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Wikipedia is getting a new look

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Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#51

Post by drchopchop »

tspike wrote: post #10

> the wide range of functionality on the site can feel overwhelming and difficult to understand I guess it must just be my lengthy history with the web, but this line is like nails on a blackboard to me. It's OK to have to learn how to use powerful tools!

Wikipedia already contains a huge amount of "powerful" tools in the sidebar, that most casual users would never want to interact with. Upload file, recent changes, what links here, etc - pretty much all of these are irrelevant for people who aren't editors.

Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#52

Post by SusAnnie »

While there might be a lot of current users who feel like “if it’s not broke why fit it?”, there are a lot of whys it can be improved (some previous commenters have already linked some great research to how line length improves readability). As someone who is very dyslexic, I can say that Wikipedia is incredibly difficult to read, navigate and use effectively as a resource. It is not organized in a way that is easy to parse, the content blocks are huge making it extremely difficult to read, and there is very little white space. I’m excited to see how they revamp the UI/UX to make it more user friendly.

Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#55

Post by MockObject »

Try reading a math page on an iPhone with a spotty connection. All the images now only load when tapped. So after the page loads, I've got to scroll down, open each collapsed paragraph, and tap each image separately, before I lose signal on the subway.

Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#56

Post by andrepd »

Uehreka wrote: post #19

If 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…

I agree very much in principle. The wikipedia desktop site is beautiful, functional, fast, and doesn't change every 6 months to chase trends (unlike every god-damn website today it seems).

That being said I don't understand why the sidebar should be collapsible (and collapsed by default). It's just an extra click to access functionality with some people rely on (languages, for example, being probably one of the most used).

Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#58

Post by monkeypizza »

m0ck wrote: post #43

Just in case someone here is not aware of Wikiwand: https://www.wikiwand.com/ I use it for 2 years now and it works just right.

Details on this: This is a restyled version of wikipedia content that looks a lot better. They have a browser extension that redirects you to the wikiwand version of the same page, which is the same content with much nicer formatting. It really looks quite a bit better.

Caveats: you have to trust a non-wikipedia site to keep their copy up to date, not to info-mine you, and if you quickly send someone a link, they may not realize they're still sort of on wikipedia.

For comparison:

- https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Hacker_News

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_News

Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#59

Post by petters »

Uehreka wrote: post #19

If 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…

This is how I use the fullscreen expandable images:

1: Go to a page.

2: Click on an image.

3: Close the image.

4: Click the browser back button.

I am now at the image again. This is surprising and I cannot seem to learn this.

Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#60

Post by zhte415 »

dylan604 wrote: post #47
formerly_proven wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, Wikipedia allows you to add custom CSS and JS that are active as soon as you log in.

Who logs in to Wikipedia? I asked search engine about a term, it brings up a link to Wikipedia, I visit page, read content, then leave. I never even knew you could have an account, and assumed only people wanting to editors would even need an account.

There was a time when contributions were welcomed by all with trust in the community to weed anything without backup out. Those days are long behind us.
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