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News from the Wikimedia Foundation and about the Wikimedia movement

Technology

News and information from the Wikimedia Foundation’s Technology department (RSS feed).

Wikimedia engineering October 2012 report

Major news in October include:

Note: As of last month, we’re proposing a shorter and simpler version of this report for less technically savvy readers.

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Wikipedia Zero grows readership in Africa and Asia

A little over six months ago, we deployed our first Wikipedia Zero partnership with Orange in Uganda, offering mobile internet users access to Wikipedia without data charges. Since then, nine additional operators in different countries have launched the program, and twenty-two others are in the current queue. We are now beginning to see the impact of the program, and the first numbers are encouraging: page views from our partners in Niger and Kenya have risen sharply, as have unique visitors in Malaysia.

Context

Our stated mission for the Wikipedia Zero program is to reduce barriers for accessing Wikipedia on mobile devices. From the outset, it has been our goal to manage this program with an analytical lens. With the cost of data removed, we expect an increase in the amount of people accessing Wikipedia for the first time, and also hope that existing readers aren’t deterred from reading more articles. The best proxy to measure this is to look at the growth of Wikipedia page views that come from a mobile partner’s IP address range, and compare it to the growth rate of mobile page views from the rest of that same country. Ultimately, we also want to measure unique visitor additions from the program (to verify that new readers are indeed being introduced), but, internally, we can only measure page views for now.

Page View Growth

Two of our partners agreed to let us publish Wikipedia Zero traffic figures from their network for this blog post. Orange Niger and Orange Kenya both launched the program in July of this year. Both countries are extremely mobile-centric, with 41 percent of all Wikipedia page views in Kenya and 29 percent in Niger coming from mobile (compared to a global total of 12 percent)[1]. The chart below shows Wikipedia mobile page views for each partner and country respectively:

The news is good. Since the month prior to launch, we’ve seen 77 percent growth in page views through Orange Niger (compared to 7 percent for rest of Niger), and 88 percent for Orange Kenya (compared to -7 percent for rest of Kenya). For each of these two operators, their “Wikipedia share” (the percentage of mobile page views in that country from the partner’s customers) has nearly doubled in that time. Data sets for these two partners are both relatively small, so we’re careful to not to draw too many conclusions from them. However, we’re excited about what it might imply for the future impact of the program.

Unique Visitor Growth

As mentioned before, we’re unable to measure partner unique visitors yet through our internal analytics (our public, global figures for unique visitors are measured by comScore Mediamatrix). However, some partners, such as Digi (Telenor’s subsidiary in Malaysia), do have their own mechanisms for measurement. Since they launched the program in May, unique visitors to Wikipedia on their network have jumped 42 percent, from 91,000 to 131,000. Though it is not yet something we can measure on a recurring basis, it’s a telling indicator that Wikipedia Zero partnerships are successful in bringing new readers to the site.

What’s next

These three data points make us really optimistic. They show growth, though we need to continually manage and measure to see if growth persists when we work with larger bases, and also need to test what happens over time. We’ll share more data as we can, and we also hope to deep dive into a few markets over the next several months to learn exactly what type of partner marketing activity is most effective in driving the growth we described. Stay tuned.

Amit Kapoor
Senior Manager, Mobile Partnerships

1. From http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportCountryData.htm, Sept 2012 (mobile site page views / total page views): Kenya (4.1 M / 10.4 M), Niger (69 K / 244 K), World (2.2 B / 18.5 B)

Designing for the multilingual web

User testing is essential for designing multilingual interfaces, even though it can be a time-consuming process: it ensures that the community of users are part of the design process. In this article, we share lessons learned by the Language Engineering team while designing features and interfaces that empower users to read and edit Wikipedia and its sister sites in many languages.

Designing user interfaces for the Wikimedia world comes with a lot of responsibility. To achieve our mission, we need to make sure we think of users with varying levels of technological expertise and language skills. While the internet can be a very friendly place for those who understand English, it could be like navigating the Greek Wikipedia to the 4.4 billion people who do not.

While designing the user interface (UI) for language tools like the Universal Language Selector (ULS) and Translate extension, we needed to make sure it could be understood and used by those who use the internet in languages other than English. We had to create early representations of the interface, link them together to create interactive prototypes and test them with users. Each of these steps presents various challenges in a multilingual environment.

Design tools generally have poor support for non-Latin scripts. Moreover, creating screens and prototypes in languages that you don’t speak is hard. But since the world needs these language tools, we can’t wait for our design software to improve, we just need to figure out our own ways to get things done.

Creating multilingual mock-ups

UI designers make layout comps early in the process to illustrate how the interface elements and content will be arranged.

While designing the ULS (that will display a massive list of languages), the only way to understand the effectiveness of the layout was to simulate the end result with all the language names. Common graphic design suites are not optimized to manage large number of text elements and have issues when working with non-Latin fonts.

Our workaround: After some exploration, we realized that the most painless way of creating comps that have multilingual text is to render them outside the design software:

  • Create the UI layout using your design tool;
  • Use a template language like mustache to include placeholder text within the mockup and export them as SVGs;
  • Create a translation text file to replace the placeholder text with strings in your language;
  • Perform a string replace in the SVG and rasterize it with inkscape using a script.

There is a neat illustration of the entire process in this video by Pau Giner. This process allowed us to quickly experiment and test comps in many languages by giving the text file to a translator.

Making interactive prototypes

The best way to understand if a design is effective is to observe a user using it. The fastest way to do this is to make click-through prototypes that simulate a workflow. When our multilingual comps were ready, the next task was to package them and link them by hotspots. Most of the popular tools to do this are not free. After scouting around for free alternatives, we chose a Firefox extension called Pencil because it:

Translate extension prototypes in Malayalam

  • imports raster and vector images, including copy-pasting from other design tools;
  • features master pages and a component library to reuse graphic elements;
  • has rich text support;
  • exports to a single HTML which simulates a web page experience;
  • is free and open-source.

It fulfills our requirements, even though there are a few annoying quirks in the interface which could be improved. Check out this interactive presentation of the ULS that was created using Pencil.

Remote user testing

Once our prototypes are ready, it’s finally time for the real test, with users from parts of the world where the primary language is not English (roughly 95 percent of the world’s population). Planning the logistics and schedule of remote user testing can be tricky, so here are a few key points to keep in mind:

Remote user test

  • Create a pool of volunteer user testers early in the design process. Getting a tester is usually a hit and miss, so it helps to have a volunteer base that can be easily reached when needed.
  • Tell users what the test is about. Most users will not know what happens in a user testing session and may be afraid to volunteer. Who likes to be tested anyway? We created this guide to better communicate what the sessions were about.
  • Schedule the tests initially and ask for a confirmation. We found that testers may not be available at the scheduled time and they often want to reschedule. Stay friendly and accommodating, as these people are providing you with valuable feedback.
  • Observe using a platform that meets your requirements. We found Google+ Hangouts to be the service of choice due to its ease of use across operating systems. As a bonus, it can automatically create a YouTube video of the whole session.
  • Inform the tester beforehand on privacy issues. If you want to share the observations publicly, make sure the tester knows and has agreed to those terms.
  • Have fun. Keeping the mood light with initial introductions will help to make the tester feel comfortable and give more feedback.

If you are curious, you can watch this video from our latest test sessions of the ULS to understand how we do it.

We are designing and developing your software, so keep the feedback coming!

Arun Ganesh and Pau Giner
UI/UX Designers, Language Engineering Team

Wikipedia app for Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets

If you’ve paid any attention to the tech press, you may be aware that Microsoft is releasing Windows 8 — and its ARM-based tablet cousin Windows RT — today.

While Internet Explorer 10 works wonderfully with Wikipedia as a regular web site, we wanted to provide a nicely integrated Wikipedia experience for Windows 8/RT users as well, and are proud to announce that our official Wikipedia app is available for free download in the Windows Store.

Style

Wikipedia on Windows 8/RT uses common components from our Android and iOS apps, but fits in natively with Windows’ new styling. Wikipedia languages that provide RSS feeds of featured content display a tiled menu on the home screen:

The article reading view uses a multiple-column layout, which fits the tablet screen better than our current apps do on Android and iPad tablets:

This of course flips to scroll the other direction for right-to-left languages like Arabic and Hebrew.

Search

The app integrates with Windows 8′s global search widget, which can be used both to search while in the application and to launch the app — select Wikipedia from the search providers when doing any search and you’ll pop over to us.

On a laptop or desktop device with a keyboard, you can simply start typing to begin a search, just like on Windows’ Start screen.

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Fix this broken workflow, and help thousands of Wikipedians

In the 10+ years since its founding, Wikipedia has become an indispensable source of quality information for Internet users everywhere. Here at the Wikimedia Foundation, we’re very proud to support such a project. Yet, despite being a household name, there remain some issues with our user experience that are deeply troubling.

This is especially true for the smaller contingent of people who are the regular contributors to the encyclopedia. Wikipedia’s user interface has failed to keep pace with the the encyclopedia’s growth and the lack of a modernized editor experience has contributed to both a decline in the recruitment and retention of editors (a trend that started around 2007).

The Editor Engagement Experiments team tries to reverse this trend by defining, measuring and fixing these important editing workflows, and improving the experience of Wikipedia volunteers who create content. In this post, we’ll show you one of these editing workflows and invite developers to try their hand at implementing a solution.

An example problem

Imagine you want to create an article for English Wikipedia. You begin by searching for the article on Wikipedia and find that there isn’t one on the topic yet.  This is the screen you get.  Can you figure out how to create the article?

The answer is to click on the red link — that’s intuitive, right?

Even if you figure this out, you’re going to have problems. If you don’t have an account (like most readers), you’ll encounter another hurdle: the site will simply tell you that you don’t have permission to create the page. The solution is to create an account, but it doesn’t say that on the page.

Let’s say you register for an account (or log in if you have one) and then get back to the task at hand. Great. But not so much if you’re new to Wikipedia, because all we do is dump a blank text box on you and hope you know what you’re doing. There’s no warning that articles not meeting Wikipedia quality standards will be swiftly deleted. You could start by getting your feet wet by trying out one of the several workflows that are safer for starting a page, but none of these alternatives is presented as an option.

Thousands of people are subjected to this experience every month and all they’re trying to do add to the world’s collective knowledge. If all of this makes you a bit angry, keep reading.

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Wikipedia Mobile gets a new look

Design changes to the Wikipedia mobile site include new navigation and updated typography.

This week you’ll see some changes to the look and feel of Wikipedia on your phone, as the mobile team moves features that were tested on our experimental Beta site onto our mobile gateway. The updated mobile site will include a navigation system that makes it easier to explore our content, as well as visual improvements aimed at increasing the readability of articles.1

The new navigation system is designed to make mobile features and settings more discoverable, paving the way for the addition of new features. In the coming months, the mobile team will continue to experiment with and build contributory features. Whether it’s uploading a photo (as with the Wiki Loves Monuments Android app), watching changes to articles, or even editing, we want anyone to be able to pitch in and help make Wikipedia even better.

If you’re just browsing articles, the first thing you’ll notice is the change to layout and typography. We chose these new fonts for improved device compatibility, ease of scannability and reading, and, more generally, to better fit the high quality standards to which all Wikimedia projects strive.2 Our designers will continue to focus on typography going forward, since text is the primary way readers and editors interact with the site.3

Improving how we serve content on the mobile web is crucial for reaching our goal of 4 billion pageviews per month by June 2013, and for providing Wikipedia to more readers in countries where mobile is the primary form of Internet access.

But we’re not done improving the mobile experience—please help us by providing feedback on the new look of the mobile site! You can also become a Wikipedia Beta tester by signing up to receive updates and test new experimental features before they go live.

Maryana Pinchuk, Associate Product Manager

1. The most recent set of updates will be available for users of our mobile website (such as the English Wikipedia on mobile).

2. Studies have shown that certain fonts can influence the perception of content in terms of quality and reliability.

3. The current set of changes are for Latin scripts. Readability improvements for non-Latin scripts will be carried out in cooperation with our localization team.

Language Engineering: Input methods and Visual Editor

The Language Engineering team at the Wikimedia Foundation works on a set of tasks every two weeks. This post is about the team’s accomplishment over the past two weeks. You can also check the slides of our demonstration.

jQuery.ime: Wikimedia wikis use Extension:Narayam to support input of non-Latin text. As part of Project Milkshake, jQuery.ime is a generic input method tool ported from Narayam, which can be used even outside the Wikimedia universe. We have completed the development of jQuery.ime and this example demonstrates the plugin in action. It supports over 60 input methods across 32 languages. There is detailed technical specification and we welcome you to try out and contribute to the project by creating new input methods or reporting bugs. The next phase will be to integrate jQuery.ime with Universal Language Selector.

Internationalization requirements for VisualEditor: The VisualEditor will change the Mediawiki editing interface in a major way, making it much more user friendly. The Language Engineering team has a keen interest in making sure the VisualEditor supports all languages. We have written detailed Internationationalization and Bidirectional text requirements for the Visual Editor to support all languages, including right to left languages. Other available documents are a general test document, right to left test and Indic tests for testing input method compatibility with VisualEditor. Do perform these tests for your language and report bugs if you find them.

India Events: The Language Engineering team will be in India in early November participating in the OpenSource Language Summit in Pune and the Wikimedia DevCamp in Bangalore. If you are a developer interested in working on language related tools or Wikimedia Mobile, please sign up for the DevCamp. We will also meet up with community and talk about Language Engineering tools at the Language Engineering meetups in Pune and Bangalore. If you’re near, please sign up and we’ll see you there!

In brief:

  • Universal Language Selector got some bug fixes, including scrolling, choosing fonts, and it is now fully internationalized.
  • As mentioned in the previous blogpost, We have completed integrating Extension:Translate with CentralNotice. Some patch sets are awaiting code review. Unfortunately this feature might be missing in this year’s fundraising translations, due to other fundraising priorities.
  • We held IRC office hours (log) on October 17th. The next session is on November 21st.

Srikanth Lakshmanan

Internationalisation/Localisation Outreach / QA Engineer

Wikipedia Zero reaches 230 million mobile users with Saudi Telecom partnership

We are proud to announce our newest Wikipedia Zero partnership, which moves us another step closer to giving every person on the planet access to the free knowledge on Wikipedia. On Sunday, Saudi Telecom Company (STC) joined with the Wikimedia Foundation to offer free access to Wikipedia on mobile for STC customers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain.

The partnership is part of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Wikipedia Zero program, which focuses on reaching billions of people around the world whose primary opportunity to access the Internet is via a mobile device. 25 million STC subscribers can now access Wikipedia, in both Arabic and English, without incurring data fees by pointing their mobile browsers to m.wikipedia.org. A lightweight, text-only version optimized for slower connections is also available at zero.wikipedia.org.

Improving access to the Wikimedia projects in the Arabic speaking world is a strategic priority for the Wikimedia Foundation, and Saudi Arabia is a central part of that. The most edits to Arabic Wikipedia come from within Saudi Arabia and 43 percent of Wikipedia page views within Saudi Arabia are to the Arabic version. More significantly, 29.5 percent of Wikipedia page views in Saudi Arabia are from mobile devices as of September. That’s the second-highest of any large readership country (defined as greater than 5 million page views per month) in the world, and more than twice the rate of Europe.[1] Therefore, with STC removing the cost barrier, millions more people will have access to free knowledge, not only English, but in their native language.

STC is the third parent company to join Wikipedia Zero, which altogether allows 230 million mobile users in 31 countries to access Wikipedia free of data charges. Ten of those countries have already launched the program.

For more information about this parternship and Wikipedia Zero, please read the Q&A: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships#STC

Kul Takanao Wadhwa, Head of Mobile

1. Nigeria has the highest rate of mobile penetration, with 59 percent of its 12.5 million Wikipedia page views coming from mobile devices. Europe’s combined rate is 13 percent.  http://stats.wikimedia.org/archive/squid_reports/2012-09/SquidReportCountryData.htm

Translating Central Notices easily, and other Language engineering news

The Language Engineering team at the Wikimedia Foundation works on a new set of tasks every two weeks. The following describes the work we have done over the past month.

Language Engineering Team: We have renamed our team from “Internationalization & localization” to “Language Engineering”. The terminology we previously used did not illustrate our goals very clearly. We hope that the new name will communicate our goals and activities better.

Translating Central Notices: The process of translating banner texts for CentralNotice (used for Wikimedia banners) will soon be more streamlined,  after the integration with the Translate extension. It is now possible to create message groups for translation from CentralNotice. We are completing a few pending tasks before making this tool available on Wikimedia projects.

Partially translated Tamil Interface of the Universal Language Selector.

Universal Language Selector: The jquery component of Universal Language Selector (ULS) is now internationalized and can be translated. This also fixes the ‘placeholder’ that some of our readers mentioned in comments on our previous posts. ULS also got many bug fixes, including proper input tool support and improved workflow between the settings screens. We are discussing with the Operations team on how to deploy ULS on small Wikimedia wikis without negatively impacting current caching mechanisms for anonymous users.

Project Milkshake: We fixed bugs, fixed tests and addressed review comments related to jquery.i18n, the internationalization library. jquery.uls, a library for language selection, is the latest addition to Milkshake.

San Francisco Meetings: Most of the language engineering team members were in San Francisco in September. We met with other Engineering teams at the Wikimedia Foundation, including the Visual Editor team, and discussed Internationalization requirements with the Mobile team. We talked about Making the Web Multilingual with Wikipedia (video) at San Francisco State University, and presented Project Milkshake at Google, Twitter and change.org.

Other news

  • We held IRC office hours (log) on September 19th, and will be holding the next session on October 17th.
  • We will be in Bangalore in November for the Wikimedia Devcamp.

Srikanth Lakshmanan
Internationalisation/Localisation Outreach / QA Engineer

Testing a new signup page for Wikipedia

Wikipedia doesn’t require to you to sign up for an account. We like giving everything away for free, and even let people edit without creating an account. But if you’d like to register, there are plenty of good reasons to do so.

The current signup page in English

However, it’s been a long time since the registration process for Wikipedia got any love. In fact, it’s pretty clunky, and it may be contributing to the decline in successful registrations in the last few years.

To address this, we’ve started testing changes to the account creation page on English Wikipedia this week. We’ve updated the visual design to be far less cluttered and expose a clearer structure, and reduced the amount of instructional text that appears before the form. As a side benefit, mobile users should find the page easier to use, though our mobile team is working on further enhancements, too.

We’ve also added a simple list of benefits to account creation, such as being able to start new pages, upload photos, and have a presence in the Wikipedia community, but these won’t appear on small screen sizes. In a second iteration, we’ll be adding live validation to the form, so you will know if there are any errors right away.

Our mockup

Please note: the new look is delivered only 50% of the time, as part of an A/B test, so the best thing to do if you want to give us feedback is to comment on the mockup here, or on our documents related to design and data analysis.

Some readers here may remember that back in 2011, a Fellowship project on account creation experimented with ways to encourage people to edit during or immediately after the signup process. However, basic limitations in the core functionality still plagued that project, not to mention anyone trying to create an account.

For this work, we’re focused on simply making the signup page itself be a less frustrating experience, with the secondary goal of gently introducing people to why an account is useful. After the trial, we’ll be permanently incorporating features that help more people register.

Steven Walling, Associate Product Manager
S Page, Software Engineer
Munaf Assaf, User Experience Designer