On 01/30/2013 10:23 AM, Quim Gil wrote:
Of course the definitive one is to create a new skin based on your design concept and promote it so people can use it in test / 3rd party wikis. But this might be too tough for some as a proof of concept exercise, and still won't motivate many Wikipedia users willing to try the skin in their beloved Wikipedia.
It depends which we're talking about:
* Creating a new skin. Just creating a good new skin is quite time-consuming. Getting it added as a choice to WMF would be another hurdle, since the general trend is going the other direction (https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/25170/).
* Improving Vector. For this you can make a Gerrit change to do the improvement. People will be able to check it out to test somewhere (e.g. Wikimedia Labs).
Could Greasemonkey scripts be an alternative to offer a functional prototype? Can our own userscripts cover that role?
Yes. HTML changes can be done through a JS userscript, and CSS can be done with user CSS. *However*, the criteria for a change isn't just that it looks good. People are going to want to consider maintainability, and it helps if the proposer knows how to change an actual skin.
At least this would allow a path to UX contributors to build alternatives and offer a simple way for Wikipedia community members to try them out.
Yes, but it shouldn't be thought that it's an easy jump from "user script people like" to "available as a new skin" or "change to Vector"
Matt Flaschen