User:SGrabarczuk (WMF)/sandbox/2

Imagine a wardrobe…
Over the last 10 years, there were many minor changes to the interface, most of which were not coordinated globally. This lack of constant coordination is normal. But when the entire picture is no longer clear at first glance, it is time for readjustments. This is how we perceive our project.

We would like to stepwise rearrange…

…confront users with it…

 * We asked 24 new and casual readers of a wide range of digital skills.

…and collect the results
According to the research, it is not clear which links are related to the user and personal settings, to the page that is being viewed, and which are site-wide. The links, menus, and buttons turn out to be organized haphazardly. Readers were not certain:


 * …what does ' mean? is this what experienced editors know as '?
 * does  allow to download entire project? After all, this is in the same menu as . Almost all readers were unable to understand the terminology of the menu.
 * if they can edit as unregistered users? It has been raised for years that the  button is not prominent enough.

Wikimedia wikis’ desktop sites are not a welcoming or familiar for readers. It feels disorienting and disconnected. In turn, this causes readers and new editors to have less trust in Wikimedia wikis, to be less likely to explore Wikimedia wikis, and eventually, to use our sites less than they otherwise would.

Principles
'''We will not touch the content. We will not remove any functionality. We will not make major changes in single steps. We will not touch other skins than Vector.'''

We are working on the interface only. No work will be done in terms of styling templates, the structure of page contents, map support, or cross-wiki templates. Elements of the interface might move around, but all navigational items and other functionality currently available by default will remain. Though our changes will be easily noticeable, we are taking an evolutionary approach and want the site to continue feeling familiar to readers and editors. Each feature will be discussed, developed, and deployed separately.

Deployment plan and timeline
'''On selected wikis, our changes will be visible as default for all users. On most wikis, the changes will be available as beta features. It will be easy for users to switch our changes off.'''

It is important for us to receive feedback from both readers and editors. Thus, we will be deploying the changes as default to a set of testing wikis for all users. On all other wikis, the improvements will be available as user preferences. Editors on all wikis will also be provided with a quick opt-out button if they wish to use the older version of the skin.

First two features (the new header and collapsible sidebar) will be deployed in June/July 2020.

What features will be added
We have not created a complete, detailed product specification. Each feature will be built and implemented separately, over time. Features which have been created are still being adjusted and improved. Our decisions are based on community feedback, user testing, and extracted API data.

Participate
Test our features individually, share feedback, and join our early adopting wikis!