Sorry, I think that last paragraph sounded a bit like a rant. I think some of the problem here is that WMF lacks the financial resources to deploy many hundreds or thousands of researchers, designers and engineers like Google and Microsoft can. I'd like to see that resource problem solved. To be fair, even with all of their resources, Microsoft in particular has had problems (Windows 8 and Windows Vista come to mind). However, I do wonder, if WMF was able to borrow 500 researchers, designers, and engineers from other companies for a year or two, if WMF could make serious progress at the usability and features deficits between Wikimedia platforms and other major sites.

Aside from the resource problem, I'd be keen in hearing other thoughts on how to accelerate WMF progress on design and features so that we can have some of the features that I mentioned above as well as have intuitive, fast, robust interfaces that our readers and contributors enjoy using.

Pine

On Thu, Jul 14, 2016 at 7:22 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine@gmail.com> wrote:

I was thinking along similar lines as Stuart, using OSM to navigate and encouraging users to take photos of landmarks and other buildings where that's permitted by FOP. Landmarks for which we have only small photos, old photos (more than about 3 years), or no photos could be prioritized.

Also, for readers, how about showing the readers an OSM view of the world and noting which nearby features have Wikipedia articles as the users navigate on the map?

Finally, I'd like users to have emotionally rewarding experiences when exploring our content, as well as creating new content or editing existing content. Editing is painful on mobile, and even on desktop in VE there are bugs which are frustrating. I'd like our tools to work properly, fast, and intuitively. I realize that WMF has a limited budget, but our interface is a ways from being a smooth and enjoyable experience, both on VE and on wikitext. And for readers, I'd like to have robust multimedia search and interactive features. We are far behind in our interfaces compared to sites and apps that others provide, and I hope that we can close that gap within the next two to three years. If WMF does not improve its interfaces rapidly, this leaves the door open for competitors to remix our content with better interfaces, and also encourages potential contibutors to leave Wikimedia for places that provide nice, modern designs and user experiences.

Pine

On Jul 14, 2016 15:03, "Stuart A. Yeates" <syeates@gmail.com> wrote:
A game built on a travel-photograph-upload loop would be a great way to build our depth of imagery. 

cheers
stuart

--
...let us be heard from red core to black sky

On Fri, Jul 15, 2016 at 9:52 AM, Toby Negrin <tnegrin@wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi Pine -- did you have any specific ideas? I spent some time in the gaming industry and am familiar with Ingress, the game that Pokeman Go is based on, as well as the theories behind mechanics/compulsion loops that mobile games use.

I'll share one general thought -- the research-edit-publish loop is a great mechanism -- it's quick and easy and very gratifying, especially combined with a google search.

However, we've generally found that the notion that we use gaming mechanics to encourage people to read or edit wikipedia does not have broad support in our communities.

-Toby



On Thu, Jul 14, 2016 at 2:26 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi WMF Mobile and Research,

I'm wondering if we (mostly meaning "you" but perhaps with external collaborators) have considered how the Wikipedia mobile apps, Wikipedia mobile web, the Wikidata game, and/or the Commons app could borrow some design ideas or features from Pokémon Go to make Wikimedia offerings more appealing, particularly to younger audiences. This would apply to content consumption and contribution, as well as community aspects of Wikimedia experiences, particularly on mobile platforms.

Thanks,

Pine


_______________________________________________
Mobile-l mailing list
Mobile-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l



_______________________________________________
Wiki-research-l mailing list
Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l



_______________________________________________
Wiki-research-l mailing list
Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l