The internet encyclopedia Wikipedia is working on a new layout for its website — for the first time in ten years!
According to a blog post by product manager Olga Vasileva at the Wikimedia Foundation, the new design should be familiar to long-term users and, at the same time, be uncomplicated and intuitive to newcomers.
The changes to the old layout, which users perceive as “clunky and overwhelming,” should include a revised logo, a collapsible sidebar, and a narrower page width.
As announced by Mediawiki, “We will not touch the content. We will not remove any functionality. We are inspired by the existing gadgets. We will not make major changes in single steps. We will not touch other skins than Vector.” So each new feature will be built and implemented separately over time.
According to Mediawiki, the decisions about which features were implemented will be based on the community’s feedback, user tests, and extracted API data.
In addition to the revised logo and collapsible sidebar, new features will also include improvements to the search function, an easier option to change the language, a redesigned table of contents, and even a much-needed dark mode.
The new functions are already being tested on the French and Hebrew Wikipedia. Farsi, a widely spoken language in the Persian region, is also tested. Since this is a pervasive project, it is assumed that all wikis can only be equipped with the new features by the end of 2021.
