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

Fri May 8 08:35:01 UTC 2009

Parul Vora wrote:
> Thanks for all of the feedback, comments, and support. I just wanted to 
> let you know that our full report (including highlight videos!!) is now 
> up our the Usability Initiative's project wiki:
> 
> http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/UX_and_Usability_Study

It may be too late for this now, but when I read that "The cheat sheet 
was the only item in the help section that led to a subjects successful 
edit.", I wanted to know how well would people edit if they had the 
printed cheat sheet. Maybe if you have more tests in future you could do 
this - it will tell us exactly what is the value of the printed 
promotional material.

I am wary of this: "Users often missed the ‘edit’ buttons next to each 
section, clicking on ‘edit this page’ all the way at the top." In my 
experience, users do exactly the opposite, and I have seen new users who 
know how to edit sections asking how to edit top section; some 
Wikipedias (f.e. ruwiki) have even added [edit] link to top of the 
article that mimics section edit links. What could be the cause of this 
discrepancy?

Would it be possible to get some conclusions and recommendations from 
this study so that Wikipedia's interface could be improved even before a 
full WYSIVYG interface is developed? (Because, from past experience, 
that will take years.) For example, one obvious thing is that editing 
help should be moved to top right of the edit box. (Maybe it could also 
pop next to the editing box instead of in a new window?) Another obvious 
thing, "Create a new article" link should be added somewhere. Yet 
another, toolbar images should be replaced with text.