Reference readability

References are essential to wikipedia articles: all content must be verifiable with reliable sources. This project seeks to make references more readable - so that people can easily verify they support the article and learn more about the rich information they contain.

Reference List
There's a great gadget to view references in context in an article with Reference Tooltips, but most readers still must click to scroll to the reference list to read one. The reference list is difficult to read - the text is small and close together, and the list is difficult to navigate.

Reference formatting
Though many references follow formatting styles and/or use citation templates, they can still be difficult for readers to understand. There are many different styles, and the labels in templates are not visible to readers. For example, in the screenshot on the right, what does the number "14" mean?

How we use references
People use references in many different ways. Here are a few personas and the things they might care about when looking at a reference. This list is a work in progress, please edit/add more ideas or ways you use references yourself!

Verifier I want to verify this is a reliable source and supports the claim in the article

Formatter I want to make sure this reference was filled out properly

Student Would my school approve of this source? I want to cite this in MLA/another format that my school requires

Book lover Is this book interesting? Where can I read it?

Skeptic Is this a trusted source? I want to read all the information - for example date published, date retrieved (and maybe view web archive at that date), etc.

Proving a fact I want to quickly show this to a friend to prove a fact

Explorer This is cool, I want to learn more and keep clicking and seeing how this connects to other references or articles.

Proposals to improve usability

 * Utilize reference tooltips to show references in context
 * Display each reference in a "human readable" format - showing the most important information first, and providing labels for confusing fields (such as chapter and page number)
 * Allow readers to sort reference list by type (such as books, web, news, etc.)