[Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia redefined -- typography and UX and such

[Denny Vrandečić]

<rant>

If WMF had a Steve Jobs on staff, everyone would hate him for making
decisions without properly consulting the community, for destroying
the community, for reinventing Wikimedia again, for making unpopular
decisions, for making decisions behind close doors, for being an
egomaniac, etc.

Heck, we cannot even get the branding right. We call our project
Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikinews... we have a
software called MediaWiki, and the whole movement is called the
Wikimedia Movement. No surprise people think Wikileaks is one of ours.
No surprise people cannot get these words right. There have been
several suggestions for improving the branding, but every time met
with strong resistance.

I think Athena is a much more though-out design step for Wikipedia,
and I am very much looking forward to it to happen. But as long as
there is considerable backlash for something like a move from Monobook
to Vector -- which, it seems, is not even regarded as a design update
by most critics here -- I am wary about the social costs involved in
such an update.

</rant>

Yes, it would be nice if it was easier to change Wikipedia.

Cheers,
Denny


2012/8/17 Nathan <nawrich at gmail.com>:
> Never having been to design school like Amir, I can't comment on what grade
> it might get. But I do like it a lot; I think it's a serious improvement
> over what we use now, and incorporates design principles that we should
> adopt even if we don't take the design itself. The visual elements, the
> better branding and identification of sister projects, and the modern feel
> / look are all elements that can be adapted.
>
> I'd love to see more of these complete redesign proposals with a
> professional feel. The current "2012 main page redesign" proposals are
> almost uniformly amateurish, and many make only the most minimal
> adjustments. More importantly, they are aimed only at the main page - what
> needs to be updated is really the entire thing. 10 years on and the editing
> interface is still shit, and the design is still aimed at satisfying lowest
> common denominator concerns. Time for a new approach, if only Wikimedia had
> a Steve Jobs on staff.
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