On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 9:59 AM, Gergo Tisza <gtisza(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
- instead of guessing about user preferences, you
could just create a
simple survey which shows them the same text with two different font
stacks
side by side, and ask them which is more readable. This is good for
making
aesthetic decisions more objective, and also for catching weird issues
with
old machines, CJK fonts etc: you can add a comment field to the survey,
and
if the browser is sufficiently modern to support canvas elements, you
can
even save a snapshot if the rendered text; you can skim through the
survey
replies which are different from what you have expected, and look for
display problems.
Are you volunteering to build such a survey tool? ;-)
We don't have a powerful/easy to use/not annoying/privacy-respecting survey
tool that can do side-by-side comparisons. This is why the feature was
launched using Beta Features for five months first. Putting out in opt-in
mode and gathering feedback via the channels we have now is the most
efficient way to make a change that doesn't have a big WMF team assigned to
like Multimedia or VisualEditor.
When it comes to using a survey to catch problems early and gauging
preferences, a survey still very much suffers from the self-selection bias
that all opt-in options have. It's just the name of the game. When you move
something from opt-in to opt-out you reach a wider audience and encounter
new complaints/questions/bugs.