[SPIKE] Decide whether additional config is necessary to isolate mobile and desktop Usability Improvement deployments
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	ppelberg
	Jul 8 2022, 10:43 PM

Description

In T281208#7730080, we decided to defer introducing a setting that would enable people to decide whether mobile DiscussionTools features are enabled or disabled.

We are coming to see that in doing the above, it is not currently possible to deploy Topic Containers on desktop as a beta feature (T282639) without simultaneously making Topic Containers, and other yet-to-be deployed Usability Improvement beta features, available on wikis where some mobile DiscussionTools (e.g. Reply and New Topic Tools) are already available by default.

With the above in mind, this task involves the work with deciding whether we will introduce a new config that will enable us to deploy Usability Improvements as beta features on desktop without simultaneously making them available on mobile.

Decision to be made

Will we introduce a new config that will enable us to deploy Usability Improvements as beta features on desktop without simultaneously making them available on mobile?
- Decision
  - TBD
- Considerations
  - .

Done

All Decisions to be made are resolved and documented

Related Objects
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Status	Assigned	Task
Open	None	T276497 Scale DiscussionTools to all projects
Open	None	T366095 Deploy comment thanking to all wikis
Open	None	T310959 Scale Usability Improvements to all projects
Open	Trizek-WMF	T319146 [Release Ticket] Offer Usability Improvements as default-on feature at all projects (desktop)
Resolved	ppelberg	T302547 [Usability Improvements] Deploy as Beta Feature at all wikis (desktop)
Resolved	ppelberg	T282639 [Release ticket] Deploy Topic Containers as Beta Feature at Partner Wikis
Resolved	ppelberg	T312685 [SPIKE] Decide whether additional config is necessary to isolate mobile and desktop Usability Improvement deployments

Event Timeline

ppelberg created this task.Jul 8 2022, 10:43 PM

ppelberg updated the task description. (Show Details)

ppelberg moved this task from Backlog to Triaged on the DiscussionTools board.

ppelberg moved this task from Untriaged to Needs Discussion / Investigation on the Editing-team board.

ppelberg removed subscribers: • KieranMcCann, Jdforrester-WMF, • Whatamidoing-WMF and 13 others.

For most users (outside the mobile DT pilot wikis), they will be coming from the MobileFrontend experience. This is the reason we decided that the reply and new topic tools needed to be always enabled, as otherwise we would be introducing a regression by making these tasks harder. While topic containers don't prevent a regression in the same way, I think the fact there is no status quo of article-like styling means we shouldn't really about changing the appearance of the headings too much.

I think the questions we need to answer are:

Do we think topic containers on mobile are "ready"?
Do we want to replace the MobileFrontend experience with topic containers instead of article-like headings?

I think the answer to both these questions is yes.

n.b. We will need to revisit this question for phases 2 & 3 (affordances and page frames)

ppelberg edited projects, added Editing-team (Kanban Board); removed Editing-team.Jul 15 2022, 9:34 PM

During the discussion the Editing Team had today, we decided to forego implementing the additional config that would be necessary to isolate mobile and desktop Usability Improvement deployments for now.

In deciding the above we agreed to:

Reconsider whether future desktop deployments (e.g. T304371 and T304372) ought to simultaneously impact mobile talk page or whether they ought to be isolated, and therefore, necessitate us introducing the config this ticket originally described
- T313453: [SPIKE] Decide whether config is necessary to isolate Clear Affordances to desktop talk pages
- T313454: [SPIKE] Decide whether config is necessary to isolate Page Frame to desktop talk pages
Offer Topic Containers on mobile talk pages at ar.wiki as a result of T312670 being deployed.

The Editing Team's decision to do the above is a function of us coming to think Topic Containers, in their current form, are in a state where they are likely to deliver the impact they were designed to have: to help people recognize talk pages as containing discussions and assess the level of activity within them.

This conclusion is built on the results of the usability testing we've done with Junior Contributors (T293520) as well as the on-wiki testing we continue to do. [i]

Note: we still have plans to measure the impact of the mobile New Topic and Reply Tools in T298058 and of the set of Usability Improvements in T298062.

i. E.g. Talk pages project/Usability/Prototype

ppelberg mentioned this in T313568: Verify mobile Topic Containers (ar.wiki) are working as expected.Jul 22 2022, 12:59 AM

[SPIKE] Decide whether additional config is necessary to isolate mobile and desktop Usability Improvement deploymentsClosed, ResolvedPublicActions