New Wikipedia interface to nine more languages

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Image (1) wikipedia_scaled_down.png for post 2025We’d like to thank users for all the feedback and comments about the new user interface which was enabled to English Wikipedia on May 13, 2010. The summary of feedback will be published soon.
I’d like to address a few of the points you’ve made here: a lot of you reported that the location of the search field is disorienting and it should be placed back at the left navigation bar. We understand your frustration when something you use every day is moved around and you have to get used to the new location. The decision to move the search from the left navigation bar to the top-right hand corner was made based on the usability study.  Study participants interacted with Wikipedia’s search over the browser’s search a lot more frequently when it was placed in the right-hand corner. We are looking at the volume of search queries to monitor how this change is affecting the overall users, and we will publish the findings in a couple of weeks.
We had a few problems with the behavior of the search system during the first week, which was unfortunate. It went through numerous bug fixes and updates, and it should be stable now. We hope you find the new search interaction intuitive and easy to use. We are still looking for a way to expand the search field without compromising the space for tab navigation interaction, which is crucial user flow for both readers and editors.
Within the two week time period after the new interface was introduced to English Wikipedia, we observed approximately 18,000 users returning to the previous Wikipedia interface, called “monobook”. There are about 137,000 unique users who had some activities in Recent changes including account creation. Roughly 87,000 users either edited, uploaded files, or conducted administrative task during the same period. The opt-out rate is estimated from 13% to 22% depending on whether user creation is included as a user activity. This aligns with the opt-out rate of the beta program, but we hope to continue to incorporate the needs of various user groups, such as readers, casual editors, active editors, and administrators.
The roll-out of the new Wikipedia interface has so far only taken place on the English version of Wikipedia, just one of over 250 distinct Wikipedias in other languages.
As a next step, we are preparing for the interface switch of the following nine languages, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Russian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Dutch. The translation of the software for those languages is ready, thanks to the volunteer translators of translatewiki.net. We do have quite a bit of translation work to be completed and we want to recruit user experience ambassadors who will help the user experience team to communicate to the language communities effectively and understand the language specific needs and feedbacks. If you are willing to take part this role, please contact us here. We are targeting to make this switch happen in the week of June 7th.
Thanks,
Naoko Komura, Head of User Experience Programs

Archive notice: This is an archived post from blog.wikimedia.org, which operated under different editorial and content guidelines than Diff.

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[…] From the Announcement: As a next step, we are preparing for the interface switch [the English interface switch took place in Mid May) of the following nine languages, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Russian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Dutch. The translation of the software for those languages is ready, thanks to the volunteer translators of translatewiki.net. We do have quite a bit of translation work to be completed and we want to recruit user experience ambassadors who will help the user experience team to communicate to the language communities effectively and understand the language specific needs and feedbacks. […]

So why exactly is it being done like this? Largest wiki in Wikimedia, followed by the nine next largest, followed by the smaller wikis… Don’t things generally go the other way around, first trying it on smaller wikis so it can be tested without messing things up on a large wiki? And if it’s not because it needs testing, why not just do ’em all at once? All English language projects and projects in other languages where interface translations are complete, followed by other language projects once they’re ready, or something. What’s this all about? Kind of confusing…

@anon (#2): Well, the Usability improvements were actually first implemented on an “opt-in”/”beta” basis, where users all over Wikimedia’s sites could opt-in to view and test the new changes. Then the Usability improvements were rolled-out as the default for the Wikimedia Commons (the shared image repository) and then they were rolled-out to the English Wikipedia. So there actually was some testing without messing up the larger wikis, but after they moved past that stage, the Usability Team moved to get it out to the primary project. The reason that all of the language projects aren’t happening at once is because… Read more »

Please make the languages bar expanded by default.

[…] French, Russian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Dutch. The full announcement  is here. Original Article: The Wikimedia Foundation announced its first ever "major […]

@Casey Brown: It really makes sence to hit English Wikipedia as the last one with all the changes. I know it hurts, but less than fixing bugs the other way around…

[…] French, Russian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Dutch. The full announcement  is here. Original Article: The Wikimedia Foundation announced its first ever "major […]

[…] New Wikipedia interface to nine more languages, Wikimedia blog […]

How about the Arabic Language.

@Nawaf (#9): We’re just working on the top 10 Wikipedias right now, there hasn’t been a date set for other wikis yet. However, I think that the Usability Team estimates doing other wikis (like the Arabic Wikipedia) during mid-July. (That date is not set or confirmed or anything, it’s just a general estimate.)

Please change it back! Especially in other languages, users will not tolerate the collapsed language bar. This is EXTREMELY important. All my friends hate the new look. Additionally, the left side is where people look, and that is where the search bar should be.

[…] New Wikipedia interface to nine more languages, Wikimedia blog […]

yo wat is ur fb page?

Good! The new Vector interface is way better and certainly easier than the older one. Can’t wait to see it on the German Wikipedia. For all who still don’t get it. Vector was up as a beta for more than a year and has severely been improved. I REALLY appreciate the autocomplete feature in the search bar. And the new Globe fits much better to the new design than the old one.

[…] French, Russian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Dutch. The full announcement  is here. Original Article: The Wikimedia Foundation announced its first ever "major […]

Just like when our browsers occasionally quit, or our phones loose signal – sometimes we forget just how far we’ve come with technology. My dear Wiki foundation, despite the flak during the journey, you’re doing an awesome job connecting the world’s inhabitants, whatever their language, religion or culture – THANK YOU!!!

I find the collapsing language bar very distrubing. That feature should be removed. Otherwise the result of the long beta existence proofs better than the first versions promised badly.

@Bob Sossamon (#13): Wikipedia’s Facebook page can be found at http://www.facebook.com/wikipedia.

Really really do not like this new version. It’s extremely messy, like the new youtube layout. Please stop!