After A Decade, Wikipedia Prepares A New Interface

Vector, the default Wikipedia theme or skin, and many other MediaWiki-based projects, is undergoing major redesigns for the first time in its 10 years of existence.

Despite receiving minor updates over the past few years, such as the addition of extensions and special scripts, the new changes will combine a functional approach, with design tweaks that fit new visual and web usage trends.

We think it’s time to take some of these ideas and bring them to the default experience of all users, on all wikis, in an organized and consistent way. Over the next few years, the readers’ web team will research and develop improvements to the desktop experience based on existing research and tools. With these words, the Wikimedia Foundation made known its intentions to give a new visual air to its main project: Wikipedia, transferring these step changes to all projects that also make use of its own CMS.

The idea of retouching the design of wikis created with MediaWiki and particularly Wikipedia itself, arises with the purpose of making the experience more welcoming for readers and more profitable the browsing experience. For this reason, the foundation is monitoring the progress of this initiative, measuring the confidence and level of utility of its sites and functions, through qualitative and quantitative indicators, such as interaction with sections such as its search engine or language selector.

To justify the initiative to redesign its interface, Wikipedia assumes that what they currently offer does not meet the current expectations of its most demanding users. Among the weaknesses listed are that its current desktop browser design is not consistent with its mobile counterpart; the community factor, part of the heart of a wiki, is not highlighted by the platform; and in addition, the content is presented in a crowded and not intuitive way.

The shared conclusion is that this disorder can end up distracting users, preventing them from concentrating on what they came looking for. Tasks that should be simple and accessible, such as language change, searching and the application of certain settings, are not offered today as an alternative of easy access and intuitive use, according to their creators.

The idea with this redesign initiative is to increase the share of readers who really understand the dynamics of Wikipedia’s operation, which more than just a reference site for readings, has always been shaped as a community platform for sharing knowledge, always adhering to a standard of rigour that guarantees an adequate level of confidence. With this, we seek to concretize the objective of increasing the levels of interaction and contributions of new content, both for the creation of articles, as well as for the editing of those already existing.

Therefore, changes will be made gradually and only at the interface level, only in Vector, the default design template. Despite the changes, no functionality will disappear and certain fundamental elements, such as the content structure of the pages, the support of maps or the wiki templates crossed, will not even be touched.

The classic Vector interface will become part of a frozen or «legacy» theme, which will remain as a backup. Changes to its interface will be immediately added to the default theme and only those registered users will be able to restore, only during this transitional stage, the classic design.

The final implementation of many changes is still being tested. The advances, which include a redesign of the area dedicated to the header logo, the possibility of folding the sidebar, limiting the width of the content, providing movement to the search widget, facilitating language change, Fixing the article headers to the head of the site being read and even setting the table of contents as a floating menu, are part of the transformations that are coming.

Each change will be implemented gradually and separately, with a deadline of December 2021 for final implementation. If you want to keep track of this process, MediaWiki has a public log where they are accountable for all of this.