Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements/Updates/2021-08 user menu

Desktop improvements. A new change!


Within the next couple of weeks, the Wikimedia Foundation Web team will move all links in the user menu (the username,,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ) into a dropdown menu. In the new menu, links will be paired with icons.

This change will make it more intuitive to find and understand the user links. The change is also a step towards the sticky header.


 * Why we are changing this

Currently, the user links are not presented cohesively as a unit. They create confusion for newcomers who do not know what the links are associated with. , it has been unclear that these are personal rather than site-wide tools. Icons will make it even easier to understand the links.

In addition to that, currently, the links take a lot of space on the screen. Together with the sidebar, these contribute to a feeling of a cluttered interface.

We are beginning to work on a sticky header. It will be available at the top of the screen all the time. Without a dropdown menu for the user links, the sticky header would be far less useful.

As always, we will verify if the change improves the usability. This time, we will not perform any A/B tests. Instead, we will compare the usage of the links for the two weeks before and two weeks after the change.
 * How will we verify the improvement

Some gadgets and user scripts might need to be updated or might become redundant or obsolete. We provide support for users who would like to maintain the compatibility.
 * Gadgets' compatibility


 * Let's work together
 * Subscribe to our newsletter to receive regular updates.
 * Share your ideas and ask questions on our talk page.
 * Create a task on Phabricator and add tag or write to us if you notice a bug.
 * Translate the documentation on MediaWiki.org.

How to connect pages with Wikidata items in the new Vector
In the week of August 2nd, the link for " /  " will be restored to the sidebar. It will appear in the section as "  /  ".

When building the language button, we did not include the " /  " link. This was because this functionality is a part of improved language selector. That selector is currently being built by another team of the Wikimedia Foundation. As a result, the link was missing. We have received requests to restore it.

We explored the best way to do it as a temporary solution. We decided to add it into the sidebar in the section. You can see the location on the screenshot.

When the improved language selector is deployed, the " /  " link will be back together with the language links in the button.