Hello,
I just watched the showcase of December 2018, thank you for the interesting contribution! It would be great it further research could have a look at questions such as language choice. With regard to have more insight in what readers want, I struggled in the past with two questions:
Regionally important content: Should a Wikipedia language version concentrate on regional topics, or try to cover a large variety of topics? Heinz Kloss in the 1970s introduced the idea of "eigenbezogene Inhalte", content, that is closely related to a language and its region, like local history, culture and typical crafts such as fishing on the Faroe islands or farming in the Alps. What do the readers in Hungary want? That hu.WP concentrates on Hungarian topics, while they consult English wikipedia for specialized technical topics or other countries?
Large or small articles: Some printed encyclopedias had relatively few, but large articles. Others segmented the content into many small articles. (Think of Encyclopedia Britannica: Macropedia and Micropedia.) What do Wikipedia readers want? Do they prefer to read about a larger topic in one long, well structured article? Or several short ones, linking to each other?
I could imagine that a reader who is interested in information for work or school prefers long articles that provide an in-depth approach in order to became familiar with the overall topic (that is, what one would expect traditionally). And that "news" readers want to look up something quickly, in a short, simplyfing article.
Kind regards Ziko