. Main reasons:
* The definition of a Code-in task fits very well with our ideal
definition of an annoying little bug:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Annoying_little_bugs
* The typical Code-in participant needs what most potential new
contributor also need from us: an insightful landing page, straight
connections to first tasks and friendly community support.
* Just like GSoC / OPW, it is a good chance for non-primetime projects
to raise their hands, get some help and hopefully some new contributors.
* Good exercise for first-time mentors, practicing for more co plex
internship projects.
* Good exercise for any open source project, meaning just any MediaWiki
/ Wikimedia tech project.
But of course this will only work if many projects want to step in with
a task and a mentor for it. So what do you think?
--
Quim Gil
Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
A while back I made https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/65346/ to add the
"vform" layout (vertically-stacked using Agora buttons) to the HTMLForm
class, and Matt Walker just merged it (thanks!). Forms using HTMLForm can
choose this layout and then they'll resemble the Login and Create account
pages.
As a demonstration the patch changes Special:PasswordReset to use this
layout. It only takes a couple of lines to convert a form:
$form->setDisplayFormat( 'vform' );
// Turn the old-school line around the form off.
$form->setWrapperLegend( false );
http://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Special:PasswordReset
Cheers,
--
=S Page Features engineer
Hey all,
Today we deployed a new version of the onboarding UX we've been working on
for some time, using GettingStarted and GuidedTour. This is in "silent"
mode right now, and on Monday we'll be flipping the switch to deliver it
for 50% of new signups on English Wikipedia, as part of an A/B test.
To see what this looks like, just add ?gettingStartedReturn=true to any
link on enwiki, like...
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Lubarsch?gettingStartedReturn=truefor
what it looks like on an editable page
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?gettingStartedReturn=true for
what it looks like on a page new users can't.
As our specification describes,[1] this test version with calls to action
will be delivered automatically to new users when they are redirected back
to where they were prior to signup. The control in our A/B test will be
sending all new users through Special:GettingStarted. You can find out more
about our hypotheses regarding this test on Meta.[2]
I'd appreciate any feedback people might have. A list of the current things
I want to see updated before Monday are on our publicly-viewable project
management tool, Trello.[3]
Many thanks!
1. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Onboarding_new_Wikipedians#Proposed
2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:OB6
3. https://trello.com/c/k4GksP18
--
Steven Walling,
Product Manager
https://wikimediafoundation.org/
Thanks for sharing this, Ori!
It's a great example of how 'responsive digital design layouts' can be used to provide a better experience on a page, using HTML5.
Over time, I hope we can integrate more of these techniques on Wikipedia, as users will come to expect them once they gain wider adoption.
To that end, we would like to include an example of this mixed media approach in the multimedia vision piece we are preparing together this fall.
Here are a couple more examples, for your viewing pleasure:
* ESPN'S Dock Ellis piece -- one of the first applications of parallax to editorial:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=Dock-Ellis
* National Geographic's Forest Giant - an experiment with Adobe:
http://blogs.adobe.com/webplatform/2013/05/06/adobe-explores-the-future-of-…
* Stevan Živadinović's Hobo Lobo of Hamelin - an entire parallax children's story:
http://hobolobo.net/
* Nike's nutty scroll behaviors:
http://www.nike.com/jumpman23/aj2012/
These examples come from my son Adam, who is starting to integrate some of these ideas on Triple Canopy. He says there are lots of libraries for these techniques now, mostly just used for marketing sites.
Hope we can bring some of them to Wikipedia too, maybe starting with some of our future multimedia experiments, like article 'covers'.
-f
On Oct 16, 2013, at 5:01 AM, design-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 15:43:51 -0400
> From: Matthew Flaschen <mflaschen(a)wikimedia.org>
> To: design(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: Re: [Design] "The Russia Left Behind" (NYT piece)
> Message-ID: <525D9AF7.9060603(a)wikimedia.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>
> On 10/15/2013 02:31 PM, Quiddity wrote:
>> "Snow Fall - The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek" is the canonical NYT
>> example.
>> http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek
>> It was talked about a LOT. https://www.google.com/search?q=snow+fall+nyt
>> a "six-month sixteen-person multimedia project", "immersive story",
>> "spectacle".
>>
>> I'm not sure if there's a particular name for the UI style(?), but
>> someone replicated the dynamic-scrolling aspects in an hour, and then
>> NYT's lawyers descended: https://medium.com/meta/503b9c22080b
>
> Well, it sounds like the issue was that they copied the specific images
> and video at first too, *not* just the general style (transition as you
> scroll, etc.).
>
> Then, they removed the images and video, but I think the Times lawyers
> either didn't get it, or just decided to play hardball.
>
> Matt Flaschen
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 12:52:13 -0700
> From: Steven Walling <swalling(a)wikimedia.org>
> To: "A list for the design team." <design(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Design] "The Russia Left Behind" (NYT piece)
> Message-ID:
> <CAMryOMVGDdVPPfvFcFqnC_5nWDhg7UGRGL=g3TxZxATO_J=5Ww(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 12:43 PM, Matthew Flaschen
> <mflaschen(a)wikimedia.org>wrote:
>
>> Well, it sounds like the issue was that they copied the specific images
>> and video at first too, *not* just the general style (transition as you
>> scroll, etc.).
>>
>> Then, they removed the images and video, but I think the Times lawyers
>> either didn't get it, or just decided to play hardball.
>>
>
> Yes. Parallax scrolling and effects like Bootstrap's affix.js are most
> certainly not copyrighted by the NYT.
>
>
> --
> Steven Walling,
> Product Manager
> https://wikimediafoundation.org/
>
Wanted to share this, since it made me wow out loud:
http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2013/10/13/russia/
I'm not referring to the substance of the piece but to its
presentation, which is an impressive composite of a lot of very recent
browser capabilities.
On Thu, Oct 3, 2013 at 11:43 PM, May Tee-Galloway
<mgalloway(a)wikimedia.org>wrote:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Flow_Portal/Design/Iteration_5
>
This is great work!, but now the Agora controls specification is
out-of-date while remaining a lot more detailed. Iteration 5 for Flow uses
different colors, and e.g. Flow's plain white [ Reply ] button has
different height and margin than the Agora spec's equivalent [ Other
Actions] button. May Tee confirmed this. I reluctantly agree with her that
updating the Agora controls spec in tandem with these rapid Flow iterations
would be a ton of work, so
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/File:Agora_specs.pdf now warns it's out of
date.
Engineers should maintain a split in the Flow CSS between discussion CSS
and "mediawiki.ui override CSS", but the lack of clarity over what's a Flow
design and what's core Agora means the Flow extension is almost guaranteed
*NOT* to deliver a new consistent UI for MediaWiki.
I'll be adding more screenshots to
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Category:Inconsistent_buttons :-(
teamlove,
>
She's mighty Mayte
-- Prince's "House of Brick" version of "Brick House"
--
=S Page Features engineer
Hey all,
Using my volunteer account and time, I have proposed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Sidebar_update
The sidebar has long driven many of us who care about usability crazy. I've
proposed what I think is a reasonable compromise, where we don't remove a
lot of links, but create a special new "Contribute" section focused on ways
to participate, and we reword or move major functions like About, Help,
Contact etc.
Comments welcome, naturally.
--
Steven Walling,
Product Manager
https://wikimediafoundation.org/
