Topic on Talk:Talk pages project/Replying/Flow

phab:T254208: Revise position and behavior of Reply tool's text input

phab:T255085: Clarify distinction between the Reply tool's two text input modes

phab:T252445: Consider changing the presentation of the visual mode's editing toolbar

phab:T255737: Username suggestion list lowercases text input

Version 2.0 testing feedback

TASK #4: What are your initial impressions of the tool? What stands out to you? Do you find something particularly eye-catching? Confusing?

• I can't believe this took us so long to finally have this feature.
• I expected the edit window to open right under the comment that I selected to reply to, but it opened further down the page. So I asked myself whether my comment would end up further down instead.
• Will newbies understand what 'source' and 'visual' mean?

TASK #5: Could you figure out how to write and style a comment in the tool's visual mode do so? What did you think of this experience?

• Yes, but the buttons for this shouldn't be hidden on the right side of the window.

TASK #6: Could you figure out how to ping someone who has commented in the section you are replying in? What did you think of this experience?

• Yes, and this is a game changer.

TASK #7: Could you figure out how to ping someone who has not commented in the section you are replying in? What did you think of this experience?

• Also very cool, but it appears that capitalisation of usernames doesn't work yet (entering "@Foo" to ping User:Foo is displayed as "@foo").

TASK #8: Could you figure out how to delete the ping you created in Task #7? What did you think of this experience?

• Easy.

TASK #9: Could you figure out how to see the comment you were writing in the visual mode, in the source mode before posting the comment to the talk page? What – if any – part the wikitext looked different from how you expected?

• All great. Will the preview also display stuff like images and images (I didn't test that)?

TASK #10: Could you figure out how to post the comment you had written in Tasks #1 - #9 to the talk page?

• Yup.

TASK #11: Does the diff you created by posting a comment look as you expected? What – if anything – were you surprised to see?

• Maybe it should read, "reply to comment by User:Foo"? On a second thought, I suppose it should not.

OVERALL: If there are other comments or questions you would like to make the team aware of, please write them here.

• Awesomeness, keep up the great work!

Thank you for the effort you put into trying the tool and sharing these thoughts, @Gnom. Some follow up questions and comments in response to what you shared below...

Follow up question for you

I expected the edit window to open right under the comment that I selected to reply to, but it opened further down the page. So I asked myself whether my comment would end up further down instead.

Mmm, I see. After posting the comment you'd written to the page did it become a bit more clear to you why the edit window appeared where it did? [1]

In the meantime, I've added the experience you shared here to the ticket where we will be exploring how and where the edit window appears: phab:T254208.

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1. I'm intentionally not sharing why the tool behaves in this way in an effort to learn whether its behavior becomes clear after use.

Will newbies understand what 'source' and 'visual' mean?

Good question. What do you think might be better name(s) for these two modes?

For context: the most recent round of usability tests we ran suggest people manage to understand/intuit what these words mean.

With this said, there was at least one tester who was confused by them to the point of being fearful clicking source would discard the comment they'd written in the visual mode. See: phab:T255085.

Yes, but the buttons for this shouldn't be hidden on the right side of the window.

Are you expressing that the writing tools (B, I, etc.) being on the right side of the text input window made them hard to "reach"?

...I ask the above to make sure I'm understanding what you experienced correctly.

By the way, here is the ticket where we are tracking the issue I described above: phab:T252445

Comments

...it appears that capitalisation of usernames doesn't work yet (entering "@Foo" to ping User:Foo is displayed as "@foo").

Good spot. Ticket filed: phab:T255737.

Will the preview also display stuff like images and images (I didn't test that)?

Ues, it will.

Awesomeness, keep up the great work!

^ _ ^

Hi @PPelberg (WMF) – thank you for your direct and detailed response, that was a great experience! It's unbelievably cool to see the feedback turn into tickets in this way.

Concerning your question, After posting the comment you'd written to the page did it become a bit more clear to you why the edit window appeared where it did?: Yes, it did become clearer. Maybe we can somehow 'visually connect' the input box with that comment that the user responding to, perhaps with a thin line on the left-hand side?

Concerning your question, What do you think might be better name(s) for these two modes?: Maybe using longer names ("use wikitext mode"/"use visual mode") is better here.

Concerning your question, Are you expressing that the writing tools (B, I, etc.) being on the right side of the text input window made them hard to "reach"?: Yes, exactly.