Topic on Project:Support desk

Did you know?

According to our latest data, 88% of active editors of the 13 pilot wikis have decided to keep our improvements.

Within the next couple of weeks, the Wikimedia Foundation Web team will change the interface on MediaWiki.

Logged-in users will be able to keep the current look individually. A dedicated link will be available in the sidebar.

We are changing Wikimedia wikis to become friendlier websites. When we finish, the new desktop interface will be easier to use, more welcoming, and more intuitive. We are gradually deploying the improvements on more and more wikis.

We are changing one feature at a time. Each change is discussed, developed, and deployed separately. After improving all features, we will improve the overall look. We don't have any vision of the final effect.

What changes are we going to make?

So far, we have deployed:

• Reconfigured logo - which will allow us to make the header sticky (fixed at the top of the screen). The sticky header will include the search, article tabs, and the user menu.
• Collapsible sidebar - which allows to focus on the content. On some wikis, this has been a gadget.
• Limited content width in articles and similar pages (not special pages or other pages containing logs) - which makes reading and learning easier. For more details about this change, like what we would do with the empty space or how this relates to large tables, see our FAQ.
• Moved and improved search - which allows searching more quickly and effectively (provides pictures and descriptions of the search terms).
• Exposed language button - which helps to notice the interlanguage links and allows to switch between the languages more often. Language switching is up to 4 times faster!
• Conslolidated user menu - which makes it easier to understand the context of the links. Also, this will allow us to later make the header sticky.

• 
  Reconfigured logo
• 
  Collapsible sidebar
• 
  Limited content width
• Search
• Language button
• 
  User menu

We will deploy more features in the next months.

How will the changes work?

• The improved features will be visible by default both for logged-in and logged-out.
• These changes are for Vector only (it's the default skin). All users of Monobook or other skins will not see any difference.
• We will not change the article content (as marked on the graphic to the right). We will not remove any functionality.
• We test the changes a lot. This is how we know these truly are improvements.
• Our decisions are based on research (example) and community feedback (example) as well.

How can you participate?

• What is your impression? What do you like? What would you like to see changed? Ask below, or write to me. There's still a lot to refine!
• Subscribe to our newsletter.
• Read the pages of the project, and check our FAQ.
• Follow our messages about gadgets and scripts. We provide support to maintain their compatibility.

The project I've just introduced is called Desktop Improvements, it's developed by the WMF Web team, and my name is Szymon.

The deployment didn't happen as planned, and I'd like to apologize for that.

I'm also pleased to announce that it will happen this week!

Note that this change only affects Vector users. If you don't appreciate the change, you'll be able to opt out by clicking on a dedicated link in the sidebar.

@SGrabarczuk (WMF) Question. will this change also roll out in the defaults of the Vector extension (I think it should), and how have we prepared 3rd party users with instructions on actions to take if they want to update THEIR wikis ? (I'm thinking logo dimensions and where to host those logos etc).

This is the primary skin of MediaWiki after all, so we should be taking external users into account.