WMDE Technical Wishes/AdvancedSearch/Workshop

Wikipedia's search is already very powerful but hardly anyone knows about it!

Workshop serie on advanced search in 3 cities in autumn 2016

This is why Raymond, Lea and Birgit had the idea to offer a workshop serie on advanced search in autumn 2016.

The Workshop serie on advanced search

The workshop serie took place in 3 different cities in Germany - Stuttgart, Cologne, Munich - between September and November 2016. In total, about 40 people participated.

In the workshop we wanted to learn about specific search queries we can do by using existing keywords like "incategory", "intitle" "deepcat" or "filetype". These keywords are currently only listed on help pages of cirrus search, and not easy to find. Most people - no matter if they are Wikipedia beginners or longterm editors - don't know about these keywords and how to use them.

As a first step we created a "search mapping" by connecting desired search queries of the participants with existing keywords. Like this it became visible which keywords are the most useful, and which keywords are useful for very specific cases only. As a second step, we were collecting and designing ideas how those keywords could be made accessible in the advanced search field.

Workshop documentation on German Wikipedia: de:Wikipedia:Technische Wünsche/Workshop_spezialisierte_Suche

Workshop results

The first workshop in Stuttgart had a shorter time frame than the workshops in Cologne and Munich. In Stuttgart we only introduced to the keywords, talked about queries people would like to do and created a prioritized search mapping. In Cologne and Munich we had much more time and we could discuss & design ideas to include the keywords into the advanced search field in addition.

Introduction to the keywords and search mapping

• 
  Search mapping at Lokal K, Cologne
• 
  Search mapping at WikiMUC, Munich

Examples for desired search queries

In German language

• Lyriker aus China (poets from China)
• Impressionistische Malerinnen die nichts mit Berlin zu tun haben (Female impressionist painters who have nothing to do with Berlin)
• Entenbilder (ohne Audio und Video) die größer als 2000 Pixel breit sind (images of ducks - without audio and video - which are wider than 2000 pixel)
• Alle Artikel einer Kategorie ohne eine Vorlage (all articles of a category without a template)

General ideas to inform about search options

• "Crib notes" for Wikipedia Search (similar to the existing "crib notes" with some basic tips for editing Wikipedia)
• Writing a blog post and introducing to the existing advanced search options
• Print search tips/queries on beer coasters and use them at real life meetings
• Many people mentioned that users often don't know how to open the advanced search field in the first place and that the current solution is ambiguous, too (see also: phab:T141244). Proposals to improve that were: Provide a seperate button to open the advanced search field or link to the advanced search field from the tools panel on the left side.

Ideas for an advanced search field

• 
  Dropdown filter system
• 
  personalised most important search options displayed in front of the search field
• 
  requested by several participants: bi-directional synchronisation between the normal search field and the advanced search interface
• 
  Extension of the existing name space selection in the advanced search interface through additional search fields. Namespaces such as WP: and Help: could be combined in one "internal" section.
• 
  Wizard-like Interface: When selecting a search parameter out of a list, a new input field will be displayed for the respective search criterion

Based on the designed ideas, the WMDE team plans to implement a new feature to access the existing search parameters easily via the special:search page.