Extension:Media Viewer/About



Media Viewer aims to improve the multimedia viewing experience on Wikipedia, Commons and MediaWiki sites, to display images in larger size and with less clutter. It is being developed by the Wikimedia Foundation's new multimedia team and now has a first beta version ready for testing, as part of our new Beta Features program.

You can now test Media Viewer on Wikimedia Commons, on MediaWiki.org, and on Meta.Wikimedia.org. Based on test results, we aim to release these beta features on all wikis worldwide on 21 November, 2013.

This first version 0.1 is still in early stages of development, with many known bugs, but we invite community feedback right away for this feature, so we can improve it together in coming months. For a sneak peek at the next version 0.2 of the Media Viewer, check this image gallery.

After you've had a chance to test it as described below, we invite you to join this discussion. Hope to see you there!

Why Media Viewer?
The purpose of this tool is to:
 * Provide a richer multimedia experience, to match user expectations
 * Display images in larger size, on the same page as the thumbnail you click on
 * Reduce confusion when users click on thumbnails (bypass duplicate file info page on Wikipedias)

It aims to serve all users of Wikipedia, Commons and other MediaWiki sites (including new users, as well as very active editors). Note that this media viewer will initially only be for still images, as we are now using the Kaltura video player for audio and video. But over time, we would like to use the same UI across players, and eventually use a single viewer for all file formats.

Current features include:
 * Show images in larger, media viewer panel when you click on them
 * Modal panel opens up as overlay (on same page where you clicked)
 * Large image appears without clutter (lightbox view)
 * Information about the image can be accessed easily (in lightbox view)
 * Image can be shown in full-screen mode (full screen view)

How does Media Viewer work?




Media Viewer provides two different views of an image when you click on its thumbnail on an article page: Lightbox and Full Screen View.

Lightbox View
The 'lightbox view' for this tool includes:

The image is shown in large size, as an overlay over the page where you clicked on the thumbnail, against a white, slightly translucent background. This makes the image stand out more and removes some of the visual clutter typically found on a text-heavy page.
 * Image

For the first release, we are offering these simple tools:
 * Tools
 * Close button (goes back to article view)
 * Full screen button (expands into full-screen view)
 * Lightbox button (returns to smaller image in browser lightbox)

Here is the information that is shown above the image (see mockup):
 * Primary Info
 * File name (Zonotrichia atricapilla)
 * Author (e.g. Alejandro Erickson)
 * Source (e.g. Bird Institute)
 * License Info (e.g. CC-BY-SA-2.0) (or link to license info)

Here is the information that is shown below the image:
 * Secondary Info
 * Site name and link (e.g. Wikimedia Commons)
 * Description
 * Uploader name (e.g. Smallbones)
 * Creation Date (e.g. 12 April, 2012)

Full Screen View
The 'full-screen view' for this tool will show a large image across the entire screen, with minimal information and buttons available on hover, as shown in this mockup.

This is the view that lets you focus exclusively on the image, with no other distractions. When you click on the full screen icon, you see the largest version of the image that fits within the user's screen. The image is displayed across the entire screen (not just the browser window), set against a pure white background color that only shows the image. In this mode, you only see the file name and the author/source/license near the image, as well as link to Commons.

When will it be released?
A first beta version of Media Viewer will be released gradually in November, as part of Beta Features, a new experimental program that will enable users to opt-in to test new beta features before they are released widely.

Media Viewer can now be tested by logged-in users on MediaWiki.org, on Meta.Wikimedia.org and on Wikimedia Commons. Based on test results, we aim to release it on all wikis worldwide on 21 November, 2013.

In the first release, the Media Viewer will only support the most widely used image file formats (e.g.: JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, SVG), when users click on thumbnails in articles, galleries and category pages. In future releases, we plan to add support for PDF files, as well as audio and video files.

How can I help?


Can you help us test Media Viewer in coming days? This beta feature is now available for early testing by logged-in users on MediaWiki.org, on Meta.Wikimedia.org and on Wikimedia Commons.

To test this feature, click on the small 'Beta' link next to 'Preferences' in your personal menu. Then check the box next to 'Media Viewer' in the new BetaFeatures section of your user preferences — and click 'Save' (see screenshot). You can turn off any this options anytime, by reversing these steps. To test a variety of images in different file formats, you might like to check this lightbox demo page.

Try out Media Viewer and let us know what you think on this discussion page. If you find any technical bugs, please report them here on Bugzilla. Based on your feedback, we will improve this feature in coming weeks.

You can test Media Viewer with different file formats on this special test page.

Next Version


The next version 0.2 of Media Viewer will focus on a 'full-width design' as the default view, to provide a more immersive user experience. When you click on a thumbnail, you would see a larger image than you do now, with only a small sliver of meta-data at the bottom of the page, as shown in this mockup, also shown to the right.

The goal is to display images to fill the browser window as much as possible, aiming for up to 100% of the browser window width and up to 90% of its height. To speed up this display, we will try to fetch the thumnbnail size that is closest to 100% of the screen width but no more than 90% of the screen height (instead of asking the server to pre-render custom sizes, which is too time-consuming). Note that may propose different display rules for portraits and images with special aspect ratios.
 * Image Display

The meta-data would be shown below the image, and only include a few items above the fold (file name, license, author, source and uploader). But you would be invited to scroll down to see a lot more meta-data below, with a clear affordance letting know how to get more info. The mockups below show examples of how this might work.
 * Meta Data

Tools would be shown below the image (thank, flag, share, full-screen) (except for the 'X' close icon and next/previous arrows, which could be shown over the image on hover, as suggested by best practices from other media sites). Next, we will also mockup audio-video playback as well in this context (play/pause, rewind, fast-forward, volume, scrollable timeline).
 * First Tools

Desktop Mockups
Here are some preliminary mockups of designs we're exploring for desktop computers.

These mockups will be adjusted based on community feedback.

Mobile Mockups
Here are some preliminary mockups of designs we're exploring for mobile devices.

These mockups will be adjusted based on community feedback.

More Info
For more information about this tool, visit the project overview page on MediaWiki.org.

This feature was designed in collaboration with community members like you, through a series of discussions held over video conferencing, IRC and in person at Wikimania.

Media Viewer was brought to you by many Wikimedia Foundation team members, including: Fabrice Florin, Mark Holmquist, Jared Zimmerman, Gergő Tisza, Bryan Davis, Rob Lanphier, Brian Wolff, May Galloway, Keegan Peterzell, Luis Villa, Erik Moeller, Howie Fung and Tomasz Finc, to name but a few.

To learn more about other multimedia projects we're working on, visit this Multimedia project hub.