Re: [Foundation-l] [Announcement] Extension of user experience work

[David Gerard]

On 2 March 2010 09:19, Naoko Komura  wrote:

> The Stanton usability project is in the final phase, but we are still 
> developing one of the most complicated features we worked so far,    
> collapsing and form-based templates.  We are faced with a lot of challenges, 
> but we hope to be able to share the prototype in coming weeks.


Usable WYSIWYG for templates will do *wonders* for contributions to
en:wp. Wikitext has pretty much turned into impenetrable computer
guacamole for non-technical prospective contributors. Even I find it
daunting.

(I look forward to Greg Maxwell's bug reports, he's been doing rather
well at breaking the Wikia WYSIWYG ;-)


- d.

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Re: [Foundation-l] [Announcement] Extension of user experience work

[Naoko Komura]

Dear Delphine, Aphaia, Mike and those who congratulated us off the list,

Thank you for your kind words and encouragements.  We, the user experience 
programs team, are very excited and grateful to be able to continue improving 
the usability and user experience of Wikimedia projects.  

The Stanton usability project is in the final phase, but we are still 
developing one of the most complicated features we worked so far,collapsing 
and form-based templates.  We are faced with a lot of challenges, but we hope 
to be able to share the prototype in coming weeks.

The success of the usability initiative so far could not have been possible 
without the strong support and constructive critiques from the community 
members who constantly participated in design discussion, prototype testing, 
provided feedback through the beta survey.  I also want to acknowledge various 
community members who not only raised the usability to be address as high 
priority task, but actually took actions in improving the usability since 2005. 
 To name a few, Openusability.org conducted usability study with Ellen Reitmayr 
in Germany in 2006 and published the result.  Robert Stojnic implemented the 
proposed search result page in a matter of weeks after the mock-up was uploaded 
to the usability wiki. Kozuch and Mephiles602 constantly helped maintain the 
usability wiki in addition to participating the discussion of new features and 
designs.  Nihiltres, who was the member of 2005 WikiProject Usability, reminded 
us when our beta stopped working on iPhone.  Cbrown tested RTL display and 
files a bug.  Aphia found a bug in Japanese prototype.  Cary and Mike jumped in 
when there were severe incidents of vandalism on the usability wiki.  They all 
contributed more than my simple list here, but what I want to say is they all 
made a difference in our project.  The list goes on and on, and I am only 
naming a few folks here, who came to my mind while I type this email.  (Forgive 
me for the names I have omitted here in advance.)  

Multimedia usability project continues while the Stanton usability team shifts 
the focus from simplifying the editing interface to rich text editor and a 
research of social interactive component of the user experience.  Strategy 
Planning Team published rich contents under Community Health, which we will be 
studying carefully and determine which area we should focus first.  

Thanks again for your encouragements.  It is great to be part of the permanent 
member of the Wikimedia community. :-)

Cheers,

- Naoko







-- 
Support Free Knowledge:  http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate



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Re: [Foundation-l] [Announcement] Extension of user experience work

[Mike.lifeguard]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

This is great news! I'm thrilled that this important work can become a
permanent priority for the Foundation. The usability work has already
been a success, and continuing that work will be a major asset towards
achieving Wikimedia's goals. I'm also particularly happy because
although the Wiki*p*edia Usability project will end, we will be keeping
this team, which may now focus less exclusively on one project. I
suspect all community members who have built our other projects will be
happy to see this as well.

- -Mike
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Re: [Foundation-l] [Announcement] Extension of user experience work

[Aphaia]

Great news. Congrats for the team which gets now a broaden opportunity
to spread their strength. I'm thrilled to look forward to see this
initiative go further, and experience the website renewed by the team,
as both an editor and an user.

On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 9:14 AM, Erik Moeller  wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> our very positive revenue perspective (we have already exceeded our
> fundraising targets for the fiscal year, and received the additional
> $2M from Google) allows us to do something we've hoped to be able to
> do: make our investment in user experience work permanent, as opposed
> to releasing most of the current user experience team and ending the
> project.
>
> It makes obvious sense for any major website to have a permanent team
> focused on user experience improvements in the broadest sense. This
> includes eliminating obvious barriers to entry, but beyond that, we
> want to improve the experience as a whole for both readers and
> editors.
>
> We're now referring to this work as "user experience" (UX) work, which
> includes usability.
>
> Naoko will be Head of UX Programs, while Trevor will be the lead
> front-end developer on the team. Congratulations to both of them. :-)
> Naoko is currently assessing the remaining contracts and will share
> further information as these decisions are finalized.
>
> In the immediate future post-April, we'll be concerned with tying up
> loose ends from the usability initiative, and finishing functionality
> that we had to put in the parking lot. We'll work on a roadmap and
> staffing plan for 2010-11 and beyond as part of our business planning
> process.
>
> Our long-term focus will be determined in significant part based on
> the recommendations from the strategic planning process; see
> especially the community health recommendations:
>
> http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Task_force/Recommendations/Community_health
>
> While we haven't finalized priorities, the single biggest piece of
> work is likely going to be the transition to a rich-text editor as the
> default editing environment for all Wikimedia Foundation wikis. But,
> user experience to us also means assessing how people self-organize
> and communicate in Wikimedia projects, how they get stuff done, and
> how they read and navigate our projects. Even among the areas of work
> we've already identified, there's enough to keep us busy for many
> years. :-)
>
> Please note that the original usability initiative hasn't concluded
> yet. The team is working on its final release, which will include some
> of the most-anticipated changes, including collapsing of templates to
> simplify the editing interface, and the production release of the new
> feature-set to all users. As always, we'll continue to communicate
> progress through  and
> , and feedback and participation is
> welcome at .
>
> All best,
> Erik
> --
> Erik Möller
> Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
>
> Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
>
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-- 
KIZU Naoko
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Britty (in Japanese)
Quote of the Day (English): http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/WQ:QOTD

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Re: [Foundation-l] [Announcement] Extension of user experience work

[Delphine Ménard]

On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 1:14 AM, Erik Moeller  wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> our very positive revenue perspective (we have already exceeded our
> fundraising targets for the fiscal year, and received the additional
> $2M from Google) allows us to do something we've hoped to be able to
> do: make our investment in user experience work permanent, as opposed
> to releasing most of the current user experience team and ending the
> project.
>
> It makes obvious sense for any major website to have a permanent team
> focused on user experience improvements in the broadest sense. This
> includes eliminating obvious barriers to entry, but beyond that, we
> want to improve the experience as a whole for both readers and
> editors.


This is fantastic news indeed! I am looking forward to seeing this
initiative go much further than was planned at first.


Cheers,


Delphine


-- 
~notafish

NB. This gmail address is used for mailing lists. Personal emails will
get lost.
Intercultural musings: Ceci n'est pas une endive - http://blog.notanendive.org

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[Foundation-l] [Announcement] Extension of user experience work

[Erik Moeller]

Hello all,

our very positive revenue perspective (we have already exceeded our
fundraising targets for the fiscal year, and received the additional
$2M from Google) allows us to do something we've hoped to be able to
do: make our investment in user experience work permanent, as opposed
to releasing most of the current user experience team and ending the
project.

It makes obvious sense for any major website to have a permanent team
focused on user experience improvements in the broadest sense. This
includes eliminating obvious barriers to entry, but beyond that, we
want to improve the experience as a whole for both readers and
editors.

We're now referring to this work as "user experience" (UX) work, which
includes usability.

Naoko will be Head of UX Programs, while Trevor will be the lead
front-end developer on the team. Congratulations to both of them. :-)
Naoko is currently assessing the remaining contracts and will share
further information as these decisions are finalized.

In the immediate future post-April, we'll be concerned with tying up
loose ends from the usability initiative, and finishing functionality
that we had to put in the parking lot. We'll work on a roadmap and
staffing plan for 2010-11 and beyond as part of our business planning
process.

Our long-term focus will be determined in significant part based on
the recommendations from the strategic planning process; see
especially the community health recommendations:

http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Task_force/Recommendations/Community_health

While we haven't finalized priorities, the single biggest piece of
work is likely going to be the transition to a rich-text editor as the
default editing environment for all Wikimedia Foundation wikis. But,
user experience to us also means assessing how people self-organize
and communicate in Wikimedia projects, how they get stuff done, and
how they read and navigate our projects. Even among the areas of work
we've already identified, there's enough to keep us busy for many
years. :-)

Please note that the original usability initiative hasn't concluded
yet. The team is working on its final release, which will include some
of the most-anticipated changes, including collapsing of templates to
simplify the editing interface, and the production release of the new
feature-set to all users. As always, we'll continue to communicate
progress through  and
, and feedback and participation is
welcome at .

All best,
Erik
-- 
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

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