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

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

#31

Post by karaterobot »

sdiacom wrote: post #27
karaterobot wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you create an account and log in, right? I've gotten along without having a Wikipedia account for the last 20 years, I guess now I have to make one. If that was a product goal, it was a very sneaky success.

I'm pretty sure that "getting the same four Hacker News users, who feel personally wronged every time a website becomes more readable, to sign up" is nowhere near the top of their list of priorities.

Grrr, I hate readability! Just the idea of proper line lengths makes me angry.

But I think everybody has to create an account, not just us salty grandpas. Like I said, if it was a product goal, it's a sneaky way to do it. Not saying that is the case.

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

#32

Post by bastawhiz »

jklinger410 wrote: post #16
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

Looks like the white space on the right side is a perfect width for banner ads.

It's also the perfect width to add a friends list or sidebar full of skeuomorphic widgets or live updating feed of edits to the site. There's no reason to assume Wikipedia would introduce advertising (they're not a corporation, they're not motivated by profit, they have a healthy chunk of cash in the bank). Of all the organizations I'd expect to give in to greed, Wikimedia doesn't crack the top 100.

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

#33

Post by madeofpalk »

Having used it briefly, I'm not a fan of the redesign (which I think the headline has wrong - I think it's very noticeable) as it is currently.

I understand the goal is to limit the line width of articles to make it more comfortable, and I don't disagree with that, but the content feels poorly framed now, just floating in the abyss of 'empty space'. The sticky side nav (which I think is a great idea!) feels unconnected from the article itself.

I think the basis is good, but final execution is lacking. I think with a few relatively minor tweaks it could be even better.

Edit: I think the page looks better with the hamburger menu open, with the different background give the article a bit more structure to sit against.

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

#34

Post by nicoburns »

jklinger410 wrote: post #16
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

Looks like the white space on the right side is a perfect width for banner ads.

Presumably that depends on your monitor size

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

#36

Post by yccs27 »

So many knee-jerk reactions by people disliking the change, so I want to give another view: I really like the new design.

- When reading an article, I want to have absolutely minimal visual noise. Removing the old sidebar helps.

- The smaller column width helps with readability, because it's easier to scan back to the start of the next line.

- It's great to have the table of contents always visible, to quickly jump around the some of the miles-long articles typical for Wikipedia.

- I don't need anything else on the page - so I don't have any complaints about "inefficient use of space". On the contrary - more whitespace helps me focus on the article.

- Unlike with Wikiwand, there are no distracting animations.

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

#37

Post by rhn_mk1 »

Clearly designed by someone who only uses one language.

The one most used element for me was the side bar, where I could hover over the language to see the translation of some term. Now it's hidden behind a click, and a looot of scrolling. Just try to reach Svenska.

I can work around the style changes easily with custom CSS and stylus, but I'm not impressed by that change.

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

#38

Post by BeetleB »

yccs27 wrote: post #36

So many knee-jerk reactions by people disliking the change, so I want to give another view: I really like the new design. - When reading an article, I want to have absolutely minimal visual noise. Removing the old sidebar helps. - The smaller column width helps with readability, because it's easier to scan back to the start of the next line. - It's great to have the table of contents always visible, to quickly jump a…

I strongly dislike that the table of contents have folded entries. I now have to click to get the link to a subheading.

In general, for quite a few things I need extra clicks to get to it.

Also, as I mostly print articles[1], I had a special printing layout set up to print Wikipedia articles. I need to come up with a new layout (reader view for Wikipedia used to be terrible).

[1] https://blog.nawaz.org/posts/2021/Dec/consuming-articles-off...

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

#39

Post by _dain_ »

jklinger410 wrote: post #16
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

Looks like the white space on the right side is a perfect width for banner ads.

Or, more optimistically: the perfect width to display footnotes and citations. Like how Gwern's site does it: https://www.gwern.net/Sidenotes

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

#40

Post by sdiacom »

karaterobot wrote: post #31
sdiacom wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that "getting the same four Hacker News users, who feel personally wronged every time a website becomes more readable, to sign up" is nowhere near the top of their list of priorities.

Grrr, I hate readability! Just the idea of proper line lengths makes me angry. But I think everybody has to create an account, not just us salty grandpas. Like I said, if it was a product goal, it's a sneaky way to do it. Not saying that is the case.

Sneaky indeed. So sneaky, in fact, that it would be completely ineffective.
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