Can anyone imagine web culture without Wikipedia being an integral part of it for almost 20 years now? It’s hard to even remotely think about Wikipedia not being there for us as a credible and reliable knowledge resource across the world.
Wikipedia to receive design overhaul
Over the years, Wikipedia has expanded into this knowledge hub that hosts 53 million articles across more than 300 languages around the world. But if you think about it, it feels like the Wikipedia website itself has never been redesigned, at least not out of proportion, and it never will.
Whatever changes have been made to the Wikipedia website so far, they have always remained true to the site’s original identity and objective, which is being more direct, simple, and ad-free.
That said, Wikipedia is prepping for design overhaul in the coming months. The desktop interface of the website has not seen any drastic changes for the past 10 years.
Wikimedia Foundation has proposed a series of visual changes to Wikipedia’s desktop interface across different areas, as follows:
- Logo reconfiguration
- Collapsible sidebar
- Limiting content width
- Search widget move
- Language links in the article title bar
- Sticky site and article headers
- Search improvements
- User menu
- One-click access to preferred languages
- Table of contents
- Article tools
“We have not created a complete, detailed product specification. Each feature will be built and implemented separately, over time. Features which have been created are still being adjusted and improved. Our decisions are based on community feedback, user testing, and extracted API data,” a MediaWiki post read.
A redesigned desktop interface will attract new users and simplify the existing design that may feel overwhelming and difficult to understand for some users. Wikipedia wants to provide users with an experience that is on-par with their perceptions of a “modern, trustworthy, and welcoming site.”
Wikipedia redesign will keep the core of our identity of the project intact. Hence, the final product will continue to look and feel like a Wikimedia project. These design changes will take place incrementally over the coming months. Wikipedia plans to implement these changes by the end of 2021.
