[Wikimedia-l] Beta Features Launch Worldwide

[Liam Wyatt]

This is a very positive development in the manner by which new features are
given some visibility, tested and measured.
Making new features *opt-in*, and making it easy to return back is a
healthy way of getting wider usage and feedback IMO. Also, the ability for
a user to chose to automatically receive all new Beta functions, or to
manually select the individual elements that they like, is a nice touch
too. I think that, culturally as much as technologically, having a "beta
track" for ALL new elements is a good procedure to have. It will provide
consistent and clear expectations of what's happening (and a clear place to
provide feedback that is actually answered) - not having that is a large
factor IMHO in the negative reaction many features have previously
received.

I always really liked the manner in which the "Usability Initiative" (which
developed the vector skin a few years back) measured their success - the
proportion of people who turned "on" AND continued using new features. If I
recall correctly that was the first time the WMF used the "beta" concept
and I believe that the way it was rolled-out was the best practice example
of the WMF making a major change in a calm, clearly communicated,
responsive way. Interestingly, the things that caused controversy on the
day that that program's work became the default were the elements that were
added in at the at the last minute and therefore were not part of the Beta
- the v.2 logo, the 'collapsed' inter-language links box in the sidebar.

-Liam / Wittylama

wittylama.com
Peace, love & metadata


On 22 November 2013 10:30, Fabrice Florin <fflorin at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> We're happy to let you know that the first version of Beta Features (1)
> has now been deployed worldwide on all wikis.
>
> Beta Features is a new program that lets you test new features on
> Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites before they are released widely. Think
> of it as a digital laboratory where community members can preview upcoming
> changes and help designers and engineers make improvements based on their
> feedback.
>
> This first worldwide release includes these features:
> * Media Viewer — view images in large size (2) (7)
> * Typography Refresh — make text more readable (3)
> * Near this page —  see what other pages are nearby (4)
> * VisualEditor Opt-in — edit pages without having to learn wiki code (5 -
> see below)
> * VisualEditor Formulæ — edit algebra or equations on your pages  (6 - see
> below)
> (Note that Visual Editor Opt-in is only on a couple hundred sites where it
> was already available, but not enabled by default.)
>
> We invite you to test these new features on your sites and let us know
> what you think. You can share your feedback about this Beta Features
> program on its discussion page (8) -- or about individual features on their
> respective discussion pages (see links 2-6 below). And if you find any
> technical bugs, please report them on Bugzilla (9).
>
> We also invite you to join tomorrow's office hours IRC chat, this Friday,
> 22 November, 2013 at 18:00 UTC. (10)
>
> Many thanks to all the community and team members who made this program
> possible! We hope it can help us improve Wikipedia together and provide a
> better experience for all our users around the world.
>
> Enjoy,
>
>
> Fabrice -- on behalf of the Multimedia, Visual Editor and Design teams
>
>
>
> (1) About Beta Features:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/About_Media_Viewer
>
> (2) About Media Viewer v0.1:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/About_Media_Viewer
>
> (3) About Typography Refresh:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Typography_Update
>
> (4) About Nearby Pages:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Beta_Features/Nearby_Pages
>
> (5) About Visual Editor Opt-in:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Beta_Features/General
>
> (6) About VisualEditor Formulæ:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Beta_Features/Formulae
>
> (7) Media Viewer - New Version 0.2:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Lightbox_demo
> (This new version displays larger images, for a more immersive experience.
> It is now on MediaWiki.org only and will be released to all wikis in early
> December.)
>
> (8) Discuss Beta Features:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:About_Beta_Features
>
> (9) Report a Bug:
>
> https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=MediaWiki%20extensions&component=BetaFeatures
>
> (10) Office hours IRC chat - Friday, 22 November at 18:00 UTC:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours#Upcoming_office_hours
>
>
> P.S.: If any community member would like to hide the 'Beta' link in their
> personal menu, they can easily remove it by going to their personal style
> page [[Special:MyPage/common.css]] and pasting in this CSS rule on a line
> by itself: "#pt-betafeatures { display: none; }" (do not include the
> quotes).
>
>
> ____________________________________________
>
>
> Fabrice Florin
> Product Manager, Multimedia
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fabrice_Florin_(WMF)
>
>
>
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