Hi.
If i understand correctly - and please correct me if i'm wrong - the current big Usability project is essentially a rather cosmetic change of the default skin. It is not really bad and i'm not really opposed to it, as many other users are, but it seems that it doesn't address a very big usability problem - the fact that Wikimedia Commons is hardly accessible for people who don't English well.
Sure, it's possible to translate to translate templates and system messages to other languages and set the default language in the preferences, but this is very far from actually achieving the goal of making Commons the main media repository for all other WMF projects in all languages.
And it's kinda symbolic that Commons will be the first project where the default skin will be switched.
Now, before i start writing about the problems that i found in detail, this is probably something that was already discussed. If it indeed was, please point me to it (thanks in advance). If it was not discussed deeply, i'll probably start a discussion page somewhere.
Hoi, I am quite pleased to correct you because you are wrong. The usability initiative is based on the findings of usability tests that indicated many issues with the old user interface. Some of these are cosmetic but that does not make the change any less effective.
The objective of the usability initiative is officially to improve the English Wikipedia. As such it does not address the many issues that exist with Wikimedia Commons. They are to be addressed with a follow up project that aims to improve the usability of Commons.
Even though the English Wikipedia is the target of this first project, this initiative provides real benefits for Wikipedias in other languages. A recent addition in functionality is support for the characters used in the Bengali language (Hebrew is already supported).
It has been observed that it order to improve the usability, it is essential that the software that makes up the Usability Initiative is localised. This is done best at http://translatewiki.net . You can help yourself and your language community to check out the status for your language.
The choice of Commons and the English Wikipedia is in my opinion opportune because it not only prepares the way for the implementation on all the other Wikipedias, it also functions as a reminder how important it is to get the localisation of MediaWiki and its extensions done.
Finally this new functionality and skin provides the basis on which the work for Commons will be build. Thanks, GerardM
On 31 March 2010 17:34, Amir E. Aharoni amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.ilwrote:
Hi.
If i understand correctly - and please correct me if i'm wrong - the current big Usability project is essentially a rather cosmetic change of the default skin. It is not really bad and i'm not really opposed to it, as many other users are, but it seems that it doesn't address a very big usability problem
- the fact that Wikimedia Commons is hardly accessible for people who don't
English well.
Sure, it's possible to translate to translate templates and system messages to other languages and set the default language in the preferences, but this is very far from actually achieving the goal of making Commons the main media repository for all other WMF projects in all languages.
And it's kinda symbolic that Commons will be the first project where the default skin will be switched.
Now, before i start writing about the problems that i found in detail, this is probably something that was already discussed. If it indeed was, please point me to it (thanks in advance). If it was not discussed deeply, i'll probably start a discussion page somewhere.
-- אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי Amir Elisha Aharoni
"We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace." - T. Moore _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Greetings,
Amir E. Aharoni a écrit :*
If i understand correctly - and please correct me if i'm wrong - the current big Usability project is essentially a rather cosmetic change of the default skin. It is not really bad and i'm not really opposed to it, as many other users are, but it seems that it doesn't address a very big usability problem
- the fact that Wikimedia Commons is hardly accessible for people who don't
English well.
The "current big Usability project" you're talking about is mainly about improving the *editing* experience of users. There is a separate team working specifically about the User experience related to multimedia participation, and focusing on Wikimedia Commons. I invite you to read http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Multimedia:About for a summary. All the documentation is published on the usability wiki, so you can dive as deep as you like from the Multimedia hub: http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Multimedia:Hub
Sure, it's possible to translate to translate templates and system messages to other languages and set the default language in the preferences, but this is very far from actually achieving the goal of making Commons the main media repository for all other WMF projects in all languages.
Yes. Improving the user experience to address the multilingual nature of Wikimedia Commons is on the list of high priority issues we want to try and resolve.
And it's kinda symbolic that Commons will be the first project where the default skin will be switched.
The choice of Commons was made in agreement with the Operations team, who didn't want to switch to the new skin on a very high-traffic website such as Wikipedia. Turning the switch on Commons first provides more flexibility and allows things to be fixed before the Interwebs explode.
Now, before i start writing about the problems that i found in detail, this is probably something that was already discussed. If it indeed was, please point me to it (thanks in advance). If it was not discussed deeply, i'll probably start a discussion page somewhere.
I think we have already extensively listed the main issues during the preliminary research phase, but we may of course have missed something. If your problems aren't already in the documentation I linked above, feel free to add a new item to http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Usability_issues_and_ideas
On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 19:30, Guillaume Paumier gpaumier@wikimedia.org wrote:
I invite you to read http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Multimedia:About for a summary. All the documentation is published on the usability wiki, so you can dive as deep as you like from the Multimedia hub: http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Multimedia:Hub
Thanks, that's exactly what i was looking for.
-- אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי Amir Elisha Aharoni
"We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace." - T. Moore
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org