- Role
- Product Designer (Contract)
- Research
- 14 user testing sessions
- Outcome
- +20% editor contributions in 2 months
With over 62 Million pages, Wikipedia stands as the internet's largest encyclopedia. An average of 2,500 readers every second are reading pages on Wikipedia.
Yet there are only 280,786 active editors worldwide who edit this platform. Of which, 75%—make only a single edit in an entire year.
So can a platform with 62 Million pages stay up-to-date by the consistent efforts of the roughly 70,000 editors who edit more than once a year?
Try Wikiplay Now
94% of participants don't feel they are knowledgeable enough to add new information on any specific topic.
Never tried editing the platform since they felt the editing platform was overwhelming and technical. Have no idea how information is verified.
After publishing, 86% of the participants were surprised to see that they were the first to add information on a specific topic on Wikipedia.
IN REALITY
To add or edit pages on Wikipedia, everyone LACKS CONFIDENCE.
I designed a solution in which users play interactive games that gradually transition from interaction to contribution and simultaneously the system updates the information on Wikipedia.
There are incremental levels/modules to which users validate, update, or add new information depending on the topic of their interest. This is how they build confidence and contribute to Wikipedia.
A journey from a user interacting to contributing new information
Users gradually start from answering questions to looking for updated information from reliable sources outside Wikipedia and update information with attaching citation links.
Added learning mechanism when users skip or attempt wrong answers
During user testing, we realised that users want to learn about the topic more rather than just being informed that they are incorrect. This helps them be more attentive and engaged.
Explored new forms of interactions to auto-select and update on the fly
Wikipedia is a residual and dominant platform. We explored new ways to interact and submit new information in as little time as possible. This would reduce the biases for the technical aspect of the product.
Solving Unique Problems with Mobile Interfaces
We addressed different Wikipedia problem statements for mobile users. Created solutions that can be solved with a smaller viewport, effectively.
Image Citation
Many images lack citations or have wrong descriptions due to many reasons one of them; being language barriers. We asked users to describe an image in plain words and reverify them.
Language Translation
Through data, we realized that many readers translate complex words into the language of their choice. We identified these most translated words on Google and incorporated them into Wikipedia, too.
Knowledge Update
A lot of information on Wikipedia is true but outdated or has changed recently. Like population. some personality's death. With this approach we can get those niche, specific information updated.
Some of the initiatives are being developed at Wikipedia. Please reach out for more information.