A new look for Wikipedia
(Update 2: The search interface was updated on May 20. This update addresses the problems where search query is truncated under some circumstances, and the problem that search suggestion is cut-off. Thank you for your prompt feedback.)
(Update: We have received problem reports and feedback that search queries were truncated sometimes and the search suggestions were hard to read due to the limited width. In order to mitigate the problem, the new search function was disabled and the search field was increased by fifty percent. We also have updated the new search interface which we are currently staging on the prototype. This updates address the reported issues such as truncation of search queries and the problems that search suggestions are cut-off. Prototypes in various languages are also available here. Please try it out and let us know your feedback. Thanks!)
Wikipedia has some new improvements, thanks to the hard work and dedication of over half a million beta testers and volunteers who worked with the Wikimedia User Experience team over the last year! With a beta testing group of 635,000 people and an 83% user retention rate, we’re proud to introduce you to Wikipedia’s new look and feel. As of 8:00am UTC today, the new features moved from beta and will be available for everyone to use. This is the first major initiative the Wikimedia Foundation and its volunteers have ever undertaken for Wikipedia’s interface. And there’s more to come.
It’s been one year since we began the usability initiative, and we’ve rolled out the new interface to Wikinews (English and Serbian), Wikimedia Commons, and now English Wikipedia. That means that hundreds of millions of people around the world will now experience an easier to use, and more importantly, easier to edit Wikipedia. Our most recent interface launch, on Wikimedia Commons, was a great success with continued adoption by over 91% of Commons contributors. Over the next few weeks, the new interface will cascade to all language Wikipedias.
Here’s what’s new:
- Look and feel: We’ve introduced a new theme we call “Vector” which makes essential functions easier to find.
- Navigation: We’ve improved the navigation for reading and editing pages. Now, the tabs at the top of each page more clearly define whether you’re reading or editing a page. There’s also a collapsible navigation for the left sidebar that hides items that aren’t used often, but allows them to continue to be easily accessible.
- Editing improvements: We’ve reorganized the editing toolbar to make it easier to use. Now, formatting pages is simpler and more intuitive. And we’ve introduced a table wizard to make creating tables easier. You’ll also discover a new find and replace feature to simplify page editing.
- Link wizard: An easy-to-use tool allows you to add links to other pages on Wikipedia, or to pages on external sites.
- Search improvements: Search suggestions are now improved to get you to the page you are looking for more quickly.
- Pediapress book creator: Create a printed book by selecting Wikipedia articles and adding them to the Book Creator. Your articles will be turned into a PDF (or OpenDocument) file so you can easily take Wikipedia wherever you go.
- Updated Puzzle globe and wordmark: The well-known Wikipedia globe and wordmark have been enhanced and improved. We’ve introduced Linux Libertine, an open source typeface to help support the creation of hundreds of localized Wikipedia wordmarks, and the internationally-recognized puzzle globe has been recreated in 3D and includes even more languages. Read more from our recent blog post.
We kicked off this effort in April 2009, and immediately went to work to figure out how to make Wikipedia easier to use for everyone. We started with usability testing among everyday readers with no editing experience, and we learned about the way people interact with Wikipedia and how we could make the experience better. Using this valuable information, we incrementally released new features to users who opted into our beta testing group. Over the next several months, we continued to improve the features based on feedback from both our beta testers and from usability studies we conducted. We’re thankful for the input of thousands of international users and volunteers who gave us feedback on our progress.
During our initial beta testing phases, 81% of Spanish and Portuguese Wikipedia beta participants kept using the new editing interface. Seventy to seventy-nine percent of German, Russian, Chinese, French and Italian Wikipedia beta users also maintained the new interface. Retention rates for Polish and Japanese were relatively low in the beginning (65% and 60%, respectively). Since then, we used feedback directly from our users all over the world to increase the quality of the interface and design.
If you prefer the classic interface, called monobook (without the enhancements), don’t worry, you can click on the “Take me back” link at the top of the page to go back to the previous interface. You’ll also be able to return to monobook interface whenever you’d like.
With the support of hundreds of thousands of volunteers and the generous support from organizations like the Stanton Foundation, we’re making our projects easier for people from all parts of the world to contribute and access high-quality free educational information, which is central to our mission here at the Wikimedia Foundation.
This isn’t the only project we plan to release to make it easier to use Wikipedia, and all of our Wikimedia projects; it’s just the first. We’ve built an FAQ and feedback page which we encourage you to use — any feedback is valuable and will help us make our projects better.
We’d like to thank the many volunteers who have supported the User Experience team since this project began, as well as the Foundation’s donors and supporters.
Naoko Komura, Head of User Experience Programs
Why did you change the font size for the main body of the text from “normal” to “almost too small to read comfortably”?
Hi, left column width depends on text size. So if someone has smaller font than usual, logo is trimmed and looks ugly. Minimal width shuld be specified.
Its very nice now and there is directly appears seearch box. . .so one can easily search in it. . . .nice very nice. . . I appreciate it . . . .
The SEARCH bar should be in a more convenient place! If anything, it should appear where it says ‘Article’ ‘Discussion’
The new logo sucks. Additionally, there’s excess blank space at the top, but I’m most worried about the uglification of the logo.
I had already gone back to the old look before I noticed what happened to the search box, but I agree with many previous posters – its new location isn’t good at all ! It’s just like separating the “article” and “edit” thumbnails. It scatters primordial functions all over the page, and you have to actually look for them, whereas the previous search box was easily found since it was with all the others menu items ! Frankly, I didn’t even see where the new search box had gone before reading tgr’s comment about it being top right.
And by the way, I beg to differ with you, tgr – Wikipedia doesn’t have to try and look like Facebook or Youtube, because Wikipedia is neither. That’s one of the things I dislike with the new look, it makes me feel I’m on a social networking website, not on Wikipedia. Maybe I’m just being snobbish! But even then, Wikipedia and Youtube are entirely different animals with entirely different uses and functions, so modelling one after the other is not a good idea.
Nice update. When do you approve it for the other localisations of the wiki?
I agree with the overall consensus: search and other items on the right is UNACCEPTABLE. With a very wide-screen monitor, it just is totally wrong for all the other standards in our left-to-right reading world. And it should hold more characters.
Otherwise, I welcome the new interface and other improvements.
I don’t mind the search box location, but one thing I believe is a serious error is making some of the menus / link sections (e.g. Languages) collapsed by default. I very often use Wikipedia in my work as a translator, looking up a term in the English-language version and then going to another language version of the article (Polish, in my case). I do this a minimum of a dozen times per day, on average. Today, I looked up an entry in the English Wikipedia, saw that there are no other language versions, and then continued to look for the Polish equivalent elsewhere, just to realize that the Polish version had already been there, I just did not notice the collapsed menu. Please make it an option for registered users – a choice to have certain menus/sections collapsed or uncollapsed by default. The way it is now, it’s just an unnecessary extra mouse motion and click for me. Or let users choose the default links in the sections to be displayed, and add a “view more” button – this way I can have the link to the Polish version of the entry (if available) always displayed by default, and un-collapse the menu on the rare occasion when I need to consult another language version. This is not only about the language section, of course – I’m sure many users use certain options on a regular basis, and almost never use other options/links.
Could you please update the wikipedia logo on wikipedia.org (not en.wikipedia, the main all language http://www.wikipedia.org.)
Thanks,
ManishEarth
Otherwise, it looks quite nice, but PUT THE DAMN SEARCH BOX BACK, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PUT IT BACK NOW AHHHHH.
Long life Wikipedia! Long life Wikipedia! Long life Wikipedia!
I don’t like it.
I don’t need it.
I wish there was a simple query field in the middle of the screen on a white page with wikipedia logo and perhaps one or two options to edit or go to forum on top. Much like google page. Now THAT would be perfect.
I think the search box needs to be on the left of the page; but right to the Wikipedia logo.
In my opinion, though this may different from fact, the majority of people are going to want to search for another article than ‘discuss’ the writing of the article.
And, now that the search box is on the right, it is competing with the native browser search box (in Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer). So, the user will search via their preferred search engine for more information on a topic, and more often than not, the user will end up on another website, reducing Wikipedia’s significance on the web. In turn, translates to less donations.
My $0.02.
The text runs off the page at the right side on my 23-inch screen. I have to use that drag bar at the bottom to move the end of every line of type into view. In other words, it is not formatting to my screen. GRUMBLE.
Mara Miami
Please put the search box back on the left side of the page. I read from left to right.
All your good work goes for naught if I can’t read the tiny type. Please!
I like all of it except the location of the search field. It looks like you are ashamed of it so stick it miles away in the top corner of the screen – and with a 28″ monitor its a very long way away to quickly look for.
For now I feel I HAVE to revert until that search box is moved
+the search box is still way too small
I like it all except the search being in top right. I liked it where it used to be. The average position of both my eyes and my mouse are the left, the old position was much better, and I would like that changed back (or made an option to be changed in our profile).
Count me in with those who hate the new search box location. The top of the page is fine, but put it on the left.
And what’s up with the text size? I like to keep my browser set for “smaller” text. On the new interface, that results in ridiculously tiny text. It’s a pain to have to reset the text size just because I come to Wikipedia.