Design/Archive/Wikimedia Foundation Design/Principles

Some design principles that are aligned with the Wikimedia goals and define the direction in which to go with design in the future (still under discussion).

Emphasize content
Users are interested in content, not the UI. The UI should support consuming and contributing different kinds of content (text, images, sounds, video, etc.) in a transparent way. The UI should appear only when it is needed and not distract the user.

Problem illustrated

 * A user reading a Wikipedia article sees a wonderful picture of a mountain. The user clicks in the picture and he arrives to the image description page where metadata and the UI are more prominent than the image itself.
 * The user accesses a text based list of his contributions where it is difficult to visually identify which articles he has contributed to.

Principles proposed

 * Direct manipulation. Use media to represent content.
 * Emphasize content over the UI.
 * Avoid distracting details. Avoid lines and borders when they are superfluous.

Look as a reliable source of information
Presenting information in a consistent style reinforces the credibility of content.

Problem illustrated

 * The use of icons of different styles.

Principles proposed

 * Standardized set of UI building blocks that developers can use.
 * Pattern collection as a common place for designers to discuss their solutions and find a common direction.

Encourage participation
Easy to participate for newcomers of different cultures, languages and devices in a responsible manner. Workflows should be designed to be simple to make it easy for users to participate in them. Unnecessary steps should be reduced to the minimum.

Problem illustrated

 * A user wants to share a picture, he needs to go to a different site and provide information upfront. When he fails in providing some detail such as the picture category, he is not provided assistance on how to recover.

Principles proposed

 * Multi-device. Use interaction techniques and components that work for different kinds of devices or can adapt to them.
 * Make it direct. Postpone secondary actions to focus on the main goal for the user.