simple english - Mobile-l

11 Dec 2015

Hi Folks,

TLDR: want to introduce the idea of surfacing simple english version of
wikipedia in a more prominent way to test if this appeals to our readers.
 no timeline, no action items, just an intro to the concept and a request
for feedback/suggestions.

*Bakground:*
As a refresher/summary, as part of the reading team's strategic process
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Strategy>, we identified 4 reading
strategies that we are exploring and want to test hypothesis that will help
us determine which strategies are more impactful.

I am reviewing our strategy tests (i.e. tests that can help us determine if
a particular strategy is one we should focus on) and came across some notes
I made with Abbey (copied) around the potential strategy "Guided
Educational Experiences" that I wanted to surface and run by you. This
potential strategy is one where the reading team focuses on enhancing
learning (comprehension and/or retention) of content.  Ideas in this theme
include identifying prerequisite articles, a suggested order to reading
articles (curricula), simple or practical versions of articles, quizzes or
even games. To be clear, this is a potential strategy that we are
evaluating along with others, as described here
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Strategy/Strategy_Process/Testing#About>.
I also want to acknowledge that there have likely been other experiments in
this area--if you have specific examples you would like to share, please do
so.  The test proposed below came about from one such awareness.

*The test:*
One idea for this strategy was "simplified versions of articles"--versions
of articles for readers who were unfamiliar with the topic or lacked a
basic educational foundation.  That wikipedia articles are sometimes to
advanced is not a novel observation, but it's a tough nut to crack.

We had originally framed the test as "will editors want to create
simplified versions of articles" and we planned on asking them.  However
the work that James Helman is doing with editors translating medical
documents into more practical guides in Swahili [link?] seems to show there
is interest here.  However, we felt that SimpleEnglish was, in itself, a
remarkable test of what is being proposed, even though its focus is on
simple wording rather than concept simplicity. The most often-cited problem
(anecdote) with SimpleEnglish is that very few readers can find it.  This
makes sense: someone confused by sophisticated vocabulary or looking for a
summary of an article is not likely to check the language list to see if a
simple version of the article sits there.

So the proposed test would be to surface simple english in a more prominent
way and to test if this led to higher comprehension using either quick
surveys or a proxy, like pageviews. I added the broad outlines of the test
to our strategy test document, here
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Strategy/Strategy_Process/Testing#Create_deep-dive_.28guided.29_educational_experience>
.

*The ask:*
This is not part of our proposed Q3 plans or even our Q4 plans, but I would
like to hear feedback and ideas around how we could effectively integrate
it into our plans.  One idea would be to implement it on one of the apps,
first, since we can move things around there without disturbing as many
people.  We are open to suggestions.

Best,

J