If you‘ve visited Wikipedia recently, you may have noticed a few changes to the reading and editing interface. These changes form part of Wikipedia‘s usability and user experience programme, and are the result of qualitative user research undertaken by the Wikimedia Foundation.
Here‘s a rundown of the changes you can look out for:
- A new theme, called Vector
- Tabs at the top of each page to more clearly define whether you are viewing the page or discussion page, and whether you are reading or editing a page
- Improvements to the editing toolbar, making page-formatting simpler and more intuitive
- Link wizard, for easily adding links to other Wikipedia or Wikimedia pages, as well as links to external sites
- Improved search suggestions
- Table wizard for creating tables
- Find-and-replace feature to simplify page editing
Other changes planned for later this year include:
- A reduction in the amount of wiki code users see in the edit system
- Allowing users to change data in tables and information boxes through simple forms
- A new outline tool that will help users navigate long articles while editing
- Simplification of the search function
- An improved interface for uploading images and video, and searching the multimedia repository
