User:Jorm (WMF)/Interaction Task



Take a look at http://as.wikipedia.org/

This is Wikipedia in Assamese, a language spoken in India with about 17 million speakers.


 * To support users typing in Assamese, we have an input method tool. That's the tool to the left in the image labeled "Language Settings System".
 * To support users reading the Assmese characters, we have a font selection tool. That's the tool to the right in the image labeled "Language Settings System".
 * To support users viewing content in a different language edition of Wikipedia, pages have what we call interlanguage links. Those are the links in in the image labeled "Interlanguage Links".

We also enable users to change their user interface language. So, it would be possible to browse Assamese with an English user interface. Currently you need to be logged in to do this (in your user preferences), or you can add ?uselang=something to the URL, like so:

http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/?uselang=en

We're also investigating the development of new language tools like on-screen keyboards.

We feel we're increasingly cluttering the user experience with those language UI elements, and their function isn't very obvious.

We'd love it if you could share your thinking on how we could go about doing this. A volunteer in India took a first crack at an improved design at Universal Language Selector.

But, there are several problems with this approach, some of which have been pointed out in this thread.

If you could write up your thoughts, in whichever form you have time for (shouldn't take more than a couple of hours), that would help us understand how you think. Mocks are appreciated but not necessary.