Mobile-l May 2012

mobile-l@lists.wikimedia.org

15 participants
14 discussions

New navigation UI on mobile beta site
by Philip Chang 24 May '12

24 May '12

We have deployed an early version of the new navigation UI on the mobile beta site! To see it, you must opt-in to the beta, by going here using your phone's built-in browser: http://bit.ly/wmoptin Click on Yes and then go to any article on Wikipedia. You can also try this link: http://bit.ly/navui Try using the Contents, Language and Random features. Are these features easy to find and use? How could they be improved? Are the buttons to access the main menu and action bar of the article easy to find and intuitive? Feedback can be sent by reply, or (preferably) post your comments here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_design/Wikipedia_navigation/Beta_feed… Let us know what you think! Thanks. Phil -- Phil Inje Chang Product Manager, Mobile Wikimedia Foundation 415-812-0854 m 415-882-7982 x 6810

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Wikipedia App for iOS and Android RC for testing!
by Yuvi Panda 24 May '12

24 May '12

Hello! Getting closer to a less-sucky release on both Android and (especially) iOS! This RC should hopefully have all major issues sorted out, and if nothing blocking is found will be pushed out to the app stores. People doing beta testing finding issues is much more awesome than users finding issues, so please test things out! ## What to test? In addition to what was mentioned in the original beta (http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mobile-l/2012-May/005566.html), 1. Error handling for network issues. Searching or accessing pages with no network should put up an explanatory message. 2. RTL languages should be handled much better. Try mixing a LTR phone language and a RTL content language to see if it is handled properly. 3. Issues with dismissing Reference display have been fixed. Tapping outside of the display should properly hide it. 4. Scrolling issues with iOS 4.x should be 'fixed' - should no longer be super-jittery. Try super-long articles, and expand multiple sections quickly. 5. Content formatting should be in tune with how it is in the Mobile site. This essentially means fixes for how infoboxes were shown. Try out different infoboxes, and compare them with the mobile site. It would also be awesome to get people to test out saved pages across different network conditions. They've traditionally been our most brittle area, so testing on that would be much appreciated ## How to test? For Android: 1. Download http://dumps.wikimedia.org/android/Wikipedia-v1.2-RC1-market.apk into your Android device 2. Open it in your device to install it! Note: This build shall go up on Google Play shortly. For iOS: If you have not already given us your device's UDID, you need to do so. Follow the instructions at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects/How_to_start_beta_testing_iO… to get started! If you have already given us your Device's UDID (yay!) it is much simpler: 1. Download http://dumps.wikimedia.org/iOS/Wikipedia-v3.2RC1-iOS.ipa to your computer 2. Connect your iOS device to the computer 3. Open iTunes 4. Drag the IPA to the 'Apps' section of your device 5. Sync ## How to provide feedback? You can provide us feedback in multiple ways: 1. Email us at mobile-feedback-l at lists.wikimedia.org 2. Add it to the wiki page: Android(http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects/WikipediaMobileAndro… or iOS(http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects/WikipediaMobileiOSFeedba… 3. Find us on IRC - #wikimedia-mobile on freenode -- Yuvi Panda T http://yuvi.in/blog

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Fwd: Office hours about the new mobile site and other mobile work at the WMF
by Steven Walling 21 May '12

21 May '12

FYI... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Steven Walling <swalling(a)wikimedia.org> Date: Mon, May 21, 2012 at 6:08 PM Subject: Office hours about the new mobile site and other mobile work at the WMF To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Hi everyone, This Friday the Wikimedia Foundation's mobile team will be hosting an IRC office hours to talk about the new version of the Wikipedia mobile site, along with other upcoming updates to the way readers and contributors experience the projects on mobile devices. This is the first office hours with Phil Chang, the product manager for mobile, since the Foundation has worked to release new versions of the mobile site, iPhone app, and the Android app. If you're interested in those projects and future work on mobile contributions, I highly encourage attending. :) We'll be in #wikimedia-office from 18:00-19:00 UTC, Friday the 23rd. As usual, docs are on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours -- Steven Walling https://wikimediafoundation.org/ -- Steven Walling https://wikimediafoundation.org/

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Windows 8 tablets and Metro-style Wikipedia app
by Brion Vibber 17 May '12

17 May '12

So far we've mostly been targeting iOS and Android for tablets, but there's another interesting tablet OS coming down the line -- Windows 8, which will run on both conventional PCs and tablets. Windows 8 includes an HTML/JavaScript runtime for native apps using the new "Metro" style interface paradigm which is heavily weighed towards touchscreens, so we should be able to adapt the PhoneGap app or reuse much of its code. I've been looking into what it would take to support a Windows 8 Metro style app well, and have written up some notes and screenshots: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile/Windows_8_Metro A standalone test application that runs on Windows 8 Consumer Preview and implements some of the system integration (but none of the article reading!) is on my github account: https://github.com/brion/WikipediaMetroTest There's also a preliminary solution & project file in the main app's git repo, in the WikipediaMetro subdirectory, but this doesn't fully run right now (the way we load some scripts violates a security rule) and doesn't do any of the integration. I'll try and get it running proper soon... -- brion

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Create a WMF-specific mobile extension?
by Max Semenik 17 May '12

17 May '12

Hi, Currently, MobileFrontend has lots of features intended for WMF use only: code relying on database name consisting of project and language, Wikipedia logos all around, code that adds ® on enwiki and so on. This goes against our aims of MobileFrontend integration with core MediaWiki and making our mobile code useable by everyone. Thus, I propose to factor out everything WMF-specific into a separate extension. We need to invent a name for this extension. WikimediaMobile is already taken:) Also, please let me know if there are more WMFisms that I've missed. -- Best regards, Max Semenik ([[User:MaxSem]])

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Reminder: IRC office hours with Kul and Amit, about Wikipedia Zero and other mobile work
by Steven Walling 17 May '12

17 May '12

Just a heads up this is happening in just a min or so. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Steven Walling <swalling(a)wikimedia.org> Date: Thu, May 3, 2012 at 4:01 PM Subject: Fwd: IRC office hours with Kul and Amit, about Wikipedia Zero and other mobile work To: mobile-l <mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> FYI... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Steven Walling <swalling(a)wikimedia.org> Date: Thu, May 3, 2012 at 4:01 PM Subject: IRC office hours with Kul and Amit, about Wikipedia Zero and other mobile work To: wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Hi everyone, On May 17th at 16:00 UTC, Kul Wadhwa (Head of Mobile and Business Development) and Amit Kapoor (Senior Manager, Mobile Partnerships) will be in #wikimedia-office to talk about Wikipedia Zero,[1] as well as the other initiatives underway on the mobile team. As usual, details and time conversion links are on Meta.[2] We have scheduled this at a time that we hope works for Wikimedians from Africa and Asia, since it was Abbasjnr's idea to have a mobile office hours. (Thanks Abbas!) 1. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero 2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours -- Steven Walling https://wikimediafoundation.org/ -- Steven Walling https://wikimediafoundation.org/ -- Steven Walling https://wikimediafoundation.org/

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Change in Main Menu and Action Bar buttons
by Philip Chang 14 May '12

14 May '12

Last week we did some testing on usertesting.com that revealed a major discoverability problem with the UI that used the W as the Main Menu button. We also tested a new approach that used the W as an emblem within the search field and used a recognizable Main Menu icon. The Action Bar icon is still not unambiguous so we will keep working on that one. You can take a look here: https://accounts.usertesting.com/TestResults.aspx?v0p0s4j1y8r3t3u7 We are moving ahead with the new button approach and will have a version on the beta site soon. Phil -- Phil Inje Chang Product Manager, Mobile Wikimedia Foundation 415-812-0854 m 415-882-7982 x 6810

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Table formatting is broken
by Asher Feldman 14 May '12

14 May '12

FYI, I was just informed that some tables and possibly other content are completely broken / unreadable on the mobile site and have been since at least Monday. The following is a screenshot of http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver_(album) from my iphone. It wasn't in my browser cache, and I appended random query strings to bypass varnish.

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Wikipedia for Android app betas now available through Android Market (Google Play)
by Yuvi Panda 10 May '12

10 May '12

Hello everyone! We just released the beta of the Wikipedia app to the Android market (Google Play)! This means that you can install the app, and get updated with newer betas automagically - no need to subscribe to mailing lists, read through announcements, uninstall other apps and download apks to install. Yay! You can install the app from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wikipedia.beta . It exists side-by-side with the stable version, so you can always switch to that if the beta gets too crashy. You can leave feedback either by emailing mobile-feedback-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org or leaving a comment in the app's page on Google Play -- Yuvi Panda T http://yuvi.in/blog

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Mobile user-testing: Android (web)
by Erik Moeller 09 May '12

09 May '12

Hi folks, I just did 3 quick user-tests of the new mobile site layout with some Android testers. I've got another 3 tests with iPhone users pending. The mobile testing feature of usertesting.com is pretty fun & useful, and I would strongly encourage constant use, especially when we deploy any significant change to production. It's good for usability testing, and it can also occasionally surface some nasty bugs that we've not been able to capture locally or in the wild. The one downside is that it doesn't seem to give you very detailed device info, or indeed any device info. All I see in the tester profile is "Android", which is pretty useless for debugging. I've asked them if more detailed info is accessible somehow and will let you know. Here are my test videos from the Android test. I've added annotations to each one for some notable moments. https://accounts.usertesting.com/TestResults.aspx?l6e6u3t7y8i6t3f6 Highlights/summary: 1) It's really frustrating for users when the search essentially just gives up on anything that's not an exact match. One user repeatedly tried to do full text search, but was confused by the search button (the magnifying glass) disappearing in full-screen mode (it gets replaced by the "X" that clears the search field). She expected the search button to perform a full text search, and accidentally cleared her search instead by tapping the "X" button. 2) Although it's not articulated verbally by the testers, 2 of 3 have problems tapping the tiny "Desktop | Mobile" switcher, especially given that it's so close to the "Terms of Use" link. We should really consider increasing the font size here somewhat as they're extremely hard to tap at the small font size. 3) One tester, using what looks like an early gen Android phone, is having serious trouble with the section expand/collapse on a medium-sized page. Here's a clip specifically of that experience: https://accounts.usertesting.com/ViewClip.aspx?file=iZFnw8acTqMBOpi11hrVow%… Notice how it collapses the sections waaaay into his reading experience. Is this a known issue on slower/older phones? If so perhaps we can degrade a bit more gracefully on those devices. 4) All testers point out the missing infoboxes in the mobile version, and two explicitly name it as something they want (one tester says that she was looking up someone's birthdate earlier the same day, and was not able to find it due to the collapsed infobox). This appears to be a current bug in production, filed at https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36627 5) One tester used swipe gestures to type, which really does not interact well with our search box. Not sure we can do much about that one, except that at least with one of his attempts it could have brought up a "Did you mean" suggestion. I enjoyed one tester's attempts to use voice input. :) It's also nice to see the different type of corrections people attempt to do with different input method. Hope this is useful; will follow up with iPhone results shortly. All best, Erik -- Erik Möller VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

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Mobile-l May 2012