Write spec for starting a new discussion v1.0
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	ppelberg
	Oct 7 2019, 1:21 PM

Description

This task represents the work of writing a spec for the affordance for replying to specific comments.

This spec will include the following components...

Components

Target audience: whose needs is this feature intended to address?
- Junior Contributors
Challenges: what challenges stand in the way of these peoples' needs being met?
- Participants in the usability tests we ran (T243251) drafted the titles and subjects of the new discussions they were starting as if they were authoring new content on the article page. Additionally, no test participants signed their discussion topics, potentially causing more work for someone seeking to respond. For more details about the challenges this intervention is responding to, please see: T234825#5962717.
Purpose: why are these challenges important for us to address?
- We think Junior Contributors progressing as editors to Wikipedia depends on their ability to communicate with people who have more experience editing. If Junior Contributors continue to have difficulty with the "starting a new discussion" workflow, we think they will be less likely to have a meaningful/helpful interaction with someone capable of helping them.

Plan: what we should plan to build to address these challenges?
- See: T234825#5962717.
Impact: what impact are we intending to have by addressing the "Challenges" above?
- By addressing the "Challenges" above, we intend to help Junior Contributors more easily initiate conversations on Wikipedia talk pages leading them to receive the information/knowledge they need to successfully complete the "task" (broadly defined) they are seeking to accomplish.
Measurement: how we should measure the impact of these changes?
- This will be defined in T247803

"Done"

The "Components" listed above are posted to the task description of T243248

Related Objects
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Status	Assigned	Task
Open	None	T233446 [Epic] New Discussion Tool
Resolved	• iamjessklein	T243248 New discussion v1.0: create mockups
Resolved	ppelberg	T234825 Write spec for starting a new discussion v1.0

Event Timeline

ppelberg created this task.Oct 7 2019, 1:21 PM

ppelberg renamed this task from Write spec for starting a new discussion to Write spec for starting a new discussion v1.0.Jan 11 2020, 3:14 AM

ppelberg added a parent task: T243248: New discussion v1.0: create mockups.Jan 20 2020, 10:21 PM

JTannerWMF moved this task from Backlog to New Discussion 1.0 on the OWC2020 board.Feb 5 2020, 3:30 AM

JTannerWMF edited projects, added OWC2020 (New Discussion 1.0); removed OWC2020.

• iamjessklein added a project: Editing Design.Mar 10 2020, 6:25 PM

JTannerWMF moved this task from Untriaged to Next Quarter on the Editing-team board.Mar 11 2020, 11:04 AM

Requirements

With the following "Requirements", and"Usability test findings" (T243251#5933544) in mind, we are proposing the following initial "Improvements" to the start a new discussion workflow...

Requirements	Usability test findings	Improvements
People should intuitively...
...know talk pages are used to, among other things, communicate/coordinate with other contributors	Many participants did not realize that they were viewing a Talk page and drafted discussion titles/subjects as if they were looking at an Article page	Make workflow actions more context-specific (e.g. "Subject" --> "Discussion topic", "Publish changes" --> "Start discussion") and/or make the purpose of talk page more clear within the "new section" form
...know how to start a new discussion on talk pages, across namespaces, no matter where they are on the talk page, without needing to read any instructions	All desktop test participants successfully identified the button to add a new discussion	Nothing planned at this time
...know how to write a title/subject for the discussion they are intending to start in a way others can easily engage with	All test participants successfully entered text into the "Subject" field; many appeared uncertain whether they were starting a new topic for discussion or starting a new section on article page	Make it more clear what the subject field is intended for (e.g.: helper text in text field, tool tip, a link to guidelines, etc.).
...know how to write a description for the discussion they are intending to start in a way others can easily engage with	All test participants successfully entered text into the "New section" field; many appeared uncertain what to write here	Make it more clear what the "section" field is intended for (e.g. helper text in text field, tool tip, a link to guidelines, etc.).
...know how to format the description of the discussion they are intending to start	Test participants were not explicitly asked to format the discussion body. With this said, several participants expressed being put off by having to provide comments in Wikitext. One participant said that they expected to see more of a “forum.”	Additional user testing needed; although we are assuming, based on participants' comments in this test and the results of past tests, some type of rich text input will be necessary to help make contributors without experience using wikitext comfortable formatting their writing
...know how to cancel/discard the new discussion/section they are drafting	Test participants were not explicitly asked	Additional user testing needed
...know how to find out when someone comments on/in the discussion they start	Test participants were not explicitly asked	Additional user testing needed
...know how to have their username and the time their comment was posted included with their post	All of the desktop test participants started new discussions w/o adding their signature	Automatically append signatures to conversations/sections started using this workflow
...be confident the new discussion they intended to start has been started/posted successfully	Most desktop test participants successfully located the discussion they had published to the talk page	Make it more obvious to contributors the discussion/section they started was posted successfully
...be confident whether they are doing the right thing throughout the course of the workflow	Many participants were uncertain that their actions would lead them to a successful edit.	Introduce cues and feedback that reduce ambiguity (e.g. instructional/helper text in the form "body" and the "Subject/headline" fields)