Talk:Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/The Wikipedia Adventure

Suggestions

Some suggestions I would make, while acknowledging this is only a prototype by Dcoetzee and isn't meant to be perfect, are 1) Make the instruction box a bit bigger, the instructions are running up against the left side of the box at the moment and making the first letters of each line kind blend into the side, 2) Maybe not use Yellow? I'm not that opposed to it, but a different shade of yellow, maybe, 3) When having users make their first edit of correcting deth->death, maybe have some info given on the edit page about what the markup at the top is? Being a Wikipedian already, it was easy for me to zone in on the part I needed, but a new editor would be off-put by the infobox and first line language mark-up. I feel the instructions need to explain what each of these is and maybe help them find deth in all of it. There's probably a later section that deals with mark-up, but some instruction at this early juncture would likely be appreciated by new editors. Silver seren (talk) 23:05, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks Silver. Dcoetzee's prototype is still a prototype and one of my goals would be to design the game in a very visually appealing way. Hopefully with the help of some talented Foundation folks. If you're interested in what the game might look like as I've envisioned it, you should check out the script on the en WP:TWA page. Thanks for your feedback! Ocaasi (talk) 12:57, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Considerations/suggestions for defining target users and data gathering

Hi Ocaasi. Great proposal! I wanted to document a few suggestions and considerations this brought to mind. I'd be happy to discuss these in greater depth with you later on.

• I haven't played to game itself yet (I'm traveling and on a glacially slow internet connection this week), but one thing to consider is that the game mechanics will likely be more appealing to some demographics than others. Age, for instance, is usually a major factor: designing a game that's appealing to 12, 20 and 60 year-olds is challenging. Some games do this very well (Angry Birds, Wii Sports). Even some educational games do (Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing comes to mind). But most games do better if they focus primarily on a certain age group as a primary target user. Do you or Dcoetzee have a particular age group in mind here? You mention k-12 education. Do you intend to focus on school age children and adolescents? That might be a good starting point, but there are surely other ways to do it as well. But in interest of scope and getting actionable results, I think you'd benefit from defining your primary target audience more narrowly, and then explaining that you're interested in also making the game engaging for other age groups and/or within other contexts of use.
• I think some in-person user tests would be a good idea. You don't specify how you intend to do A/B testing, but often that's done remotely (people go to the site, get served up one of two versions of the game, and then you track their progress or survey them after-the-fact). Remote A/B testing is great, but getting live feedback from a user who is sitting next to you as they use the application is also powerful. Jtmorgan (talk) 22:06, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

Great feedback. The best way to get a sense of who the game is targeting is to read the script: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:The_Wikipedia_Adventure/Script

A/B testing would be in line with the Editor Engagement tests, A/B testing against other help documentation that is presented on the welcome page. But, I have also thought about some in-person tests for usability and design. Great minds Jt! I think the best approach is to do both, in-person testing early on while we're still developing and tweaking the game, and then A/B testing once it's in beta version to test effectiveness. Stay in touch, more feedback like this will be very valuable as we move forward (hopefully). Ocaasi (talk) 19:01, 13 August 2012 (UTC)