[Foundation-l] Usability study in progress

[John at Darkstar]

There are about 100 times more page views than edits, sometimes even more.
John

Gerard Meijssen skrev:
> Hoi,
> A newspaper wants people to read. We want very much that readers consider
> the option to edit. The approach is therefore different. When I goto
> Wikipedia as a reader, I might be enabled to change my role and consequently
> get a different layout.
> Thanks,
>      GerardM
> 
> 2009/3/25 John at Darkstar <vacuum at jeb.no>
> 
>> One additional note, in Norway a lot of the newspapers used a layout
>> like Monobook (sort of) but has lately dismissed the solution in favor
>> of radically much simpler designs. Especially the list of links in a
>> left bar has been abandoned in favor of more directed approaches with
>> horizontal menus in the top of the pages. Some of the newspapers has
>> reported instantaneous increase in click rates.
>>
>> It is thought provocative as most of the left bar is for wikipediams,
>> and therefore is usable to only a small percentile of the total users
>> (in page views). The rest of the users need navigational aids for the
>> main space.
>>
>> John
>>
>> Hay (Husky) skrev:
>>> Ten is a low number indeed, however, if those people are indeed
>>> 'typical users' instead of Wikipedians and you given them a few
>>> specific tasks (say, searching for an article on a topic they are
>>> interested in and editing it to add some information) you will
>>> probably encounter lots of problems soon enough.
>>>
>>> On a different note: i'm not sure if this has been discussed before
>>> but will the usability study also take uploading media on Commons in
>>> account? Editing text is one thing, but adding media (and hence, using
>>> Commons) is almost as common and could also use *lots* of work on
>>> increasing usability.
>>>
>>> -- Hay
>>>
>>> On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 11:55 AM, John at Darkstar <vacuum at jeb.no>
>> wrote:
>>>> Wikipedians should not be used to asses usabillity problems with
>>>> Wikipedia, this is rule number one if you want to get information about
>>>> why a newbie has problems with a system. A typical wikipedian is simply
>>>> not a valid newbie. Ten participants are not nearly enough, they can
>>>> only give you some clue about the real problem.
>>>>
>>>> John
>>>>
>>>> Naoko Komura skrev:
>>>>> 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.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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