Wikipedia:WikiProjekt Benutzerfreundlichkeit/Wikimania
Some Results from the Usability Test for Seele's Talk at Wikimania 2006
[Quelltext bearbeiten]For test setup, please see: Test Setup
In the test, participants had severe problems to insert images. These problems were partly caused by the Wikipedia framework, partly by the hints in the interface and the help which was provided. This is important because it shows that Wikipedia's overall usability is not only decided by development, but to a great part by the authors and administrators who decide about error messages, hints, help contents and template design.
While we tested the German Wikipedia, the issues we found may be generalised to all languages. The goal should be to provide equally understandable and well-structures help contents, error messages and hints, templates and code snippets, categories and portals in all of Wikipedia.
Task: Insert an image stored on your Desktop into an article
[Quelltext bearbeiten]Participants: had tried to edit Wikipedia before, but maximum 3 times.
Direct Help
[Quelltext bearbeiten]When they were asked to insert an image, some of the participants opened the editing help available below the editor. In the German editing help (prior version), the syntax to insert an image ("Bilder") was explained, but there was no hint that images need to be uploaded first. One participant simply entered the image name without uploading it. Instead of the image, a red link appeared which was first a bit confusing to the user, but then she clicked on which opened the upload page. While this was an easy solution for the user, it is problematic for Wikipedia as images should be uploaded to Commons, not Wikipedia.
Suggestions:
- Community: Guide users through the interface along relevant hints and help textes. In this case: Provide a hint that images need to be uploaded first in the editing help to avoid confusion, and offer a direct upload link to Wikimania Commons.
- Development: If you do not want people to upload to Wikipedia, redirect Wikipedia's upload page to Common's upload page.
Image Tutorial
[Quelltext bearbeiten]the other users did not choose the editing help, but directly went for the image tutorial to learn how upload and insert images. They were a bit shocked: 7 steps just to upload an image? wuuuh....
As it was so long, the participants skipped the most important parts in the beginning: Upload to Commons (prior version) ("I already have a login, don't need this"), and Licenses (prior version) ("Is that important?").
Suggestion:
- Community: Keep help it short and simple! It's not an article which needs to cover each single detail. It's help which needs to quickly come to the point. People don't read it for fun, but because they are desparate and do not know how to proceed. Imagine how you feel when you call a support hotline and a voice keeps telling you irrelevant things!
Commons
[Quelltext bearbeiten]As they had skipped step 1 of the tutorial (Upload to Commons) they had overlooked that they require a different login for Commons. In step 3, Upload (prior version), they simply followed the link that says "hier" (here).
They did not even realise that they were directed to Commons, and as it was not sufficiently communicated that they require a new login there they had severe problems to get started here.
Suggestions:
- Community: Communicate that different logins are required for Commons and each single Wikipedia.
Upload Page on Commons
[Quelltext bearbeiten]The uploading page itself made it hard to find the relevant parts. In the upper part, there was a long introduction how to label the file and how to summarise image information. Even if this information was read by most participants in the test, they had forgotten about it once they arrived at the corresponding input fields: In the summary field, only one of the four working on this task added information (author, source, etc.). The others left it empty.
Even if not addressed in the usability test, it is most likely that many users will not understand and use the concept of "Source filename" versus "Destination filename". The high number of images starting with "img_" on Commons supports this assumption. It is most likely that a different page layout that explains the concept contextually would be of help.
Suggestions:
- Development: Provide hints next to the relevant fields (== contextual help). This page has been much improved since the test (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Upload), but there is further potential especially when it comes to source and destination filename.
Licenses
[Quelltext bearbeiten]On the upload page, the user had to select a license from a drop down menu. The users had problems to scan through the variety of licenses - it was simply too much for them. One of the participants in the test was unsure which license to choose and simply selected "I don't know what the license is".
As a consequence, after having saved the image, a warning was displayed below the uploaded image telling the user that no license was assigned and that it would be deleted after seven days. The user wanted to avoid this, and searched for an option to assign a valid license. As the warning gave no hint how to change the license, so he simply clicked the edit link for the paragraph where the license was displayed.
- Warning that no license is assigned and edit link for the license.
- and content of the editor for this paragraph
The editor for the license paragraph did not provide any help how to add a valid license. The user decided to simply deleted the warning and was glad to see the warning had disappeared. Still, he was unsure if his image was in danger to be deleted, edited the paragraph once more and added "GPL" (the correct notion would have been {{GPL}} ).
This showed that it is not sufficient to provide a license combobox on the upload page, but that users should also be supported to choose a proper license later on. Possibly, using a simple wiki page as image page is not sufficient.
Suggestions:
- Development: Provide more functionality on image pages: There should be a possibility to choose a license in human-readable format, do not make them to guess what to enter here. This, btw, also applies to the selection of categories which is extremely difficult and time-consuming.
Uploaded Image
[Quelltext bearbeiten]Once the image was uploaded, there was no hint what to do next. Users had to go back to the tutorial or the editing help to copy the code snippet and then manually insert their file name.
Suggestions:
- Development: Make it comfortable. Provide a code snippet with the new file name to copy and paste in the article.