WMDE Technical Wishes/References/Reference Previews
| Reference Previews improvements | |
|---|---|
| Status | In progress |
| Focus area | References |
| Phabricator | T415904 |
| Responsible | Technical Wishes Team |
Description
[edit]In 2021 WMDE Technical Wishes implemented Reference Previews for desktop readers. Our MediaWiki feature replaced the Reference Tooltips gadget on many wikis.
In our usability tests we repeatedly notice desktop readers – unaware of Reference Previews or how to use the feature – clicking on footnote markers instead of hovering over them. Many are confused when they end up in the reference list and don’t know how to jump back to the text passage they were previously reading. Many readers seem unaware that both the ↑ arrow in the reference list and the a b (for re-used references) can be used to jump back. This makes jumping to the reference list rather unpleasant, especially in long articles.
Assumption
[edit]We assume that most readers do not want to jump to the reference list, but rather click on the footnote maker to open Reference Previews, which provide them with the reference information for the text passage they have just read. At the same time, we believe that some readers – e.g. those who want to delve deeper into a topic rather than just quickly researching a piece of information – are still interested in conveniently accessing the reference list.
Idea
[edit]We would like to try adjustments to Reference Previews in order to best meet the needs of different readers. Specifically, we want to prevent readers from accidentally ending up in the individual reference list; jumping there should be a conscious decision.
When clicking on a footnote marker, we want to display Reference Previews instead of jumping to the reference list. The pop-up remains permanently visible until clicking on the "x" or anywhere outside the preview to close it. In addition Reference Previews will provide a link to jump to the reference in the reference list.
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Reference Previews – hover version (remains unchanged) -
Proposed version when clicking on a footnote marker
By improving the usability of Reference Previews, we also hope to mitigate the issue that reference lists with a large number of (reused) references or sub-references can be confusing for some readers.
We are not pursuing the initial proposal to also test adjustments to hover version of Reference Previews for this experiment. Therefore only the behaviour when clicking on the footnote maker will change for some readers.
When hovering over a footnote marker without clicking on it, we want to display a simplified version of Reference Previews – without the settings icon and the resulting empty space. When moving the mouse pointer over the pop-up, a note will appear indicating that you can click for further options. This will open the persistent version of Reference Previews with a link to allow users to jump to the reference in the reference list.
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Proposed version when hovering over the footnote marker -
Proposed version when hovering over the Reference Preview -
Proposed (persistent) version when clicking on the hover preview
Experiment
[edit]We would like to test the proposed changes in an A/B test on several wikis. We want to measure how many readers click on a footnote marker and then proceed to jump to the reference list using the proposed version of Reference Previews compared to readers who receive the current version of Reference Previews. In addition, we will measure how many readers in both groups access the reference list via the table of contents. This will give us data-based insights into how many clicks on the footnote unintentionally open the reference list and how many readers only want to use Reference Previews.
We would like to run our experiment on the following Wikipedia language versions: de, pl, fr, sv, fa, hu, hi, my, tl, lv, fy, hr. 10% of readers will see our modified version of Reference Previews in order to obtain sufficient data. The experiment is expected to run for 1-2 weeks at the end of March. We'll restore the current version of Reference Previews for all readers until we have evaluated the experiment, discussed the results with the community, and decided on further steps.
Feedback
[edit]We look forward to your feedback on the talk page.