Hello all,

As you may know, the User Experience team in Wikimedia Germany’s software department regularly conducts user research, surveys and interviews for the projects we develop: not only Wikidata’s software and infrastructure, but also the German Wikipedia’s Technical Wishes project.

Starting in February 2021, we will be making some improvements in our UX research processes; we’ve documented the details on this page. This includes the details and conditions for the how and why of participating in UX research, our technical and language requirements, and of the nominal compensation we provide to people who participate in research that requires significant time and involvement from its participants.

By offering compensation, common practice in the UX research field, we hope to achieve more diversity among participants and to open participation to people who cannot easily dedicate time in addition to their volunteer activities. Compensation will be optional, in the form of a gift card whose value of which will vary depending on the participant’s country. It applies only to specific types of activity (long interviews and surveys organized by our UX researchers) and does not include informal discussions online or offline nor giving feedback on mockups and new features.

You can read more details about how we plan to implement this compensation here. We have tried to be as transparent as possible, while retaining some flexibility if you have any questions, or if you find something unclear, feel free to reach out to us on this talk page.

Cheers,