Research:Reader to first edit
This page documents a planned research project.
Information may be incomplete and change before the project starts.
Key Personnel edit
- Dario Taraborelli
Project Summary edit
The aim of this project is to quantify the drop-off rate at different points in the workflow of readers trying to anonymously edit a Wikipedia article.
Methods edit
The first step consisted in designing a workflow based on qualitative data capturing decisions and potential bottlenecks faced by readers attempting to anonymously edit an article.
Research questions we will be focusing on include, but are not limited to, the following:
- How many readers who intend to edit actually click on the edit tab or the section edit link?
- How many readers give up because of the complexity of the markup in the edit screen?
- How many readers experience a merge conflict upon saving an edit?
- How many users don't realize that edits don't get saved when previewing them?
We will devise a set of tests and controlled experiments to quantify click-through rates for different nodes in this workflow.
Benefits for the Wikimedia community edit
Measuring the impact of different drop-off points will provide us with a fundamental quantitative baseline for the new editor engagement program.
Contacts edit
- Dario Taraborelli dtaraborelli@wikimedia.org