Moderator Script
From Wikipedia Usability Initiative
[edit] Introduction and Setup
- Thank you for coming in.
- Complete Consent forms - Creative Commons Licensing - we will be recording both your screen through screen-sharing and your face through that camera, and our audio conversation. These recordings are going to be posted on the internet and available for those interested in this research to view at least part of them. If you sign here, you are agreeing that's ok.
- We're collecting feedback on Wikipedia. Basicallly I'll ask you some questions and then watch you use the webiste.
- This will take about 45 min - 1 hr.
[edit] Explanation of Moderator and Participant Roles
- Your job is really easy, you just have to be yourself and act as you naturally would. I did not design this website, and I don’t actually work directly for Wikipedia, I’m just collecting feedback. As you interact with the site, please be honest with your positive and negative thoughts. There’s no right or wrong answers, and nothing you say will hurt my feelings.
- You are not being tested, the Wikipedia pages are being tested.
[edit] Background Questions
- Tell us a little about yourself
- What was it you were doing on Wikipedia when you filled out the survey a few weeks ago?
- You said you come to Wikipedia XXX often. What are you usually looking up/doing? How has your experience been in the past?
- (Non-editors) You mentioned that you haven’t edited Wikipedia before, but you’d be willing to. What are the reasons that you haven’t in the past? Can you tell me what you know now about the process of editing?
- (Editors) You mentioned that you have contributed to Wikipedia before. Please tell us about those experiences.
- Can you tell me what you know now about the process of editing?
- (Optional) Have you ever uploaded an image to any of Wikimedia's resources? Would you be interested in uploading images to your entry? What kinds of things would you be interested in uploading? For what kinds of articles?
[edit] Think Aloud
- Next I’d like to have you go on Wikipedia to do a couple of tasks.
- There’s one thing that I would like you to do differently. Please think aloud as you use the web site today. For example, if you are reading something read it out loud and feel free to say anything that comes to your mind as you read - for example that’s interesting or what in the world are they talking about? Also, talk out loud while you’re doing a task, so I can understand what you are thinking and doing. (e.g.: Now I’m going to try to use the search engine) And, if you get to a point where you would naturally stop working, let me know.
- I’ll let you decide your task is complete, whether you find what you are looking for or not. Just tell me when you’re finished. Were going to be focusing on navigating through the website and making changes to Wikipedia entries. For the tasks that we’re going to do, we will be previewing your changes but for most of the time we won’t be permanently saving your changes (note: we will walk them through that if necessary)
- Do you have any questions before we continue? Okay, let’s go to the Wikipedia website.
- Login
[edit] Tasks
[edit] Adding Personal Content
- What were you doing when you filled out the survey for this phone interview? Go ahead and continue doing that, or walk me through how you were doing that…
- We want you to navigate to a Wikipedia entry that's of personal interest to you, you can remain on this page, or alternatively go to the entry for your: Hometown; Favorite sports team, movie, singer, actor; Last meal you had/book you read; College or University you attended. As you do this, remember to say everything you’re doing out loud.
- If you wanted to add a sentence or paragraph of info to this page, how would you do that? Go ahead and show me. (pre-fab sentence to give user if they don’t know what to add: Free knowledge for everyone on the planet.) (if necessary, show them how to preview and cancel their changes instead of saving them here, and continue to do this throughout as needed, as we don't want to save any harmful changes!)
- Is that something you think you might do? Why/why not? What other types of things might you want to edit? Why? (fix typo, add section, add reference, add comment on discussion page, etc.)
- How did you feel about that process? How was that process?
- What do you think about the way this is all laid out (the text, the navigation, and the other elements on the edit page)? How’s the information on this page? What information would you expect to be there? What information do you actually see there? Why do you think this information is here?
[edit] Discussion Pages
- Please go to the discussion page for this article. Have you ever read, used or contributed to a discussion page for a Wikipedia article? (if yes) Please tell me about that.
Time Permitting
- If you wanted to add a question or comment to the last section/thread on this discussion page, how would you go about doing that? Please go ahead and do that. (pre-fab sentence if the user doesn't know what to add, if they even get there: “Is it ok if I make and remove minor unharmful edits as a study participant?”
- Now let’s pretend you saved your changes to this discussion page and wanted to get rid of those changes. How would you go about doing that?
- Probe about history: What do you think the history is all about? What do you think that’s used for? Have you used it in the past/how would you use it? Have you had any unique experiences with the history pages? Please explain.
- (If user doesn’t mention, ask about categories) Did you see the ‘category’ box at the bottom? Any idea what the ‘categories’ are? How would you use those? Have you used them in the past? Do you have any unique experiences with them? Please explain.
[edit] Adding External Content
- (If current need be) Let’s go ahead and go to another entry on Wikipedia. You can choose whatever is interesting to you. Alternatively: Hometown; Favorite sports team, movie, singer, actor; Last meal you had/book you read; College or University you attended.
- Let’s say you wanted to add some information here from another source: say a document on your computer or in this case, another website? (Let user choose if there's something they would like to add. Help them come up with examples. If they can't come up with anything else, direct them to the http://www.creativecommons.com)
- How would you go about doing that? Is that something you would do? Why/why not? How was that process?
[edit] Using References and External Links and lists
- (if user doesn't mention References) Did you see the section about references? Would you add a reference from your text to the XX site? Why/why not? Go ahead and show me how you would do that.
- (if user doesn’t mention External Links) Did you see the section about external links? Would you also add the CC site to the external links? Why/why not? Go ahead and show me how you would do that.
-
- Note: if there is not a 'References' of 'External Links' on the Wikipedia entry that the user is viewing, direct them to the entry for “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”
Time Permitting
- Let's say you wanted to link to another Wikipedia article from within this article (called internal linking). How would you go about doing that? Is that something you would do? Why or why not? How was that process?
[edit] Editing an article that uses a template
- Let’s go ahead and take a look at the Wikipedia page on San Francisco, CA.
- If you wanted to edit just the 'Transportation' section here, how would you go about doing that?
- If you wanted to add a new section here, how would you go about doing that?
[edit] Adding Formatted Content
- Transportation section (hand user printed instructions):
- Create a new section, call it “Bridges”
- Include this text under the section heading:
- Golden Gate Bridge
- San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge
- Save your changes
- Then, above this text at the top of the section, please add the following:
- See also: Golden Gate Bridge
- and link 'Golden Gate Bridge' to the Wikipedia entry on the Golden Gate Bridge.
- (Make sure they know to make ‘bridge’ bold and 'See also' italicized)
- How was that experience?
[edit]
- Let’s say you moved to San Francisco and wanted to change the population field to be one greater. How would you do that? (Point out where this information is on the actual entry if necessary).
- Let’s say you wanted to add San Francisco's motto to the page. How would you do that?
- How do you feel about all that? What do you think about all the stuff that’s on this (edit) page?
[edit] Creating a new article
- If you wanted to create a new article, how would you go about doing that? (if you can’t think of anything, create a new article for a made up historical figure named ‘Bartelby Sanchez’ or ‘Sidney Rapunzel’ or ‘Lucy McVrices’).
- (if they can’t do it) Do you see anything here that might help you figure out how to do it? Why don’t you take a look at the help pages. How do you feel about the info the help pages give you? Did you find what you were looking for?
[edit] Creating a Header and a Table
- hand user printed instructions for new page:
- Create a new section for this article with the header “Biographic Information”.
- In the body of the page under the section header, create a table with the following information in it:
| Age | Birthplace | Favorite Band |
| Your age | Your birthplace | Your favorite band |
[edit] Final Questions
- What might encourage or increase your participation to Wikipedia?
- Follow up on questions above
[edit] Summarizing Likes and Dislikes
- Is there anything that you would want to see changed/done differently on the Wikipedia website? Particularly related to the tasks you completed today? If so explain.
- Any other likes or dislikes that you’d like to mention?
- Anything else you’d like to share with me or ask me?
- Would it be okay for us to contact you if we have any follow up questions or information?
[edit] Follow up
- Well [participant name] that does it for us. Here’s your $75 Amazon gift certificate. Again, thanks so much for coming in and talking to us- it’s really useful for our research!
