Structured profiles

The basic concept around structured user profiles is to present important information about a Wikipedia editor and stitch it up into a pop-up card accessible from other places than the userpage so that a user can get a quick idea of who the other user is.

Intent

Structured data should make it easier for users to quickly get a sense of another user's identity. It should also make it easier for users to express their identity. Identity ties into affiliations but in the MVP will not have any direct affiliations related features.

Measures of success

To measure our success against this intent we will perform user tests on new users to understand if and how user profiles make it easier for

Background

This concept is partially a derivative of Navigation Popups, a gadget on English Wikipedia. Previous design iterations on this concept can be found at GlobalProfile/design.

Wikipedia is built by a community. We believe that what sustains that community is connections based on identity and intent.

Identity is a very complex notion. We think intent is something we can leverage to help new editors find like minded people. That is what this project is about.

Arc

Status

Currently there is a first pass of user profiles released in beta. This is a static page viewable from the left nav menu or from the watchlist diff page. The purpose of the current release is to solidify the data model for user profiles. Currently this data model includes user intent (free form field limited to 220 chars), recent activity (last edit, last upload, last thanked), and account history (edits, age of account, etc). This data model must be solidified before and API can be created which is required for the MVP.

The first pass must be verified against new and existing users with regard to the data shown. We will perform user tests and interviews with new and existing users to accomplish this. We will also potentially release this first pass to the stable version of the mobile website in order to get more feedback on the data model of the user profiles.

MVP

The MVP will be measured by its ability to help new users respond to echo notifications including reverts and its ability to help existing editors complete their watchlist and article history workflows. This will be measured through user testing and descriptive metrics. No A/B tests are planned for this currently but we will be proactively surveying new and experienced editors about their experience with using user profiles. In order to use user profiles in existing editor workflows we will require an overlay view of the user profile, this will require an API which in turn requires a stable data model for user profiles.

Open questions

We have some open questions about the public/private nature of thanks. Discussion here: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56818

Brainstorming Archive

Core User types which need Profiles

• New Users
• Anonymous Users
• Advanced Editors
• Bots

User Generated information in a profile

1. Avatar/ Banner Image
2. Freeform Input Field
3. Barnstars
4. Featured Articles that I worked on
5. People I edit with
6. People I have mentored/ My Mentors
7. Wikiprojects or Topics that I am interested in
8. People whose work I am interested in

System generated Information

1. Location (Current, First Signed in)
2. Last Seen Online
3. Velocity in the last 30 days (or a fixed period of time)
4. Date of account creation/ Years of participation
5. Thanks Received
6. Articles Created with page views
7. Files uploaded with page views
8. Special User Rights (Administrator)
9. Indication of being a new user

What New users need to communicate with other editors

I need to know that it is a human being

Are they online

Are they available to help?

What types of contributory activites have they done?

How many other people has this editor helped?

'This editor received more than 10 thanks in the last week'

Validations

Are editors more likely to fill out a streamlined profile?

Are user profiles providing actionable data about a user's credibility?

Do Profiles help humanize Wikipedia?

Does it encourage conversation netween people?

See also

• MeatBall:CommunityOverContent
• MeatBall:SuperordinateGoal

Old Meta Data Set

Information carried by the user profileUser Profiles Concept for mobile webAboutNamePicStatus (Appears to be new -- System Parsed)User sinceLanguageInterested topicsActivityLast active / activityThanks received / givenContribution type (Visualization)Articles createdFiles uploadedGrammar / spelling fixesCiting sourcesLinking pagesImproving clarityEdit Count (Private by default, Public if customized by the user)About edit count...It isn't the same metric across all projectsDoesn't imply hard work or qualityA large count can be daunting for new usersCumulative edit count across projects-Edit count over x daysMembers recommend an on/ off model, where the user can determine whether their edit count should be displayed. Default Off is probably preferred.

Old Unsorted examples

• Knowing what I am dealing with
• Edit Count & years of participation
• Languages I know and wikiprojects that I care about
• A freeform Input field for explaining intent
• Topical Interests
• Wikiprojects I am interested in
• Languages that I know
• Appears to be a new user (System Parsed)
• Anons should have an identity also