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Wikipedia is getting a new look

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Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#221

Post by MayeulC »

buovjaga wrote: post #102
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…

The article refers to this: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web/Desktop_Improveme... From what I can see, this particular change is already live in https://fr.wikipedia.org/

Then it explains the difference I've seen for a few weeks, thanks. It's not much different, mostly narrower.

Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#222

Post by bredren »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #165

I hope it doesn't change too much, Wikipedia and Craigslist are the only two major websites that have a decent layout these days.

I respect your opinion but I do not think it reflects the majority of users in this initial group.

I think it is good Wikipedia was willing to test for the truth and be open to acknowledging it is not at its maximum potential for achieving its mission by sticking with the existing design.

I comment here because I also thought if Craigslist but for an opposing reason. I see Craigslist as neglectful in its refusal to perform public research on what it should change.

Not only in terms of design but also features such as validated identity.

There is a reason Craigslist usage has dwindled to other marketplaces, those with far less capitalistic and privacy-minded philosophies.

There is a price to pay for refusing to change. Craigslist is a slow moving, very public example of this.

Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#223

Post by WWLink »

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…

> when paragraphs are that wide they become harder to read

I hope I don't sound like a jerk saying this, but resizing the browser window is the key. I dunno why some people maximize everything on their computer - that's a really inefficient use of space.

I wish more websites wouldn't try to force formatting on me and just let me resize my window.

Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#224

Post by thaumasiotes »

webmaven wrote: post #218
kossTKR wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure 99 out of a 100 don't know what "文A" means. I've had the same complaint, - never once did it occurs to me that "文A" meant translation. This to me is a testament to the fact that most buttons should actually be text unless extremely common like the hamburger menu, but even that's debatable.

> This to me is a testament to the fact that most buttons should actually be text unless extremely common like the hamburger menu, but even that's debatable. I agree, especially on mobile (even in 2020, many users — who often just got used to the hamburger menu — don't realize that the vertical ellipsis is a symbol for "menu" or "more options", it often just looks like a random decoration to them), although on a desk…

> I'll note though that the specific example of "文A" is, in fact, a text label.

Only in the sense that those glyphs are used in certain writing systems. It's not text in the more important sense of expressing a linguistic message. It's just random characters. "文A" is a text label to exactly the same degree that ":-)" is a text label.

Note in particular that the Chinese glyph does not translate as "language". That would be 语/語. As you accurately note, it translates as "writing".

Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#225

Post by systemvoltage »

grumple wrote: post #215
systemvoltage wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Design should not be trendy. It is not fashion. I hope we don't bloat up wikipedia pages with too much whitespace. Getting of borders, "minimal" looks bother me so much because they're sacrificing layout for aesthetics. There is a reason why borders exist. It is a line segment that separates logically laid out content into groups. I want Wikipedia to stay the same even if it is not ideal. There is a lot of legacy and…

> I hope we don't bloat up wikipedia pages with too much whitespace. Getting of borders, "minimal" looks bother me so much because they're sacrificing layout for aesthetics. There is a reason why borders exist. It is a line segment that separates logically laid out content into groups. Wikipedia is difficult to read due to the small font and large column width. Even with the updated versions (I checked French and Heb…

Use Ctrl(Cmd) and + sign to zoom.

Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#227

Post by mywittyname »

seppel wrote: post #126
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…

The sole critique of the UX of Wikipedia that I have is that the normal version of Wikipedia redirects you to the mobile version when using a mobile device, and changes the URL while doing so. This is why we end up with all these m.wikipedia links. The mobile version, however, does not redirect you to the normal page when using a normal computer. So people like myself constantly have to edit the "m." from wikipedia l…

I honestly think they were exploring replacing the desktop version with mobile at some point and used desktop m. removal as a gauge of aversion to the change.

Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#228

Post by ainar-g »

I've enabled the new theme, and I was prepared to hate it, but I actually found it quite nice. So far, at least. It's refreshing to see a UI change that is an actual improvement and not just some management people getting their raise. Good job, team!

Re: Wikipedia is getting a new look

#230

Post by martinrlzd »

paulirish wrote: post #144

The mobile site on desktop has fantastic UX. The m-wiki chrome extension smoothly redirects you to the mobile version every time. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/m-wiki/ibnmikddaop...

On Firefox I use Redirector, I set it to redirect from

  ^(https*:\/\/)(?!www)([a-z]+)\.wikipedia\.org\/wiki\/(.+)
to

  https://$2.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/$3
Works well!
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