It might be gratuitous to post a thread just for “ILIKEIT”, but WMF gets so much flak (sometimes deservedly so) over UI and usability changes that I’d like to chime in with a thumbs-up for this one.
If Fram was still around, maybe even they might like it.
I haven’t read through the comments yet, so apologies if I’m doubling up on anything.
There is a good separation of the site tools, user tools, and page tools into logical groups.
The animations on these are smooth on an iPhone 6S (not a latest-gen device but still decent processing power) and work fine enough on an iPad 3 (which struggles on some commercial websites). There’s just enough animation time for it to feel like a pop-up or slide-out without being distracting. (Some may disagree as there is an element of personal taste involved when it comes to animations.)
Relocating the talk link to the top is a welcome change for me. On desktop I use Timeless or Vector, not Minerva, so moving between platforms meant making a mental adjustment of where to find it. Also, on iOS Safari, you can scroll to the top by tapping the status bar, but scrolling to the bottom requires swipey-swipey-swipey actions that are cumbersome on a long page.
I’ve been using Timeless as my primary skin on en-pedia for a while now and some aspects of this AMC design feel similar (colours, icons, bar below article/talk selector). Did the Timeless look inform this design, or is it more a case of them both drawing on a common icon library?
It’s informative to compare this interface with, say, the iOS or Android app. Not saying they should be the same; it’s great for users to have choices! I might save those comparisons for a separate post, as this one is already getting quite long.
Similarly, I hope to add some comments about table-of-contents navigation, dark mode / colour themes, and talk pages particularly. But will check the other topics first to see if somebody has already started discussion about those.
Finally, the opt-in process worked well. One interstitial (if that’s the right term?) saying “hey, new feature, would you like to try?”. No mandatory roll-out or forced A/B test. Even if feedback is overwhelmingly positive and AMC becomes the default, I hope users will still have an option to turn back to the old layout. Choice is good. (I know, I said that already, but it bears repeating.) Do non-logged-in users also get an option (e.g. via cookie rather than server-side preference)?
All the best, P.