On Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 12:51 AM, Pine W <[email protected]> wrote:

> The issue which I am attempting to address is not a UI change itself
> (good or bad) but rather communication about proposed and upcoming UI
> changes.


Communication of proposals and changes is a problem indeed. Not just for
UX, the problem is common to other areas of development. We are trying to
define the good practices in the Technical Collaboration Guideline, at
Milestone
communication
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_Collaboration_Guideline/Milestone_communication>
.

This is how I personally think that the technical solution should work,
taking UI as an example.

* A UX review checkpoint exists, consisting of a wiki page in MediaWiki.org
where current and past proposals reviewed are logged. Users can see which
proposals are currently under review (with deadlines optionally) and which
ones have been resolved and when.

* Each proposal lives in its own URL (a wiki page, a Phabricator task)
where rationale, updates, and discussion happens.

* Anyone can subscribe to the UX Reviews newsletter
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Newsletter>. Teams initiating or
resolving a proposal will announce the move in the newsletter. Users
subscribe to this newsletter will receive updates related exclusively to UX
reviews, no more, no less.

Imagine the same approach for new projects/features, security reviews, new
betas, release plans... This is a good way to scale communications without
drowning central spaces like Tech News, wikitech-ambassadors or your
nearest Village Pump. This is also a good way to attract specialized
contributors and help them shine where they can contribute best (i.e.
design students or professionals happy to volunteer) as opposed to trying
to convince them to follow Tech News, wikitech-ambassadors or your nearest
Village Pump.

This idea doesn't define whether a change of color shade merits a review or
whether the review should last three months, but it helps creating focused
spaces where productive collaboration may happen sooner and more often
without everybody dying out of exasperation or exhaustion.

-- 
Quim Gil
Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
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