2007/6/16, Tim Starling <tstarling(a)wikimedia.org>rg>:
One simple improvement would be to allow CSS/JS-only
skins. The idea would
be to get rid of the need to create a PHP skin file entirely, maybe you
could just have a simple skin description file in the base skins
directory. Then we could grab the whole [[m:Gallery of user styles]], put
it into MediaWiki, and add an installer option to select a default skin
from it.
Getting rid of the PHP skin files would be fantastic - I am working on
a new skin atm and I am using a really dirty Javascript hack to be
able to test the skin live on Wikipedia (myskin.css is too restricted
in many ways).
But I am missing in this debate so far on thing: a new skin is not
required just for reasons of prettiness or to have wikimedia projects
look different from mediawiki default installations - the main reason
for a new skin for me is usability.
Over time mediawiki got lots and lots of new features added, new
messages added to the interface and all of these were placed somewhere
just where space was.
* Why is the version history, providing information about an article
placed in a tab over the article, while cite and and print appear in
the sidebar?
* Special:Specialpages consists now of an unseparated list of over 50
links. usability research has found out that people had difficulties
scanning lists with more than 11 list items without subheadings.
* active wikipedia contributors have enhanced their skins with lots of
useful javascript actions and navigation links they don't want to live
without anymore - but there's no room provided in the default skins
for additional navigation and action links (see for example
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Monobook.js-quickbarbox.png -
favourite skin extension of german wikipedians which usually replaces
the logo).
* some articles already contain several template boxes on top, add
then occasionally the sitemessage box and in the near future one more
box "This is the stable version blabla..two lines more". We'll end up
with one full screen of messages before the actual content of the
page.
* The bottom of the editing dialogue in english wikipedia looks like
this now:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Editdialogmess.png -
honestly, who is going to find the important stuff in this? Does it
look nice and professional?
A new Mediawiki skin should provide an uncluttered interface for
people who just want to read articles (or look at pictures). Basic
Wiki editing should be simple and newbie friendly. And it should be
easily extensible with special functions for hard core users.
These are the three challenges I see. Some problems can be solved on
the development level (like getting rid of PHP skins and providing
easy skin development possibilities on wiki, the specialpages problem
and clutter of the interface messages). Some can be solved by a skin
designer skilled in usability. Some have to be solved by the project
communities, reducing the clutter of maintenance messages, weighing
their importance and standardizing their design. For the rest you need
a politician (for convincing 500 project communities of a new skin and
adopting it).
I'll work on the skin level, any help welcome.
greetings,
elian
