Hi everyone,
*tl;dr: We'll be stripping all content contained inside brackets from the
first sentence of articles in the Wikipedia app.*
The Mobile Apps Team is focussed on making the app a beautiful and engaging
reader experience, and trying to support use cases like wanting to look
something up quickly to find what it is. Unfortunately, there are several
aspects of Wikipedia at present that are actively detrimental to that goal.
One example of this are the lead sentences.
As mentioned in the other thread on this matter
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mobile-l/2015-March/008715.html>,
lead sentences are poorly formatted and contain information that is
detrimental to quickly looking up a topic. The team did a quick audit
<https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/spreadsheets/d/1BJ7uDgzO8IJT0M3UM2q…>
of
the information available inside brackets in the first sentences, and
typically it is pronunciation information which is probably better placed
in the infobox rather than breaking up the first sentence. The other
problem is that this information was typically inserted and previewed on a
platform where space is not at a premium, and that calculation is different
on mobile devices.
In order to better serve the quick lookup use case, the team has reached
the decision to strip anything inside brackets in the first sentence of
articles in the Wikipedia app.
Stripping content is not a decision to be made lightly. People took the
time to write it, and that should be respected. We realise this is
controversial. That said, it's the opinion of the team that the problem is
pretty clear: this content is not optimised for users quickly looking
things up on mobile devices at all, and will take a long time to solve
through alternative means. A quicker solution is required.
The screenshots below are mockups of the before and after of the change.
These are not final, I just put them together quickly to illustrate what
I'm talking about.
- Before: http://i.imgur.com/VwKerbv.jpg
- After: http://i.imgur.com/2A5PLmy.jpg
If you have any questions, let me know.
Thanks,
Dan
--
Dan Garry
Associate Product Manager, Mobile Apps
Wikimedia Foundation
Hi everyone,
We've released our latest update to the Wikipedia Android app
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wikipedia&hl=en>, now
available on the Google Play store. (For devices without Google Play
services, you may download
<https://releases.wikimedia.org/mobile/android/wikipedia/stable/wikipedia-2.…>
the app directly)
This is a maintenance update that addresses a few minor issues and bugs:
* Respect the new {{shortdescription}} template in articles (no longer
offer to edit the Wikidata description if a local article description is
present).
* Fix possible latency issues due to incorrect cookie handling.
* Fix possible errors when synchronizing reading lists (when adding
articles from external deep links).
Cheers,
--
Dmitry Brant
Senior Software Engineer (Android)
Wikimedia Foundation
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_mobile_engineering
Hello,
The Wikimedia Foundation's iOS team released a first beta of our next
update to TestFlight. This version, v5.8.2 contains a number of usability
and performance improvements, including:
- More responsive search box
- Larger font size options for large/super high resolution devices
- Support for pronunciation guide embedded audio clips
- Fixes for swipe and force touch actions in many places, especially on
Saved pages
And more...
If you are a beta tester, please install the update and let us know if you
spot any issues. If you'd like to become a beta tester please sign up here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfW7zFnUDYABvHLWlFclZ7O
JEK82WjVIjs_dSzwIDM0Hnz31A/viewfo
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfW7zFnUDYABvHLWlFclZ7OJEK82WjVIjs…>
rm
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfW7zFnUDYABvHLWlFclZ7OJEK82WjVIjs…>
Thanks,
Josh Minor
PM, Wikipedia for iOS
Hello mobile wikimedians,
The Wikimedia Foundation's iOS team is glad to announce the latest update
to the Wikipedia app for iOS, version 5.8.1, is available here:
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/
viewSoftware?id=324715238&mt=8
This version includes a small number of bug fixes and improvements
following our major release of Reading lists last month, particularly for
right-to-left languages.
Thanks to Ladolego, and our other volunteer bug reporters and translators
for their usual invaluable help.
Cheers,
Josh Minor
PM, Wikipedia for iOS
Hi
We just have released a new version of Kiwix for iOS.
New Library Design:
* ZIM files are grouped by topic categories
* ZIM file detail view
* Downloading content and catalog are displayed in one place
* On iPads, using a split view with ZIM file / categories on the left
and detail on the right
Bookmark:
* Now displayed as a side panel on iPad
* Add / remove bookmark interface is now presented as a HUD and does not
cover up all the screen space
Reading:
* Now ask users for confirmation when opening external links. Can be
turned on or off in settings
Core:
* Massive multiple improvement of the ZIM file mgmt through introduction
of Kiwix lib 2.0.
iOS:
* An effort has been made to keep compatibility with iOS 10.
The app is available on iTunes at http://ios.kiwix.org.
Enjoy
Emmanuel
--
Kiwix - Wikipedia Offline & more
* Web: http://www.kiwix.org
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/KiwixOffline
* more: http://www.kiwix.org/wiki/Communication
Hi everyone.
The Readers web team has recently begun working on exposing issue
templates on the mobile website. [0] Currently, details about issues
with page content are generally hidden on the mobile website. This
leaves readers unaware of the reliability of the pages they are
reading. The goal of this project is to improve awareness of
particular issues within an article on the mobile web. We will do this
by changing the visual styling of page issues.
So far, we have drafted a proposal on the design and implementation of
the project. [1] We were also able to run user testing on the proposed
designs. [2] The tests so far have positive results. Here is a quick
summary of what we learned:
* The new treatment increases awareness of page issues among
participants. This is true particularly when they are in a more
evaluative/critical mode.
* Page issues make sense to readers and they understand how they work
* Readers care about page issues and consider them important
* Readers had overwhelmingly positive sentiments towards Wikipedia
associated with learning about page issues
Our next step would be to start implementing these changes. We wanted
to reach out to you for any concerns, thoughts, and suggestions you
might have before beginning development. Please visit the project page
where we have more information and mockups of how this may look. [1]
Please leave feedback on the talk page. [3]
[0] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web/Team
[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web/Projects/Mobile_Page_Issues
[2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web/Projects/Mobile_Page_Issues/Rese…
[3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Reading/Web/Projects/Mobile_Page_Issues
Yours,
Chris Koerner
Community Liaison
Wikimedia Foundation
Howdy mobile Wikimedians,
The Wikimedia Foundation's iOS team released an initial beta to TestFlight
today. This version, 5.8.1, includes minor usability and bug fixes,
especially related to RTL languages.
If you'd like to be a beta tester please sign up here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfW7zFnUDYABvHLWlFclZ7O
JEK82WjVIjs_dSzwIDM0Hnz31A/viewform
Thanks,
Josh Minor
PM, Wikipedia for iOS
Hi all,
We've just released version 2.7 of the Commons Android app ! \o/ The new
version is available for download on the Google Play Store[1] as well as
F-Droid[2].
This update includes several new features:
- New "Nearby places that need pictures" UI with direct uploads (and
associated category suggestions) - Two-factor authentication login -
Notifications activity to display Commons user talk messages - Real-time
location tracking in Nearby - Improvements to UI of navigation drawer,
tutorial, media details view, login and settings - Option to nominate
picture for deletion in media details view
We are also thrilled to be mentoring two new contributors for this year's
GSoC - Tanvi Dadu and Ujjwal Agrawal. :)
Thank you all for your support and encouragement thus far! More details and
screenshots can be found in my blog post[3]. Feedback, bug reports, and
suggestions are always welcome on our GitHub page[4].
Best regards,
Josephine (project maintainer)
[1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fr.free.nrw.commons
[2]: https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=fr.free.nrw.commons
[3]:
https://cookiesandcodeblog.wordpress.com/2018/04/21/commons-app-version-2-7…
[4]: https://github.com/commons-app/apps-android-commons/issues
