Research:Mobile Strategy Research

Contact

Mani Pande

Wikimedia Foundation

Parul Vora

Wikimedia Foundation

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Research:Projects

This page documents a research project in progress.
Information may be incomplete and change as the project progresses.
Please contact the project lead before formally citing or reusing results from this page.

Key Personnel

• Mani Pande & Parul Vora

Research Partners

• Mosoci India (User experience research in India). Now christened Convo
• IBOPE (User experience research in Brazil)
• Resolve Market Research (Support in survey research)
• Answer Lab (User experience research in the US)

Project Summary

In 2010, the Wikimedia Foundation developed a five-year strategic plan, which includes development of our mobile applications and properties as well as a geographic focus on India, Brazil, Russia, Turkey, and Egypt/Arabic speaking countries. The Wikimedia Foundation currently maintains a mobile gateway (m.wikipedia.org) that allows users to access Wikipedia in different languages through mobile devices. Additionally, WMF also has an official iPhone application (which one, link?) which is downloaded ~150,000 times per month. There are also a number of third-party iPhone, iPad, and Android apps, the most popular of which include Wikipanion/Wikipanion Plus, Articles, and Quickpedia. We estimate that X% of Wikipedia users worldwide currently accesss Wikipedia through these mobile pathways.

Objectives

• To get a broad understanding of how Wikipedia readers access, read, search, consume, or otherwise use Wikipedia content on mobile devices.
• To observe and understand Wikipedia editor's current editing practices, with an emphasis on mobile devices but to also including desktop and laptop computers and other devices used in their editing processes.
• To get insights on cultural and technical ecology of Wikipedia in different geographies and environments, specifically the US, India and Brazil. Specifically to identify notable behaviors; preferences; barriers; mobile + data services, brands, and platforms; and content delivery that can develop our mobile growth.
• To identify both needs + opportunities for mobile accessibility and development in US, Brazil, and India that can be extended to our entire community and users.
• To present needs + opportunities and prioritize in collaboration with the mobile business + design + development team.

Works in Progress

| India | User experience research conducted in New Delhi and Bangalore. For details, see here.

| Brazil | User experience research conducted in Sao Paulo, Salvador, and Porto Alegre. For details, see here.

| United States |User experience research conducted in San Francisco, Chicago and Dallas. For details, see here.

|Mobile Survey |Quantitative survey conducted in key geographies in nine languages. For details, see here.

|India Brazil Mobile User Research Report | Report that outlines User experience research conducted in India and Brazil. For details, see here.

Wikimedia Policies, Ethics, and Human Subjects Protection

Wikimedia consent form (link to Geoff's updated consent form)

Benefits for the Wikimedia community

A better mobile experience.

Time Line

See here.

Funding

Funding for this work is provided by the Wikimedia Foundation.

External links

See the original Strategy page here.

Contacts

Parul Vora and Mani Pande