On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 11:49 AM, Yuvi Panda <yuvipanda@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 1:05 AM, Steven Walling <swalling@wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Also: we need to resolve the left-hand versus right-hand close (X) icon, if
> we're talking about desktop consistency. Almost every desktop web product I
> know, including us, favors close icons on the right. What is the rationale
> for mobile taking a different path?

I'll note that both iOS and Android do 'back' (closest to 'close') on
the top left, rather than the right.

Good point. For the record: I'm actually okay if mobile and desktop diverge on this detail. It seems a compelling argument that on mobile we should pay more attention to the OS-level patterns than on desktop.

But if we're going to start migrating the close icon to the left in desktop products, as I have seen in some new designs, then you need to justify why and how we should switch over. There literally is not one left-hand close icon I can think of on the desktop site, if you don't count a few products we very recently designed (like Media Viewer) to follow the mobile pattern. 

Other desktop sites, including Twitter, Facebook, Google properties, and others typically seem to use close on the right as well. I find myself always looking to the right for a close icon on desktop web, despite the fact that I am a longtime Mac user... Since the choice is apparently arbitrary then we should not be mixing things on desktop. 

--
Steven Walling,
Product Manager