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 not reduce user attention in content more than necessary.

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.

Principles proposed

 * Use media to represent content.
 * Emphasize content over the UI.
 * Avoid lines and borders when they are not needed.

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.

Welcome to participate.

 * Easy to participate for newcomers of different cultures, languages and devices in a responsible manner. Interaction should be fluent by reducing unnecessary steps 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

 * Use interaction techniques and components that work across different kinds of devices.
 * Postpone secondary actions to focus on the main goal for the user.