[Wikimedia-l] Apparently, Wikipedia is ugly

[Michel Vuijlsteke]

On 16 July 2012 07:09, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 16 July 2012 02:51, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Gee. I'd want a webpage that shows me hundreds of different ways
> Wikipedia
> > can look – pink, green, yellow, pastel; serious, snazzy, fun or weird;
> > sidebar left, right, top, or bottom – created by talented designers,
> where
> > I can point and click to install the one I like in less than a minute.
> >
> > Something ... you know ... user-friendly, for non-programmers.
>
>
> You appear to be confused as to what open software is all about.
>
> In any case the need to fit around the stuff Wikipedians put in
> articles limits the amount of customisation that is possible in a
> practical skin.


And this is exactly why the Foundation should tackle this issue. And have
it done by people who know what they're doing -- typographers,
newspaper/magazine designers, information architects, whatever it takes.

The possible benefits are huge. A better reading experience and better
reader comprehension alone would be worth it, but a better layout can also
lead to more interaction, more editors, and ultimately better and more
content.

Making Wikipedia easier to read is a problem many orders of magnitude
simpler and cheaper than writing a new parser or making media uploads
easier.

There are people around the world who do this for a living, I can't see why
some budget could not be set aside for it.

Michel