Hi Pine, Any chance to provide information or examples of these documents that would need to be replaced if/when colours are changed?
To my knowledge, There is no where in MediaWiki core that relies on colour only to convey information to the clients/end users. The colour is used to enhance and/or supplement the information provided. I know from personal experience, I have many times used documentation where colouring and/or other user experience elements (examples: icons, system dialog environments) have changed weather it's from in-application/services changes and redesigns or from external changes such as system user interface provided mechanisms without major impacts to the documentation that i've used. On 14 December 2016 at 18:39, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote: > I have delayed responding to this thread until I felt that I could do > with some degree of calmness. > > I view UI changes that affect millions of pages as a big deal. I > realize that from a developer's perspective it may seem trivial to > change a color setting. Let me try to illustrate a different > perspective that might help to explain how seemingly small changes, > when implemented at large scale, can have significant effects. I am > going to ask for the collective patience of the people in this thread > as I explain a perspective that appears to be different from a number > of theirs. > > Marketers spend significant amounts of time and money designing their > sales pitches to the public. One of the many elements considered in > these communications is the use of color. WMF Fundraising appears to > be very aware of this, as Fundraising tries different color variations > in their banners and in-line marketing. I believe that in either the > 2012 or 2013 fundraising campaign, I heard Sue say that Fundraising > had found that year that displaying the banner message with a green > background resulted in a significant increase in revenue for that > year's fundraising campaign. Marketers make use of color on a regular > basis in their research and communications to the public, and as WMF > Fundraising seems to have experienced, these changes can lead to > important changes in consumer (or donor) behavior. My guess is that > the folks in WMF who work on user retention and usability studies also > are mindful of small changes that could be made to the UI that could > lead to important changes in user behavior. > > So, I believe that small UI changes that will be applied to millions > of pages are not trivial matters, even if the changes are easy for a > technical staffer or volunteer to implement. > > With that as my starting point, let me proceed further into describing > four difficulties that surprise UI changes present, particularly when > done on large scales. In the examples below I am speaking about UI > changes in general, not only the particular case of color changes. > (Perhaps splitting this more general discussion into a separate thread > would be appropriate, and if someone wants to do that I think that > would be OK.) > > * As described above, there may be important changes in reader or user > behavior. (I realize that WMF lacks Google's financial and human > resources for extensive testing, but this still should be kept in mind > when considering UI changes. As mentioned above, WMF Fundraising seems > to be aware of this, and I imagine that WMF staff in other departments > are as well.) > > * Documentation may need to change in a large number of places, many > of which are maintained with volunteer labor, and until those changes > are made users may receive incorrect information that leads to adverse > effects. > > * As I mentioned previously, designers and maintainers of templates > may need to update them to sync with the changes to the UI, and I > imagine that these people would appreciate advance notice instead of > being surprised with a change. > > * Those of us who are trying to future-proof our work to the extent > possible are put in a difficult position. In my case, WMF is paying me > grant funds to develop instructional videos about Wikimedia. I think > that everyone involved in the project understands that changes will > happen and that the videos will need to be updated at some point in > the future; the way we are designing the project is intended to make > it relatively easy to make changes and do translation work. However, > we are trying to design the videos such that they are very well > aligned with the state of the UI that Wikimedia users will encounter > when the videos are launched and for at least the next several months > thereafter. If we spend thousands of dollars producing video and then > there is a surprise UI change that makes all of our work out of date, > perhaps even before the videos are fully published, this puts us in a > difficult (and potentially expensive) situation that would have been > avoided if we had known about the upcoming changes. Importantly, a > significant UI change that is covered only in a single segment of the > video, such as a change to a particular workflow, might be easier and > less costly to illustrate in the videos than a small change that makes > many or all segments of the video series out of sync with the current > real-world user experience. In the latter case, we'd be faced with the > decision to either accept that many or all of the videos no longer > reflect the user experience or potentially spend thousands of dollars > to do rework. I anticipate that eventually all of the videos will be > reworked, and yes someday there may be a UI change (or a collection of > changes) that impacts all of the videos significantly enough that a > decision is made to update all of the videos, but I'd like us to at > least have all of the videos be in sync with the user experience at > the time that the videos are launched and presented to to the > communities and affiliates for use in education, GLAM, online help, > and other initiatives and workflows. > > I hope that this helps to explain my perspective. > > Pine > > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
