Submissions/A Strategy for Progressive Disclosure in Wikipedia

From Wikimania 2013 • Hong Kong

This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2013.

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Submission no.
5014
Subject no.
T1


Title of the submission

A Proposal for Progressive Disclosure in Wikipedia

Type of submission

Presentation

Author of the submission

Zakaria Oudrhiri

Country of origin

Morocco

Affiliation
E-mail address

zack.wadghiri@gmail.com

Username

زكريا

Personal homepage or blog
Abstract

In order to reduce both user workload and computational expensiveness, this presentation will propose a B-A-D strategy to improve the editing experience.

Detailed proposal

Wikipedia is meant to be editable by anyone, yet sometimes abusive editing may drive to more restrictions and eventual protection of pages. This process has been proven noneffective, since protecting a page will push new users to post their edits somewhere else (e.g. posting article material in talk pages).

Repetitive misuse of certain Wikipedia pages often leads to more banners and how-to-edit notices that are seemingly disregarded due to their extensiveness. Another issue regarding editing is the difficulty it presents for new users; in fact, many edits that may look abusive are simply unintentional. Additionally, the manner certain pages are laid out, and how inharmonious sections of a single page can be, can only lead to more unfitting edits.

Articles, talk pages and help pages need to be straight-to-the-point, not "ill-bannered"; accessible, not confusing; good-looking.

Progressive disclosure is defined as an interaction design technique often used in human computer interaction to help maintain the focus of a user's attention by reducing clutter, confusion, and cognitive workload.

This presentation will propose a B-A-D strategy to improve progressive disclosure in Wikipedia:

  • [B]annerlessness: reducing the number of clustering banners, by appending a visible tooltip to each of the relevant elements of the page.
  • [A]ccessibility: how using a special and straightforward Ajax editbox, with minimal details, can prevent misuse (a principle used in the Teahouse/Questions pages of English Wikipedia).
  • [D]esign: a KISS (Keep it simple and sexy) approach.
Track
  • Technology and Infrastructure
Length of presentation/talk

20 Minutes

Language of presentation/talk

English

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

Yes

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  1. Amire80 (talk) 13:21, 20 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  2. +1 for "ill-bannered" and "bannerlessness" :D Waldir (talk) 22:16, 11 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  3. --MB-one (talk) 22:21, 16 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  4. CT Cooper · talk 23:24, 28 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  5. The wub (talk) 14:02, 30 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Curious, not too fond of the "sexy" analogy to describe sleek and attractive styles. SarahStierch (talk) 03:00, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Ocaasi (talk) 21:46, 8 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  8. BlackBeast (talk) 04:01, 1 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  9. Add your username here.