Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Explore Wikipedia's New Look

wikimediafoundation.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 288 posts

Re: Explore Wikipedia's New Look

#81

Post by kitsunesoba »

gpm wrote: post #63
nsajko wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Text width is important, but this is not a solution, zooming and changing browser window geometry is.

Mac OS (and some linux desktops) seems to really expect you to manage windows by having them always be full screen and swiping between desktops. Which makes changing browser window geometry sub-optimal. Even on desktops where it's reasonably easy, it's pretty annoying to have to resize the window when you go to different sites to get them to format properly.

> Mac OS … seems to really expect you to manage windows by having them always be full screen and swiping between desktops. Which makes changing browser window geometry sub-optimal.

That hasn't been my experience at all, in fact for me macOS works better when windows are mostly sized to fit their content. Windows and Windows-like Linux DEs is where I feel pressure to maximize everything.

Re: Explore Wikipedia's New Look

#82

Post by zetalyrae »

gpm wrote: post #63
nsajko wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Text width is important, but this is not a solution, zooming and changing browser window geometry is.

Mac OS (and some linux desktops) seems to really expect you to manage windows by having them always be full screen and swiping between desktops. Which makes changing browser window geometry sub-optimal. Even on desktops where it's reasonably easy, it's pretty annoying to have to resize the window when you go to different sites to get them to format properly.

I have a 4K monitor and I have Wikipedia at 200% zoom at all times. It works fine and I prefer it to the alternative.

Re: Explore Wikipedia's New Look

#83

Post by messe »

Willish42 wrote: post #76

> Research has shown that limiting the width of longform text leads to a more comfortable reading experience, and better retention of the content itself. Is this actually true? I'm curious if anybody has sources for this and if it's a common UX practice. I tend to use wider windows than traditional 8:9 half-screens and this max-width practice drives me nuts.

Anecdotal, but personally I can’t stand reading overly long lines and don’t keep my browser window maximised. I’ve written user styles for certain sites in order to keep lines sufficiently narrow, and I’m one of the few people I know to use an 12.9” iPad Pro in portrait mode regularly.

Re: Explore Wikipedia's New Look

#84

Post by babypuncher »

karaterobot wrote: post #20

I don't need a header to follow me down the page, in fact I'd prefer it not to. On the very rare occasion when I need to scroll all the way to the top of the page, I have no problem figuring out how to do that. Feels like they're introducing a persistent UI element without a benefit. Benefit to me, anyway. Maybe they heard from a lot of users who were having trouble remembering where the header was, I can't say. I do…

Reading your comment I got worried that there was going to be this giant banner permanently affixed to the top of the view. Taking a look, the actual implementation is very small and unobtrusive.

I don't know that I prefer it, but I also don't think I hate it. I feel indifferent.

I definitely love how they put the ToC off to the left. It's a great use of all the horizontal space on our 16:9 screens, and will make zipping around to different parts of a large article a lot easier. I'm willing to put up with the small banner in exchange for this.

Re: Explore Wikipedia's New Look

#86

Post by babypuncher »

anthonypasq wrote: post #80
karaterobot wrote: post #20

I don't need a header to follow me down the page, in fact I'd prefer it not to. On the very rare occasion when I need to scroll all the way to the top of the page, I have no problem figuring out how to do that. Feels like they're introducing a persistent UI element without a benefit. Benefit to me, anyway. Maybe they heard from a lot of users who were having trouble remembering where the header was, I can't say. I do…

all these changes are geared at mobile. I imagine thats the majority of their traffic now

Are they? Wikipedia has great apps for iOS and Android.

I feel like some of these changes are meant to make better use of the landscape aspect ratios typical in laptop and desktop setups (i.e. moving the ToC to the left)

Re: Explore Wikipedia's New Look

#87

Post by fmajid »

satvikpendem wrote: post #18

Finally. I have a big monitor and the line width is insane, glad they made it a more reasonable column layout, moving my head from end to end was getting very annoying that I had to use custom CSS instead.

They could have made a responsive multi-column layout to keep the readability of reasonable line lengths while keeping information density high.

Re: Explore Wikipedia's New Look

#89

Post by rozab »

>When you are logged in to Wikipedia, the updated header will move with you as you scroll. You will no longer need to scroll to the top of the page to find what you are looking for, and you can focus on reading and editing instead.

How do people write things like this with a straight face

Post reply on HN