⚓ T387175 Improve discoverability of full-page editing on mobile

⚓ T387175 Improve discoverability of full-page editing on mobile
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T387175
Improve discoverability of full-page editing on mobile
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Assigned To
bmartinezcalvo
Authored By
ppelberg
Feb 24 2025, 10:10 PM
2025-02-24 22:10:36 (UTC+0)
Tags
Technical-Debt
(Unsorted)
VisualEditor-MediaWiki-Mobile
(Backlog)
Design
(Incoming)
VisualEditor
(To Triage)
Editing-team (Kanban Board)
Goal
OKR-Work
(Backlog)
MW-1.46-notes (1.46.0-wmf.4; 2025-11-25)
Referenced Files
F66763987: image.png
Oct 19 2025, 11:47 PM
2025-10-19 23:47:20 (UTC+0)
F58480934: image.png
Feb 24 2025, 10:10 PM
2025-02-24 22:10:36 (UTC+0)
Subscribers
Agabi10
Aklapper
ashley
Cirdan
DLynch
Dvorapa
Fgnievinski
View All 25 Subscribers
Description
T203151
introduced an affordance that enables people to edit an entire page on mobile using the
Visual Editor
(see below), as opposed to editing one section at a time.
This task involves the work of making this affordance/ability easier for people to discover
Stories
As someone motivated to make a change to the article I’m reading on mobile web, I want to be able to edit any part of the page — regardless of which
Edit
button I tapped — so that I can easily locate the part of the article I'm seeking to change and maintain a sense of forward momentum that could be "blunted" by needing to navigate back out of the editor if/when I come to find the content I'm trying to change is located in a section that's different from the one the
Edit
button I tapped is associated with.
Hypothesis
What follows is *DRAFT* language that will be finalized in
Q2 experiments addressing mobile web editing experience
and eventually
published on-wiki
If we enable people on mobile web to edit any article section, regardless of which edit icon they first tap, then mobile edit abandonment (for newer editors) will decrease by ##% because they will be able to more more easily reach and modify the content they tapped edit intending to change.
Current state
Considerations
The current app behavior opens section editing when selecting each edit button in the article. We need to decide if we want consistency between web and app.
Another consideration is whether we want this behavior to be consistent between visual and source modes. There’s different trade-offs there from visual:
Source has far less of a performance concern to load the entire page
Scrolling through huge amounts of wikitext on a small screen is much more unfriendly
Automatically scrolling to the start-of-a-section isn’t really possible in source
Potential
approaches
Approach #1:
By default, only load section you tapped edit button for and sections immediately before and after, load rest of article in the background. If someone scrolls to section that's not yet loaded, we can approach this by one of the following:
a) Using a skeleton while loading non-loaded sections
b) Expose an affordance that would enable them to load the next section while scrolling (e.g. a button to load next section)
Approach #2:
only load the section related to the edit button someone tapped. When they scroll/reach the boundaries of sections loaded, load subsequent sections.
Approach #3:
when someone taps "Edit", use a dropdown menu to let them choose editing the full-page or just that single section.
NOTE:
We've decided on
Approach #1
as the best, so we will continue working on this as follows:
Acceptance criteria (or Done)
Explore potential approaches
Investigate likelihood of performance gains in
T409125
if gains looking promising, we'll implement PoC in
T409130
if PoC feels good, we'll refine the UX in
T409131
Details
Related Changes in Gerrit:
Subject
Repo
Branch
Lines +/-
Make the action bar edit button edit the whole page
mediawiki/extensions/MobileFrontend
master
+2
-10
Provide a UI for switching to full page editing
mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor
master
+201
-24
Customize query in gerrit
Related Objects
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Task Graph
Mentions
Status
Subtype
Assigned
Task
Open
MNeisler
T417840
Re-analyze edit completion rate among logged in Junior Contributors (mobile web)
Resolved
Esanders
T416059
Deploy full-page mobile editing affordance as a default-on feature (all wikis)
Open
ppelberg
T392954
[FY25-26] WE 1.1: Increase constructive edits
Resolved
MNeisler
T409112
[MILESTONE] Run a controlled experiment to address section editing dead-end (mobile web)
Open
None
T158181
Aim for workflow equivalence for MediaWiki on desktop and mobile web
Resolved
bmartinezcalvo
T387175
Improve discoverability of full-page editing on mobile
Mentioned In
T416468: Improve the navigation of sections when editing the full article on mobile
T416059: Deploy full-page mobile editing affordance as a default-on feature (all wikis)
T410600: Show context of other/adjacent sections when section editing on mobile
T2156: Allow editing the lead section of a page
T409125: [SPIKE] Investigate performance differences between number of sections loaded by default
T409112: [MILESTONE] Run a controlled experiment to address section editing dead-end (mobile web)
T387180: Expand availability of full-page editing affordance on mobile
T203151: Consider adding a button to let users edit the whole page in MobileFrontend
Mentioned Here
T409990: [Mobile] Offer button that enables people to edit an entire article from section editing
T409125: [SPIKE] Investigate performance differences between number of sections loaded by default
T409130: [PoC] Limit initial editor load to sections on either side of the section you tapped edit "on"
T409131: Polish experience of rendering more content on scroll
T203151: Consider adding a button to let users edit the whole page in MobileFrontend
Event Timeline
ppelberg
created this task.
Feb 24 2025, 10:10 PM
2025-02-24 22:10:36 (UTC+0)
Maintenance_bot
added a project:
VisualEditor
Feb 24 2025, 10:29 PM
2025-02-24 22:29:36 (UTC+0)
Pppery
removed projects:
Epic
MediaWiki-General
Feb 26 2025, 8:12 PM
2025-02-26 20:12:31 (UTC+0)
gerritbot
added a comment.
Jul 18 2025, 3:26 PM
2025-07-18 15:26:33 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #1170573 had a related patch set uploaded (by DLynch; author: DLynch):
[mediawiki/extensions/MobileFrontend@master] Make the action bar edit button edit the whole page
gerritbot
added a project:
Patch-For-Review
Jul 18 2025, 3:26 PM
2025-07-18 15:26:34 (UTC+0)
matmarex
mentioned this in
T203151: Consider adding a button to let users edit the whole page in MobileFrontend
Jul 18 2025, 8:37 PM
2025-07-18 20:37:07 (UTC+0)
matmarex
subscribed.
Fgnievinski
subscribed.
Jul 18 2025, 8:56 PM
2025-07-18 20:56:53 (UTC+0)
DLynch
mentioned this in
T387180: Expand availability of full-page editing affordance on mobile
Aug 21 2025, 3:54 PM
2025-08-21 15:54:17 (UTC+0)
ppelberg
added projects:
Editing-team (Kanban Board)
Goal
OKR-Work
Oct 19 2025, 11:36 PM
2025-10-19 23:36:06 (UTC+0)
ppelberg
updated the task description.
(Show Details)
ppelberg
updated the task description.
(Show Details)
Oct 19 2025, 11:38 PM
2025-10-19 23:38:44 (UTC+0)
ppelberg
updated the task description.
(Show Details)
Oct 19 2025, 11:46 PM
2025-10-19 23:46:33 (UTC+0)
ppelberg
updated the task description.
(Show Details)
ldelench_wmf
subscribed.
Oct 27 2025, 5:30 PM
2025-10-27 17:30:27 (UTC+0)
ppelberg
assigned this task to
bmartinezcalvo
Oct 28 2025, 5:18 PM
2025-10-28 17:18:04 (UTC+0)
bmartinezcalvo
updated the task description.
(Show Details)
Oct 29 2025, 12:39 PM
2025-10-29 12:39:48 (UTC+0)
bmartinezcalvo
updated the task description.
(Show Details)
bmartinezcalvo
removed subscribers:
brooke
MZMcBride
Jdlrobson-WMF
subscribed.
Oct 29 2025, 3:32 PM
2025-10-29 15:32:31 (UTC+0)
bmartinezcalvo
updated the task description.
(Show Details)
Oct 29 2025, 3:41 PM
2025-10-29 15:41:07 (UTC+0)
ppelberg
mentioned this in
T409112: [MILESTONE] Run a controlled experiment to address section editing dead-end (mobile web)
Nov 3 2025, 8:23 PM
2025-11-03 20:23:42 (UTC+0)
ppelberg
added a parent task:
T409112: [MILESTONE] Run a controlled experiment to address section editing dead-end (mobile web)
Nov 3 2025, 8:26 PM
2025-11-03 20:26:00 (UTC+0)
ppelberg
mentioned this in
T409125: [SPIKE] Investigate performance differences between number of sections loaded by default
Nov 3 2025, 11:52 PM
2025-11-03 23:52:00 (UTC+0)
bmartinezcalvo
added a comment.
Nov 4 2025, 10:54 AM
2025-11-04 10:54:42 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Summarizing here the explorations and next steps discussed with the team:
Possible approaches explored when selecting the "Edit" button on each article's section:
Approach #1:
By default, only load section you tapped edit button for and sections immediately before and after, load rest of article in the background. If someone scrolls to section that's not yet loaded, we can approach this by one of the following:
a) Using a skeleton while loading non-loaded sections
b) Expose an affordance that would enable them to load the next section while scrolling (e.g. a button to load next section)
Approach #2:
only load the section related to the edit button someone tapped. When they scroll/reach the boundaries of sections loaded, load subsequent sections
Approach #3:
when someone taps "Edit", use a dropdown menu to let them choose editing the full-page or just that single section.
We've decided on
Approach #1
as the best, so we will continue working on this as follows:
eng is going to investigate likelihood of performance gains in
T409125
if gains looking promising, we'll implement PoC in
T409130
if PoC feels good, we'll refine the UX in
T409131
bmartinezcalvo
updated the task description.
(Show Details)
Nov 4 2025, 10:58 AM
2025-11-04 10:58:18 (UTC+0)
DLynch
subscribed.
Nov 5 2025, 6:07 PM
2025-11-05 18:07:44 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Approach 3 has the interesting side-effect of removing the "accidental edit" mobile issue.
ppelberg
moved this task from
Inbox
to
Blocked / Needs More Work
on the
Editing-team (Kanban Board)
board.
Nov 8 2025, 12:01 AM
2025-11-08 00:01:51 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Status
Implementation on the UX we converged on is blocked on
T409125
, wherein we are determining whether the work required to limit the amount of sections that are loaded upfront is "worth" the performance improvements it could unlock.
Samwilson
mentioned this in
T2156: Allow editing the lead section of a page
Nov 10 2025, 2:47 AM
2025-11-10 02:47:15 (UTC+0)
gerritbot
added a comment.
Nov 18 2025, 2:25 PM
2025-11-18 14:25:56 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #647036 had a related patch set uploaded (by Esanders; author: Esanders):
[mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor@master] Provide a UI for switching to full page editing
PatchDemoBot
added a comment.
Nov 18 2025, 2:38 PM
2025-11-18 14:38:58 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Test wiki
created
on
Patch demo
by ESanders (WMF) using patch(es) linked to this task:
Sdkb
mentioned this in
T410600: Show context of other/adjacent sections when section editing on mobile
Nov 20 2025, 7:30 AM
2025-11-20 07:30:26 (UTC+0)
PatchDemoBot
added a comment.
Nov 20 2025, 3:03 PM
2025-11-20 15:03:40 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Test wiki on
Patch demo
by ESanders (WMF) using patch(es) linked to this task was
deleted
PatchDemoBot
added a comment.
Nov 20 2025, 3:05 PM
2025-11-20 15:05:29 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Test wiki
created
on
Patch demo
by ESanders (WMF) using patch(es) linked to this task:
Pcoombe
unsubscribed.
Nov 20 2025, 3:08 PM
2025-11-20 15:08:13 (UTC+0)
gerritbot
added a comment.
Nov 22 2025, 4:38 AM
2025-11-22 04:38:24 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #647036
merged
by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor@master] Provide a UI for switching to full page editing
ReleaseTaggerBot
added a project:
MW-1.46-notes (1.46.0-wmf.4; 2025-11-25)
Nov 22 2025, 5:00 AM
2025-11-22 05:00:26 (UTC+0)
bmartinezcalvo
updated the task description.
(Show Details)
Nov 25 2025, 10:32 AM
2025-11-25 10:32:10 (UTC+0)
DLynch
moved this task from
Blocked / Needs More Work
to
Ready to Be Worked On
on the
Editing-team (Kanban Board)
board.
Dec 1 2025, 6:07 PM
2025-12-01 18:07:25 (UTC+0)
bmartinezcalvo
updated the task description.
(Show Details)
Jan 21 2026, 4:07 PM
2026-01-21 16:07:20 (UTC+0)
ppelberg
closed this task as
Resolved
Jan 22 2026, 12:48 AM
2026-01-22 00:48:39 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Marking this task
Resolved
as we've implemented this in
T409990
bmartinezcalvo
added a comment.
Jan 22 2026, 8:58 AM
2026-01-22 08:58:37 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
@ppelberg
what about the remaining checks in the acceptance criteria? Are we planning to continue working on those tasks?
if gains looking promising, we'll implement PoC in
T409130
if PoC feels good, we'll refine the UX in
T409131
gerritbot
added a comment.
Jan 26 2026, 4:12 PM
2026-01-26 16:12:05 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
Change #1170573
abandoned
by Esanders:
[mediawiki/extensions/MobileFrontend@master] Make the action bar edit button edit the whole page
Reason:
Went with T409990 instead.
Maintenance_bot
removed a project:
Patch-For-Review
Jan 26 2026, 4:31 PM
2026-01-26 16:31:14 (UTC+0)
ppelberg
mentioned this in
T416059: Deploy full-page mobile editing affordance as a default-on feature (all wikis)
Jan 31 2026, 12:11 AM
2026-01-31 00:11:05 (UTC+0)
bmartinezcalvo
mentioned this in
T416468: Improve the navigation of sections when editing the full article on mobile
Feb 4 2026, 1:00 PM
2026-02-04 13:00:03 (UTC+0)
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