Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements/vec

The previous default Wikimedia skin (Vector) was deployed in the year 2010. Over the following decade, the interface was enriched with extensions, gadgets and user scripts. Most of these were not coordinated visually or cross-wiki. At the same time, web design, as well as the expectations of readers and editors, evolved. It was time to take some of these ideas and bring them to the default experience of all users, on all wikis, in an organized, consistent way.

Our goals are to make Wikimedia wikis more welcoming and to increase the utility amongst readers and maintain utility for existing editors. We have measured the increase of trust and positive sentiment towards our sites, and the utility of our sites (the usage of common actions such as search and language switching).

Currently, on most wikis, only logged-in users are able to opt-in individually. On more and more wikis, though, our changes are deployed for all by default, and logged-in users are able to opt-out. We are increasing the number of wikis where Vector 2022 is the default, until our improvements are default on all wikis.

Before, the interface…
''' …did't match the expectations. …was cluttered and not intuitive. …did't highlight the community side. …wasn't consistent with the mobile version. '''


 * 1) The desktop interface did not match the expectations created by the modern web platforms. It felt disorienting and disconnected. Navigation and interface links were organized haphazardly.
 * 2) There was clutter that distracted users from focusing on what they came for. It was challenging for readers to focus on the content. It was not possible for them to intuitively switch languages, search for content, or adjust reading settings. New editors were unable to use their intuition to set up their account, open the editor, or learn how to use non-article pages for moderation purposes.
 * 3) A very small percentage of readers understood how Wikimedia wikis functioned. Many readers were not aware that the content they were reading was written by volunteers and updated frequently, or that they could potentially contribute as well.
 * 4) The large difference in experiences among our desktop interface, apps, and the mobile web, made it difficult for readers to connect our products. There was a lack of unity in the concept of Wikimedia sites.

Principles
''' We do not touch the content. We do not remove any functionality. We do not change skins other than Vector. We are inspired by the existing gadgets. We do not make major changes in single steps. '''


 * 1) We work on the interface only. No work is done in terms of styling templates, the structure of page contents, map support, or cross-wiki templates.
 * 2) Skins other than Vector are out of the scope of our adjustments. We have frozen Vector to Legacy Vector, and begun deploying our features as parts of the new default Vector.
 * 3) Though our changes are easily noticeable, we have taken an evolutionary approach and wanted the site to continue feeling familiar to readers and editors. Each feature has been discussed, developed, and deployed separately.
 * 4) We have tested our improvements in collaboration with a diverse set of volunteering early adopter wikis, both Wikipedias and sister projects.
 * 5) Both prior to development and after deployment, we collected data (via A/B testing, prototype feedback rounds, etc.). In the case of significantly negative results, we committed to rolling back our changes.
 * 6) We have analysed many wikis and have noticed many useful gadgets. Some of them definitely deserved to be surfaced and be a part of default experience.
 * 7) Elements of the interface have moved around, but all navigational items and other functionality available previously by default have remained.

Deployment plan and timeline
The skin is now ready to become the default on any wiki.

The timeline

Get involved & Contact

 * Test individually: in Preferences, check the option . You can also enable our changes using the Global preferences.
 * Test individually: in Preferences, check the option . You can also enable our changes using the Global preferences.


 * Promote: Inform your community. Share our updates and blog posts.
 * Report bugs: to report a bug, create a task in Phabricator and add project.


 * Translate: help us translate related pages:

What features have been added
Each feature was built and implemented separately, over time. Our decisions were based on community feedback, user testing, and extracted API data.