(Also posted to http://wikipedia.com/wiki/user_talk:Marian)
The new "Cologne blue" skin is a tremendous improvement. I think we should eventually make it the default.
A couple of things I would like to change:
* The exclamation marks in front of actions are not necessary and without explanation confuse more than they illuminate.
* The upper right "Log in" should switch to "Log out" if I'm already logged in.
* If the side box is switched off in preferences, we need at a minimum an "edit this page" link somewhere at the bottom. Also, there's currently a bug which displays the page header at the bottom in this case.
* The Wikipedia logo in the page header should be a link to the main page. That seems to be the standard behavior on all sites nowadays. Can we spend the screen real estate to use our current logo?
* "My Settings" should be "My settings", similar to "My watchlist".
* The row in the upper right should contain a link to wikipedia:Help
* In the side box, the Edit section should get the link "Edit this page", in addition to "Upload file". I think that's where people would expect it. The link should go away when editing a page. A link to Editing Help could be added.
* The small font (show diff) should be removed. It looks crappy, and "diff" is not a term that people are familiar with. Just add a new entry "Show last change"
* "All pages" is pretty useless, and expensive on the server, so I think that doesn't need to be on the sidebar.
* "Recent Changes" is not self-explanatory. Maybe "Recently changed pages" is clearer.
* "Myself" should be changed to "My page", because that's what it is.
* Under "Page options", the link should be "Printable version" instead of "Print", because that's what it is.
* The section "Page options" should disappear if there are no Page options that apply to the current page, for instance when editing.
Again, please don't mis-interpret this list of criticisms: I am strongly in favor of "Cologne Blue". A similar list of criticisms for the current scheme would be at least three times as long.
Axel
I just checked in most of the suggested changes into the CVS. Also, the CB sidebar now shows the delete/protect options. And, the colors are now exactly like the ones on the Marian demo image.
A few points:
- If the side box is switched off in preferences, we need at a minimum an "edit this page" link somewhere at the bottom. Also, there's currently a bug which displays the page header at the bottom in this case.
Using CB, choosing no sidebar will force the sidebar to appear on the right. Cheap fix, I know...
- The Wikipedia logo in the page header should be a link to the main page. That seems to be the standard behavior on all sites nowadays. Can we spend the screen real estate to use our current logo?
"WIKIPEDIA" now links to the Main Page, and "The free encyclopedia" links to "wikipedia".
- "Recent Changes" is not self-explanatory. Maybe "Recently changed pages" is clearer.
IMHO, "Recent Changes" is just fine. If someone doesn't know what it is, a click is all it takes...
Magnus
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