[WikiEN-l] Re: Usability

[Timwi]

ABCD wrote:
> Looking through the Helpdesk-l mailing list, it seems that some people
> are having a hard time finding the edit link at the top of the page,
> although they can find the edit links for the sections.  Should
> something be done about this?

I find it amazing that people on this mailing list -- who are familiar 
with Wikipedia -- find it so hard to acknowledge that the "edit this 
page" link is really invisible to people who are not familiar with it 
and don't already know that the link exists, much less where it is.

Just look at the page. Look at any article. What do you look at? You 
look at the article, obviously. You don't look at the little boxes on 
the left unless you're specifically looking for something. You 
absolutely totally especially don't look at the things at the top. 
They're just visual sugar, they don't exist until you know they actually 
serve a purpose. Most users won't even look for the edit link, and if 
they do, they would be looking for it in the toolbar on the left. Since 
it's not there, they would conclude they can't edit the page they're 
currently looking at, unless it has sections.

It has been suggested before to move the section edit links to _below_ 
each header because with the current layout most newbies assume the link 
lets them edit the section _above_ it. An "edit this page" (or "edit 
this article") link should then be placed directly underneath the main 
article heading. _Not_ above it where no-one looks.

Timwi