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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

#71

Post by [deleted] »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #43
crocodiletears wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people don't particularly care how things look, so long as they're reasonably familiar, well-ordered, visually inoffensive, and functional. After that, it's optimizing for performance metrics and ensuring that the client is happy with the aesthetic of the final product. Client usually wants to emulate some elements of the latest aesthetic trend. Can't blame designers for what's ultimately a fashion trend. Especi…

It's more that, I've read critics of modern web design. And while I can understand that some people don't like it (myself included for some things), the visceral hatred that some people have in their rants against it is so great, I can't possibly send that to a client with a straight face. It's so extreme it's absolutely useless. Edit: At some point, while you can agree with some of the critics' points, they become c…

[deleted]

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

#72

Post by marginalia_nu »

0des wrote: post #69
marginalia_nu wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I should say it's a bit janky in some places, but for most articles it works reasonably well.

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

#73

Post by fallat »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #62
0des wrote: 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)

This is kind of incredible.

Have you considered images just take up full width?

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

#74

Post by jitix »

nomemory wrote: post #24

I am one of those people who actually like Wikipedia the way it is. It's what I hoped the web to become. But i am sure there are people who will appreciate your effort. Thank you for your work.

I agree with you except the one pain point that Wikipedia still continues to use "m.*" sub-domains for displaying mobile content. I know most people exclusively use mobile these days but I use desktop browsers for reading more than 60% of the time and its really annoying to click on a Wikipedia link on HN/Reddit and having it open the mobile site on desktop. It's OK to use m.* subdomains instead of reactive design but there should at least be redirects to the correct subdomains.

edit: formatting

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

#75

Post by aerovistae »

I hate to be the contrarian, but I'm confused by the positive remarks here. I find the interface looks like it was trying to force mobile design principles onto a desktop view. A lot of space seems wasted here and I can view less content at once. I don't find this useful personally.

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

#76

Post by JJMcJ »

nomemory wrote: post #24

I am one of those people who actually like Wikipedia the way it is. It's what I hoped the web to become. But i am sure there are people who will appreciate your effort. Thank you for your work.

This isn't so bad but consider new Reddit vs. old Reddit.

If "new" were to become the only way to access Reddit, I would probably abandon it.

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

#79

Post by mrweasel »

crocodiletears wrote: post #18

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…

The table of content is the bit I like the least. The observation is correct, then entire left hand sidebar of the standard Wikipedia layout isn't actually that useful. Putting the table of content in the sidebar might be an idea, but why the big bulk font? Just take the normal TOC and move it to the sidebar.

One big thing many could learn from, from the standard Wikipedia, and where this "modern" alternative fails, is the use of icons. Wikipedia mainly use text labels, not icons, which mean that I don't have to guess what the three dots mean. When going to Wikipedia, it very clearly states that I am in fact "Not logged in", this modern UI just have the person icon, but am I logged in? Similarly there's a small clock with an arrow, if I don't understand that Wikipedia is versioned, I have no idea what that does. The "view history" is much more clear, even if "View page history" would be even better.

It's pretty fun to play around with alternative designs for pages like Wikipedia, but actual updates should be done because it improved usability, not because it fails to follow trends that will change in a few years anyway.

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

#80

Post by jtvjan »

notRobot wrote: post #16

Reminder that the mobile Wikipedia page is accessible on desktop and looks pretty neat: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Conversely, the old desktop skin has been updated to work well on mobile. I really like how they carried the "pixel art" icon aesthetic over to retina displays. (When you zoom in, you'll see that they're actually vectors with smooth gradients.) And when you turn your phone to landscape, the familiar desktop interface comes back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?useskin=monobook

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