Wikimedia Research/Design Research/Reading Team UX Research/Language Switching

Research Question: Can multilingual users find and use the new language switcher interface? What is that experience like?

Screening criteria:

DEMOGRAPHICS REQUESTED Participants Using Smartphones
Mobile Screen Recorder yes
Age 18–65+
Income $0K–$150K+
Gender Any
Country Any
Operating Systems Any
Social Network Any
Other Requirement You must speak, read, and interact in more than one language fluently and regularly on your phone.

Protocol/Tasks:

  1. Welcome! Before we get started, please opt in to using Wikipedia's beta features by clicking the hamburger menu (icon at top left), then click "Settings" in the popout menu, check "Beta," and then save.
  2. Please navigate to the Barack Obama page.
  3. You mentioned that you are fluent in more than one language. Please show us how you would find this Barack Obama page in another language that you know. Take some time to try to find this page in another language, and talk us through what you're seeing and thinking.
  4. If you were able to find the Barack Obama page in another language, that's good to hear! From this page, how would you go back to the Barack Obama page in the original language (the language we started with)?
  5. If you weren't able to find the Barack Obama page in another language, click the language icon under the page title and give it another shot. Tell us what you're thinking as you explore this and try to find the Obama page in a different language. Skip ahead to step 7 if this doesn't apply to you.
  6. If you are now successful, show us how would you go back to the Barack Obama page in the original language (the language we started with).
  7. How did you feel about the process of finding a page in another language, and then switching back and forth?
  8. Now find the English page for Fides Bluff. How would you find this page in another language? Take a minute or so and then move to the next task.
  9. If you were successful, tell us how it went. if you weren't, tell us what you think happened.
  10. Fides Bluff is not available in other languages, so that was a trick question. Gotcha!! Thanks for showing us how you would handle that surprise.

Follow-up questions:

  1. Do you have any thoughts on the process of switching page languages?
  2. How did you feel about the icon for switching languages?
  3. For the Fides Bluff page, the icon was dimmed out. How did you feel when you came across this dimmed out icon?
  4. Do you have any other feedback or suggestions for what you saw and experienced today?