Howdy. (adding wikien-l folks to this thread. my apology for not including wikien-l with my initial email.)
The usability study has started today as scheduled. The usability team is monitoring the interviews and how ten test participants interact with Wikipedia when they are asked to edit an article at the lab facility in San Francisco today and tomorrow. The remote usability study on Thursday (March 26 PDT) will be done remotely, which means we recruit participants from Wikipedia through the site notice, and connect with them through web conferencing. Therefore the site notice for recruitment will appear again on Thursday. We expect to compile the results in a few weeks and the findings with you.
Naoko Komura Program Manager, Wikimedia Foundation
Naoko Komura wrote:
One of the important components of the usability initiative is to conduct multiple rounds of usability tests. The plan is to conduct at least three rounds of tests for qualitative usability evaluation over the span of twelve months, i) the initial evaluation, ii) the progress evaluation, and iii) the final evaluation. The initial usability test is scheduled on March 24, 25th and 26th. In-person lab tests are conducted in San Francisco at the first two days, and remote tests will be conducted on the third day.
As a preparation for the initial usability test, we incorporated the recruiting tool into English Wikipedia's site notice. You might have encountered site notice inviting for the participation. The target audience of testers are Wikipedia readers who have little or no experience in editing the Wikipedia articles. The banner is displayed within the range of 1:400 to 1:100 page views, and it will continue till early next week.
We look forward to learning from the usability tests and sharing the result with you.
Thanks.
Naoko ... on behalf of the usability team.