I've long thought the the mobile design was better on desktop than the desktop design.
Wikipedia is getting a new look
11–20 of 529 posts
Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look
#12I don't know why they did that, now we have empty space on the left and right, it's really useless, why is it better than using the full screen? "Our second change introduces a maximum line width to our content on pages where reading is the focus, such as article pages and discussion pages. Research has shown that limiting the width can lead to better retention of the content itself, as well as a decrease in eye stra…
So make the window narrower or get a narrower screen if you don't want to see empty space. Readability is more important.
Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look
#13It's fine as is why change it?
Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look
#14I don't know why they did that, now we have empty space on the left and right, it's really useless, why is it better than using the full screen? "Our second change introduces a maximum line width to our content on pages where reading is the focus, such as article pages and discussion pages. Research has shown that limiting the width can lead to better retention of the content itself, as well as a decrease in eye stra…
> why is it better than using the full screen?
Are you saying you only have one window open at a time?
Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look
#15I don't know why they did that, now we have empty space on the left and right, it's really useless, why is it better than using the full screen? "Our second change introduces a maximum line width to our content on pages where reading is the focus, such as article pages and discussion pages. Research has shown that limiting the width can lead to better retention of the content itself, as well as a decrease in eye stra…
I'm all for clean and uncluttered UIs, but trying to read wikipedia pages on a 4k monitor (or even large laptop monitor) is a joke. The lines are WAY too wide for easy reading. My brain just stops halfway through the line
I mean, maybe I'm just ancient with broken eyes (31), but I can't imagine anyone being able to sit down and read a wikipedia article like an actual book with reasonable left-right width.
Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look
#16I don't know why they did that, now we have empty space on the left and right, it's really useless, why is it better than using the full screen? "Our second change introduces a maximum line width to our content on pages where reading is the focus, such as article pages and discussion pages. Research has shown that limiting the width can lead to better retention of the content itself, as well as a decrease in eye stra…
The research on line length is not new and it's certainly not BS. I'm sure that even you read better at 70 chars/line than 200.
Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look
#17Great. I always really liked mobile wikipedia more than desktop.
Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look
#18I don't know why they did that, now we have empty space on the left and right, it's really useless, why is it better than using the full screen? "Our second change introduces a maximum line width to our content on pages where reading is the focus, such as article pages and discussion pages. Research has shown that limiting the width can lead to better retention of the content itself, as well as a decrease in eye stra…
> why is it better than using the full screen? Are you saying you only have one window open at a time?
Many people including me use the browser maximised all the time.
Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look
#19If someone asked me to critique the UX of Wikipedia, the first two things I’d point out would be that I almost never use the left hand side bar (and I have a feel almost no one does) and that when paragraphs are that wide they become harder to read (especially when they snake around floated images).
Not changing for 10 years, watching as some trends fade and others become law-of-the-land, and then making two changes that are backed by a fair amount of data strikes me as a great way for Wikipedia to operate.
I’ll also note that they definitely have changed some UX stuff over the past 10 years. The fullscreen expandable thing for images is pretty good, clean and JS-light (although this is HN so I have to note it would be better if it didn’t break the back button).
Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look
#20I don't know why they did that, now we have empty space on the left and right, it's really useless, why is it better than using the full screen? "Our second change introduces a maximum line width to our content on pages where reading is the focus, such as article pages and discussion pages. Research has shown that limiting the width can lead to better retention of the content itself, as well as a decrease in eye stra…
So make the window narrower or get a narrower screen if you don't want to see empty space. Readability is more important.
Readability is exactly why sites need to enforce a maximum chars/line. Don't ask your users to constantly resize their window just to read your content.