On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 9:58 AM, Munaf Assaf <massaf(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
In general for uploads, showing a complex infographic
to users prior to an
upload is a surefire way to lose people (I hadn't seen this yet because I've
been using Commonist for a while). I think we should offer education
throughout the wizard contextually and minimally, perhaps as small comic
strips in the margins of the actual upload page.
I agree that the current approach could use an overhaul sometime soon.
It's a hard problem: Commons has very strict rules to ensure all
materials are freely reusable (including commercial use), and this is
hard to communicate in a context where most other sites only treat
copyright primarily as something that's managed after the upload (via
DMCA takedown notices etc.).
I do think we need to get the basics established upfront to ensure
that users don't feel frustrated because they're told that their files
aren't permitted _after_ they've waited for them to be uploaded. But
user testing has shown that users only read the last two panels in the
strip. Ideally the two takeaways we want them to have at the beginning
are: 1) If you upload your own stuff, you agree that anyone can freely
use it for any purpose. Other intricacies e.g. of what is and isn't
"your own work", what public domain terms are, etc. are indeed
probably better explained contextually. 2) You can't upload people's
stuff unless it's explicitly available under the same terms.
This could enable us to eliminate the "Learn" step altogether and
integrate it with the upload page, although having an explicit
clickthrough might be a good idea for the same reasons that this
pattern is used in various sites where users are required to buy into
basic terms of use before proceeding.
See also Brandon's earlier UW design recommendations:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/UploadWizard/Design_recommendations
Since we're unlikely to get to it soon, I've filed a bug here so we
don't forget it:
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=39802
Thanks much for the Flickr recommendations, we'll consolidate and
prioritize those along with other user feedback soon.
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
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https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate