Wikipedia’s Redesign Is Barely Noticeable. That’s the Point.

#1

Post by susam » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 3:55 PM UTC

Wikipedia’s Redesign Is Barely Noticeable. That’s the Point.
slate.com

Re: Wikipedia’s Redesign Is Barely Noticeable. That’s the Point.

#2

Post by kibwen » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 4:36 PM UTC

I noticed that the Wikipedia page for "Wikipedia" allows you to preview the new design: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

The top comment from yesterday's HN submission mentions how you can configure Wikipedia (or any MediaWiki) page to use whatever theme you like, including all the previous themes, which are still actively maintained: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34431533

Re: Wikipedia’s Redesign Is Barely Noticeable. That’s the Point.

#3

Post by dmix » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 4:38 PM UTC

I've been using https://www.wikiwand.com/ w/ darkmode for years now and still I prefer it over the new one.

I've customized it to be just how I like using their settings.

Re: Wikipedia’s Redesign Is Barely Noticeable. That’s the Point.

#4

Post by chiffre01 » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 4:41 PM UTC

why is there so much white space ?

Re: Wikipedia’s Redesign Is Barely Noticeable. That’s the Point.

#5

Post by chimeracoder » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 4:43 PM UTC

kibwen wrote: post #2

I noticed that the Wikipedia page for "Wikipedia" allows you to preview the new design: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia The top comment from yesterday's HN submission mentions how you can configure Wikipedia (or any MediaWiki) page to use whatever theme you like, including all the previous themes, which are still actively maintained: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34431533

> I noticed that the Wikipedia page for "Wikipedia" allows you to preview the new design: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

The navigation frame on the left is absolutely massive. At first I thought you linked the mobile view, but no, it really is wasting a quarter of the width of the page (on my monitor) on white space.

Re: Wikipedia’s Redesign Is Barely Noticeable. That’s the Point.

#6

Post by lemoncookiechip » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 4:43 PM UTC

There's so much wasted space to the left. And still no dark mode.

Re: Wikipedia’s Redesign Is Barely Noticeable. That’s the Point.

#7

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 4:46 PM UTC

chiffre01 wrote: post #4

why is there so much white space ?

[deleted]

Re: Wikipedia’s Redesign Is Barely Noticeable. That’s the Point.

#8

Post by kibwen » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 4:47 PM UTC

chimeracoder wrote: post #5

kibwen wrote: post #2

I noticed that the Wikipedia page for "Wikipedia" allows you to preview the new design: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia The top comment from yesterday's HN submission mentions how you can configure Wikipedia (or any MediaWiki) page to use whatever theme you like, including all the previous themes, which are still actively maintained: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34431533

> I noticed that the Wikipedia page for "Wikipedia" allows you to preview the new design: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia The navigation frame on the left is absolutely massive . At first I thought you linked the mobile view, but no, it really is wasting a quarter of the width of the page (on my monitor) on white space.

The main feature of the new design is that the width of the article body is now limited, rather than unlimited as previously, under the idea that overlong lines reduce the readability of text. With limited text width, removing the navigation sidebar would not decrease the amount of whitespace. If you would prefer to have unlimited width, you can configure this behavior in the new theme or select a different theme altogether.