VisualEditor/Design/Links

Current link inspector
This redesign addresses issues raised in usability testing.

Confusion about the search results: People were not certain that the search results were pages on Wikipedia. "I was expecting something like a page. I guess this is already a link? But I'll just click Done".

Searching for another page: When asked to link to a page with a different spelling than the original text, people didn't know to type into the search field.

External link: People didn't know that the search field doubles as an input for an external URL.

Goals for redesign
Continue allowing users to quickly make a link to the page with an exact match, if one exists.

Help users feel certain that this is a page on Wikipedia and allow them to determine its the correct page.

Allow users to quickly change to the correct page if the first result is not the page they intended.

Provide a clear way to make an external link.

Workflows
A user links a word with an exact match. The dialogue will show a preview of that matching page.

A user links a word that has a redirect. The dialogue will show a preview of the destination of the redirect.

A user links a word that has no match or redirect. The dialogue will show a search field filled with the link text and search results below.

View a prototype.