For the first time in more than a decade, the desktop version of Wikipedia is getting a redesign. The announcement was made yesterday by the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit in charge of the Wikipedia project. “Wikipedia Gets a Fresh New Look: First Desktop Update in a Decade Puts Usability at the Forefront,” the nonprofit titles it, noting that the site now “prioritizes usability and modernizes the Wikipedia experience to make it easier for everyone to access, explore, and share knowledge.”
The launch of a new interface will make the site more user-friendly with updated features like enhanced search, a more prominently placed tool for switching between languages, a reorganised header providing access to frequently used links, a reorganised table of contents section for Wikipedia articles, and other design changes for a more pleasant reading experience.
English Wikipedia is joining the hundreds of other language editions that have seen the interface go live in recent weeks.
Minor adjustments are being made, and some users may not even notice them right away. But Wikimedia Foundation insists the change was essential so it can cater to the expectations of the next generation of internet users, including those who are just getting started with the web.
The new user interface was created with the help of over 30 international volunteer groups; these groups included people from countries as diverse as India, Indonesia, Ghana, and Argentina. According to the announcement, the purpose of the revamp was to make Wikipedia more like a contemporary web platform by, among other things, streamlining the editing process. It also sought to harmonise the desktop web version with the mobile version of Wikipedia.
Improved Search Experience
As you type, a new and improved search box will provide you with both graphical and textual suggestions to help you find the information you seek. Like many other recent additions, this one is minor, but it provides a visual clue that may make searches quicker and more meaningful.
According to the Wikimedia Foundation, testing showed that this update increased user searches by 30%. This goes to show that even seemingly insignificant changes can have far-reaching effects on how people actually use a product.
Updated Header
The site also has an updated sticky header, which remains fixed at the top of the page and contains frequently used links like Search, the Page name, and Sections. This eliminates the need for users to constantly return to the top of the page in order to locate a particular item, letting them concentrate on the text they are reading or modifying without distraction.
Again, this seems like a minor change, but it reduced scroll rates by over 15% during tests, which may be useful for those who spend a lot of time on Wikipedia navigating between pages and sections, though it mostly addresses an annoyance with the site rather than a real problem. According to the results of the tests, fewer people reverted to their original versions of pages after making changes using the edit button located in the sticky header.
Language Switching Tool
A language switcher, which has always been available but has been moved to a more prominent location in the top right, now allows readers and editors to toggle between more than 300 supported languages. This may be especially useful in emerging markets, where users often speak more than one language and would like to view content written in their native tongue.
Table of Contents
If you’re reading a long article, the new table of contents section on the left will stay in view so you always know where you are. In this way, you can more easily navigate the article at your own pace, exploring different sections as you see fit.
New Collapsible Sidebar
Site updates also include a new maximum line width and a sidebar that can be collapsed for a better reading experience. According to the organization’s research, readers are more likely to pay attention and retain information if they are forced to narrow the width of their text. For monitors 1600 pixels or wider, however, there is always a toggle that allows logged in and unlogged in users to make the page wider. A user’s preferred width can be adjusted once they have logged in.
Wikipedia has a massive audience, so it’s clear that the team behind the site was cautious about making any major changes. The site says that each month, about 16 billion unique visitors are interested in the 58 million articles on Wikipedia that are available in 300 languages. In these changes, no existing features were taken away, the announcement said. Instead, the update focused on making the site easier to use and bringing it up to date.
The redesign, which has been in the works for three years and has been gradually rolled out across the Wikipedia platform in the lead-up to today, is also known as “Vector 2022,” a reference to the name of the default Wikipedia skin (Vector — and yes, there are others!). By the end of 2022, the Arabic and Greek Wikipedias had both adopted Vector 2022 as their default skin.
