Reading/Web/Accessibility for reading

The interface of Wikimedia projects must be accessible and readable, regardless of language or script. This includes both the majority as well as individuals with specific needs. The current typography on desktop and mobile makes readability difficult, though. Also, dark mode can be helpful in low-light settings and for users who prefer low-contrast reading environments. Our interfaces do not provide this functionality now.

We would like to change the default typography. We will also build settings for typography and dark mode as preferences. These changes will be available for both logged-in and logged-out users.

Background
Over the past few years, we have introduced the Vector 2022 skin across wikis. We have designed the skin to improve the reading experience. It also provides an experience that is comfortable for existing users and more welcoming to new users. However, there are still issues with readability we have yet to address. During the research for that project, one of the issues we recognized was the size of the text itself.

Compared to the more accessible digital text, it takes longer to read our content on desktop and mobile. The ability to remember text that was read is also affected. An important factor to keep in mind is that people engage both in in-depth reading and scanning of text. We would like to improve our typography for both of these ways of using the projects.

Also, our desktop site does not allow to set a font size that is comfortable for the user. Instead, readers with specific needs and preferences depend on browser functionality to alter the font size. These capabilities vary by browser and are not always supported by the rest of our user interface. This causes issues with tools or navigation.

Project overview
As part of the accessibility for reading project, we will focus on two main initiatives:
 * 1) Improving the typography of the site and allowing users to choose their settings
 * 2) Introducing dark mode that users can opt-in to.

Typography improvements
The goals of this project are:
 * 1) To identify and better understand problems.  Review and classify issues with the current typography on wikis
 * 2) To make the site easier to read.  Improve readability on mobile and desktop sites
 * 3) To provide typography that better suits different languages and scripts.  Optimize readability with the support and expertise of the different communities
 * 4) To allow readers to customize typography.  Introducing typographical preferences, useful mostly for people with distinct needs and preferences

Dark mode

 * 1) Improving the readability of articles in low-light settings
 * 2) Making dark mode options and settings easily discoverable and usable

Get involved and Contact



 * Promote and adjust the code on wiki, following our recommendations: to roll out our changes for logged-out users, community-controlled code, like templates, needs to be adjusted. It may need discussions on village pumps.  It will also need many edits.  Help us by starting such conversations and making such edits.
 * See the recommendations for dark mode-friendly articles on Wikimedia wikis (currently under construction)


 * Report bugs: create a task in Phabricator and add project.
 * Translate: help us translate related pages:

Earlier research and explorations

 * Literature Review: Readability and Optimal Text Settings
 * Typography: Apply consistent font sizes across Vector 2022 ( T313828 )
 * Hypothesis: Typographical and palette customizations ( T341631 )
 * Typography: Increased font-size design for Vector 2022 ( T254055 )
 * Editors' feedback on the fifth Vector 2022 prototype testing
 * Decisions after the fifth Vector 2022 prototype testing

Project evaluation
We will measure the success of this project with qualitative and quantitative methods. In particular, we will be looking at:
 * Research-supported decisions in prototype creation and development
 * Qualitative improvements in readability based on user testing and community conversations
 * At least X% of all sessions longer than Ys who customize typography
 * Note: exact variables TBD
 * At least X% of all sessions use dark mode
 * No significant change in reading depth