Design/Archive/Wikimedia User Interface/Goals FAQ

This is a page where we document a few questions and answers on how the UI Standardization team decide on its team priorities and goals

Main team page

FAQ

What was the process of this goals setting?

This is the first time that we engaged in such a wide variety of teams and contributor types from the community. While this first process has not been perfect, but we have learnt a lot to better this collaboration workflow for the next quarters to come.

1. We, the UI standardization team, spoke with teams within the Wikimedia Foundation who produce front-end user interfaces*
2. We got the Wikimedia Foundation teams to write down their challenges and needs around achieving UI consistency in their current work. Follow the documentation link;
3. We gathered the feedback from #2 and synthesize their challenges in needs to find common patterns. Follow the documentation under "Reading, Editing, and Search/Discovery teams (Sept 15, 2015)";
4. We presented the summary findings (under "Reading, Editing, and Search/Discovery teams (Sept 15, 2015)") and got teams to prioritize them with involvement of their product manager, developers and lead designers. The goal of this prioritization is to make sure that teams are as much as possible working in-sync on the priorities that are most important to us;
5. We totaled up the scores, 3 being the highest priority and 1 being the lowest in priority, taking in consideration of the "Applicability" and "Relative impact" of these tasks. The results are documented here in the "Grand total" column.

*We first spoke with a small number of technical and non-technical contributors within the community and WMF. Then we spoke with WMF teams like Reading, Editing and Search & Discovery. Later, we realized that there were more teams within the foundation that produce front-end facing products like Community Tech, Community Engagement, Communications, Analytics, and Design Research teams.

What does "Applicability" mean?

"Applicability" is the total number of teams who have mentioned a particular task as their priority.

What does "Relative Impact" mean?

Relative impact is a measurement on how relatively big of an impact is on a particular task to all teams and community—13 being most impactful and 1 being least impactful. We take consideration of community members' feedback when measuring the relative impact to any tasks.

What does "Dependencies" mean?

Some of these tasks are dependant on one another.
For example, we cannot implement "Style Guide - Guide on how/when to use components" without "Style Guide - Addressing designers and developers needs." So in this case, "Style Guide - Guide on how/when to use components" is dependent on "Style Guide - Addressing designers and developers needs."

Who was involved in this goals setting?

Reading team, Editing team, Search/Discovery team, Analytics team, Communication team, Community Tech team, Community Resources team, Design Research team, and feedback gathered from initial user research.

Who should be involved in this goals setting?

Teams and community who produce work that influence and change the look and feel or Wikimedia's user interface should be involved in this goals setting.

How can I be involved in this goals setting?

Our goals are based around our users' needs. We gather user stories from our users on the "User Stories" page, but if you would rather share your story anonymously, I welcome you to email me at may [at] wikimedia.org. I'm also known as violetto on IRC/Phabricator and MGalloway (WMF) on any wiki. The team is very active on Phabricator, this is our main task board, I also welcome anyone interested in this topic to collaborate with us—give feedback on tasks, user test with us, etc..

What kind of user stories are helpful in the making of goals?

In short, any difficulties and/or needs that's related to Wikimedia Foundation project's (e.g.: Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons, etc.).