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Show HN: I made a modern web UI for Wikipedia

modernwiki.app

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Re: Show HN: I made a modern web UI for Wikipedia

#61
post #32

one of the worst things about the current WP GUI is that when you hover over a hyperlinked word with the expectation that your anxious yearning for the definition of that word be fulfilled you're often forced to click through to the actual page, because the popup lacks a concise enough representation of that word, because the definition could not be contained within that small a space, or, the definition of the word…

I believe those texts are specifically set either on Wikidata, or via the template "short description" at the start of the article. Only where those are missing should it fall back to the beginning of the article text.

Re: Show HN: I made a modern web UI for Wikipedia

#62
post #6

OP, thanks for making this, I bet it was fun to build. That being said, I want someone to do the opposite of what this does. Less chrome, less bytes over the wire, less predictive search, less "flatness?", less timely, more timeless .

Got you, fam.

https://encyclopedia.marginalia.nu/wiki-start.html

(I built this mostly for myself, because I find it incredibly difficult to read text that has hyperlinks and images in the text)

Re: Show HN: I made a modern web UI for Wikipedia

#64
OP, This looks great! Having the index on the left is a huge improvement and limiting the text length is definitely helpful. Now I don't have to resize my window to a smaller size every time I open it.

A lot of HN tends to dislike anything "new", please don't let it get to you :)

Re: Show HN: I made a modern web UI for Wikipedia

#65
I was ready to hate it like a grumpy old codger but it looks really nice and keeps the content front and center. If I can make a suggestion - I hate it when the search suggests “trending” things. Of course I find them interesting, but it interrupts my attention. Maybe make that a separate button or something.

Re: Show HN: I made a modern web UI for Wikipedia

#67

From the screenshot: I absolutely adore the positioning of the table of contents. The design looks clean, utilitarian, and overall well executed. That being said - and this is more a critique of modern design - I absolutely hate the suffocating roundness of the element corners. It's an aesthetic that drips with overfamiliarity and a patronizing attitude. It's the visual equivalent of being put in a padded room, or ha…

That's, uh, a pretty intense reaction to some curves. There is a long history of rounded corners in graphic design. In the real world, perfectly sharp edges do not exist. Even on the printed page, ink bleed tends to gently round all corners. This is a good thing, because sharp corners interact poorly with some parts of our visual system. Sharp corners in a design can be as jarring as extremely high contrast or satura…

I'm absolutely an advocate for corners that are rounded to a reasonable degree. As you stated, perfectly sharp corners can produce a harsh, inorganic aesthetic that can be distracting to users.

Even very round corners can be contextually appropriate.

There's a world of difference between a few pixels of roundness, and making your entire website look like a fisher-price toy.

Round, organic designs can be complex and visually pleasing. They take a lot of work to execute well, and are rarely confined to the simple rectangles that dominate modern interface design.

The large border radius on modern UIs doesn't contribute anything interesting to previous UX other than the novelty of round corners. It hasn't been motivated, or motivated any meaningful new design approaches. All it's accomplished is that it's turned UI elements into rectangular pills that function almost exactly as they did before.

I see it as an aesthetic reflection of the modern technologist's attitude towards their user-bases.

Edit:some grammar

Re: Show HN: I made a modern web UI for Wikipedia

#68
I want to use this. Looks really nice. I know there are people here who are crying for information density, but I’m not one of them. The majority of people will be happier when there’s room for content to breathe.

My one sadness— no Safari support! Safari has gotten better with its extensions API support.. is it just the the store that’s preventing you?

Re: Show HN: I made a modern web UI for Wikipedia

#69
post #6

OP, thanks for making this, I bet it was fun to build. That being said, I want someone to do the opposite of what this does. Less chrome, less bytes over the wire, less predictive search, less "flatness?", less timely, more timeless .

Got you, fam. https://encyclopedia.marginalia.nu/wiki-start.html (I built this mostly for myself, because I find it incredibly difficult to read text that has hyperlinks and images in the text)

You complete me <3

Re: Show HN: I made a modern web UI for Wikipedia

#70

If you are are reading this far you probably care a lot about Wikipedia. Give generously if you can. https://wikimediafoundation.org/support/

Or don't https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_C...

holy smokes, that's grim

I guess *everything* is subject to corruption

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