Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements/Updates/2022-07 for the largest wikis/en

About the project
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In short: in one to two weeks, we would like to begin the conversation to update the default design of Wikipedia to Vector 2022. We are interested in deciding on the process we want for the conversation before discussing the change itself. This is because we want to have a good decision-making process that allows for a way to identify the needs of the community from the new skin.

Hi everyone,

We would love to see the Vector 2022 skin (see what it looks like) become the new default across all wikis, including [insert your language] Wikipedia. The skin would be turned on for all anonymous users, and also all logged-in users who now use Vector (the current default). Logged-in users are and will be able to switch to any of our other available skins, including the current Vector. We will be ready to begin making the change at the end of August (and not in July, as previously announced), when the visual refinements and other deployment blockers are ready.

The goal of the project is to make the interface more welcoming and comfortable for readers and useful for advanced users. The project consists of a series of feature improvements which make it easier to read and learn, navigate within the page, search, switch between languages, use page and user tools, and more. The team has been working on this change for the past 3 years, ensuring that every change is thoroughly tested and proven to work.

Every one of our changes goes through a rigorous process. First, research, then development, qualitative and quantitative testing with readers and editors, prototype testing with editors (across 30+ language communities), more changes based on the communities feedback, and monitoring. When a change does not meet the success criteria or does not perform better than the previous version, we either stop developing the change or work on it until performance is improved.

The changes we have made will be crucial to making the site more welcoming and easier to use to new readers and editors. When compared to the old Vector skin, Vector 2022 is proven to:
 * Save time while reading and editing (measured by decreases in scrolling to the top of the page after the introduction of sticky header and table of contents)
 * Increase exploration within a given page (measured by increased clicks to the table of contents)
 * Improve readability (measured via collapsible sidebar usage)
 * Improve the discovery of new content (measured by an increase in searching)

A quick overview of our learnings
Currently, we are finishing the predicted part of the development work. We think this is the best time to plan for any additional work that might need to be done based on needs of the various communities. We hope to begin this process during this conversation.

What should the process look like?
We need your help and feedback on how to proceed. We have two requests:


 * 1) We need to talk in a way that works well for the [insert your language] Wikipedia community. What would be the best format and timeline to discuss the change? We have included a proposed format below, and are interested in what you think about it. If you agree, we can begin the deployment conversation in one week. Here is our suggestion:
 * 2) Have the deployment conversation that would take 2 weeks. The goal for that discussion will be to identify breaking issues or opportunities for improvement for the new skin. It will be important for us to reduce the risk of bugs or imperfections that would be particularly troublesome on [insert your language] Wikipedia
 * 3) After the deployment conversation, we get back to you with a prioritized list of remaining work/fixes necessary prior to deployment
 * 4) Before the deployment,
 * 5) * Banners announcing the change will be displayed for logged-out and logged-in users
 * 6) * The announcement will be made both on the Village Pump as well as in the Tech News.
 * 7) We proceed with deployment once the agreed upon fixes are ready.
 * 8) We need to understand the perspectives of different parts of the [insert your language] Wikipedia community. What forms of communication would help to gather feedback and further raise awareness for the [insert your language] Wikipedia community? We would like to have an open discussion, but are open to other forms such as office hours dedicated specifically for the [insert your language] Wikipedia community, or guest presentations at community meetings. If necessary, we can also try to adjust the timeline of conversations based on your needs.

We welcome your replies here, or via email ([mailto:olga@wikimedia.org olga@wikimedia.org], [mailto:sgrabarczuk@wikimedia.org sgrabarczuk@wikimedia.org]), as well as during our next office hours.

Thank you for your time and help.