Reading/Multimedia/Media Viewer/Survey

To get user feedback about Media Viewer, the Wikimedia Foundation ran a global survey in multiple languages from April to July 2014. This new image browser was gradually released worldwide throughout that period, as described in this release plan.

The goal of this survey was to identify issues that were important to our community and evaluate user satisfaction with Media Viewer. To that end, a prominent button in the tool invited users to answer 3 quick questions, in a small popup-up survey form available in selected languages.

To learn more, read the highlights below, or check our first study report. See also these research clarifications about this study.

• 53.96% say NO

• 10.17% say NOT SURE

• 35.87% say YES

So, only about 1/3 of users are in favor of Media Viewer.

Here are the final survey results, based on 18,199 global responses as of July 8, 2014, when all surveys were discontinued:

• Note that this was an optional survey, so approval rates should not be cited as a conclusive metric, as they are subject to self-selection bias. The primary purpose of the survey was to collect user comments in order to improve the tool -- not to use approval ratings as a definitive measure of success.

• Keeping this caveat in mind, a majority of global respondents found the tool "useful for viewing images and learning about them" (56% "useful", 35% "not useful", 9% "not sure"), based on total unweighted survey results, as shown on this spreadsheet

• When weighted to match global Wikipedia readership for each language, fewer respondents found the tool "useful" than "not useful" (39% "useful", 50% "not useful", and 10% "not sure"). See this spreadsheet for raw survey figures, and discussion page for details on how the per-language results can be normalized to match global readership, for a different perspective on these approval ratings.

• Cumulative "useful" approval ratings by language: English 36%, French 70%, Spanish 78%, Dutch 59%, Portuguese 81%, German 30%, Hungarian 63%, Catalan 71%

• In the month following launch, daily "useful" rates gradually increased on the English Wikipedia -- and to a lesser degree, on the German Wikipedia.

• On the English Wikipedia, we observed a daily "useful" increase from 23% to 47% between the June 4 launch and July 8, as shown in the graph to the right and on this dashboard. This is based on 6,415 daily responses ranging from 492 to 71 responses/day.

• In the last two weeks from June 24 to July 8, more English users found Media Viewer useful for viewing images (50%) than not (39%), based on 1,291 responses for that period, as shown on the graph to the right and on this dashboard.

• These findings suggest that users found Media Viewer more useful for viewing images over time, as they became more familiar with the tool, and as new features were developed based on user feedback.

• We also observed different responses between readers and editors: on average, 62% of English readers found Media Viewer useful for viewing images, while 38% of English editors did not find it useful for viewing images, based on 1,090 responses during the survey's last 2 weeks, from June 24 to July 8, 2014 (see linked dashboards and thumbnails to the right).

• Focusing on global reader responses, about 65% of readers found Media Viewer useful for viewing images, based on 7,582 readers responses in 7 languages, over a 12-week period, from 14 April to 7 July, 2014 (see linked spreadsheet and thumbnail to the right).

• Reader "useful" ratings increased significantly over time for all languages, no matter where they started (e.g.: from 55% to 80% in the first 6 weeks on es, fr, hu, nl and pt).

• All reader "useful" ratings are above 65% except for German respondents — even English readers end up at 67%, despite an initially negative response.

• Note that surveys were discontinued once enough user feedback was collected to inform feature development.

• Most surveys ended on June 29, 2014 -- except for English and German surveys, which ended on July 8, 2014.

See this spreadsheet summary and live dashboards below for more details.

As of June 19, 2014, we keep getting generally positive feedback worldwide, with these results:

• A majority of global respondents find the tool useful for viewing images (56% response average, 60% across surveys)
• Cumulative approval by language: English 29%, French 70%, Spanish 78%, Dutch 59%, Portuguese 81%, German 28%, Hungarian 62%, Catalan 71%
• In the two week following launch, daily approval rates have gradually increased on both English and German Wikipedias. Approval rates have been growing steadily on the English Wikipedia.
• We anticipate further approval increases on these sites, as more new features get rolled out in coming days, based on community feedback.

See this spreadsheet summary and live dashboards below for more details.

We would like to conduct a more detailed study focusing on the English and German results, and would welcome the help of an experienced volunteer to contribute to that study.

As of June 12, 2014, we continued to see favorable global feedback across most surveys, with these results:

• A majority of global respondents find the tool useful for viewing images (56% response average, 60% across surveys)

• approval breakdown by language: English 29%, French 71%, Spanish 78%, Dutch 60%, Portuguese 81%, Hungarian 63%, German 26%

• approval rates have stabilized for all languages that have used the tool for over a month (all except English and German)

• English and German approval rates are lower than other languages, as Media Viewer was only launched one week ago on their Wikipedia sites (approval rates are usually lower right after launch)

• On the English Wikipedia, daily approval rates have increased from 23% a day after launch to 35% a week after launch (see data trends graph)

• We anticipate further approval increases, as new features get rolled out in coming days, based on community feedback (for comparison purposes, see previous Hungarian increase from 42% to 63% in a month)

See this spreadsheet summary and live dashboards below for more details.

As of May 27, 2014, we continued to see favorable feedback across all surveys, with these topline results:

• about 70% of 8,561 respondents find the tool useful for viewing images, based on an average across survey (72% response average)

• approval rates kept growing from the previous week (Dutch and Hungarian approval grew by 1 point each)

• approval breakdown by language: French 72%, Spanish 80%, Dutch 62%, Portuguese 83%, Hungarian 63%

See this spreadsheet summary and live dashboards below for more details. We plan to conduct a more detailed study in June, after the English and German deployments, and are looking for an experienced volunteer to help us with that study.

As of May 21, 2014, we continued to see favorable feedback across all surveys, with these topline results:

• about 70% of 7,766 respondents find the tool useful for viewing images, on average

• approval rates kept growing from the previous week (French approval grew by 2 points to 72%, Hungarian by 3 points up to 62%)

• approval breakdown by language: French 72%, Spanish 80%, Dutch 61%, Portuguese 83%, Hungarian 62%

We conducted a special study on of first pilot responses as of May 5, 2014. Overall feedback was generally favorable, based on over 1,700 responses.

Here are some key findings:

• On average, about 65% of survey respondents find Media Viewer useful for viewing images, across all languages. About 28% do not find it useful for viewing images, and 7% are not sure.

• On average, 73% of readers find the tool useful for viewing images -- more than editors (66%) or active editors (49%).

• The majority of survey respondents are readers (56%), but editors (30%) and active editors (14%) are well represented.

• Approval rates have been increasing for all large surveys (e.g.: Hungarian approval started around 42%, and is now up to 57%).

• More users found Media Viewer useful for viewing images on sites in English (72%) or French (71%) than on sites in Dutch (53%) or Hungarian (57%).

And here are some of the comments we heard often:

• People who found the tool useful for viewing images liked the larger images, the modern look, the simple interface, the next/previous buttons, the info panel and more recently, the faster load times.

• People who thought the tool was not useful for viewing images disliked the change in their interface, the lack of zoom, the slow image load, the image size, and having to look for info, Commons or exit buttons.

We identified 32 change requests from about 414 comments across all languages.

Here are the most frequent requests:

• Want zoom (21%)
• Too slow (20%)
• More image sizes (8%)
• Want full screen or larger images (5%)
• Can't find info (5%)
• Can't find Commons link (4%)
• Easy way to exit (4%)
• More info above (4%)
• Can't find download tool (3%)
• More prominent caption (3%)
• Want modal window (3%)
• Images don't load (3%)

To learn how our team plans to address these requests, read the Next steps section of our full survey report.

For more detailed survey results, check out this spreadsheet.

Here are links to dashboards with live results for current surveys, as well as survey forms - and comments where available:

Selected comments are included below, along with any resolution by the development team. To read all comments, click 'Show replies' in the second section of the live dashboard.

A survey form is needed to gather this feedback because most readers are not willing to edit talk pages, which they find overwhelming and hard to use. We are using Survey Monkey for this project, because it provides a variety of tools for designing, collecting and analyzing feedback, as well as for sharing the results (see live survey results). We've used this tool for other projects like AFT, Echo and Flow, and it's very practical -- while we do not have free software tools that can provide a comparable level of service without additional development.

Here are the contents of this survey (see actual form). We will invite community champions to translate this survey into different languages, so we can get early feedback from readers before we are ready to deploy on English Wikipedia.

Below are the sections that require translating:

Leave feedback about this new media viewing experience

(This tooltip appears when you hover over the 'bullhorn' feedback button in the Media Viewer. Clicking on that button opens the survey below.)

We'd like your feedback on the 'Media Viewer' feature you are now using. This feature improves the way images are displayed on Wikipedia, to create a more immersive experience. What do you think about this new multimedia experience?

1. Is this media viewer useful for viewing images and learning about them?

• Yes
• No
• Not sure

2. What do you think of this new viewing experience? How could it be improved?
[blank text field]

3. How would you describe your participation on Wikipedia?

• I never edit Wikipedia
• I have edited a few articles
• I frequently edit articles
• I have added a few images to articles
• I have uploaded a few images to Wikimedia sites
• I frequently add or upload images
• I have used images outside Wikimedia sites (e.g.: slides, blog)

• You agree your responses may be used in accordance with these terms. This survey is powered by Survey Monkey and their use of your information is governed by their privacy policy>.

(Shown if they do not answer required questions.)

More feedback?
May we contact you with more questions about your experience?

If so, please add your email address below (optional)

Your email: [ blank text field ]

Your email will be kept private in accordance with our Privacy Policy, and will only be used by the Wikimedia Foundation to communicate with you and send you updates on your feedback.

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