[WikiEN-l] Usability Study Results (Sneak Preview)

[Andrew Turvey]

---- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ian Woollard" <ian.woollard at gmail.com> 

>> a) Markup isn't very popular, everyone prefers WYSIWYG in theory (but 
I know how very difficult it is) 

Other people - e.g. Wordpress - do a much better job at this than we do. While I'm at it, facebook and flickr also do much better jobs at file uploads and google does a much better job at email systems. 

>> c) References are probably the hardest bit, and ultimately the most 
important bit for the wikipedia. Anything that gets in the way of that 
for new users is probably very bad. 

Personally, I also find tables the biggest pain in the neck. Always takes me ages to get the formatting right - can't someone design some kind of Java interface that does it for you?? 

>> d) The view button is probably more important than the save button, 
and new editors should be pointed at it, because it shows/reassures 
them whether they're doing it right. 

Well, yes and no. Pressing view means you have twice the chance of losing all your hard work - once when you view and once when you save. That's why I never preview edits when working on unstable connections - just save and re-edit if necessary. 

Again, wordpress does this much better. Two tabs you can switch between, and you can add content direct within the WYSIWYG viewer. 

Andrew