2007/6/16, Tim Starling tstarling@wikimedia.org:
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