Wikipedia has become the accumulated knowledge behemoth of the web 2.0 era.We all love it, use it daily, and couldn’t imagine life without it. But this doesn’t mean that it’s perfect. From a users’ and designers’ perspective, there is in fact much room for improvement. Lithuanian design agency, New, have tackled the mother of all knowledge sites, and given it a much needed make-over. Their solution, Wikipedia Redefined, presents a slick, contemporary looking brand ,which in turn offers a greatly enhanced user experience.
The irony, however, is that despite Wikipedia’s defining motto as “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”, this does not extend to include the site’s design and functionality. Pity.
Go and view the entire Wikipedia Redefined project, it’s an incredible example of proactive, forward-thinking design work which actively seeks to solve real problems and make the world a better place, one design at a time.
“The irony, however, is that despite Wikipedia’s defining motto as “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”, this does not extend to include the site’s design and functionality. Pity.”
Sure, directly editing the interface isn’t really possible (admins can add edit the site stylesheets and JavaScript to do a bit, but that has only so many uses). However, Wikipedia runs on the open-source MediaWiki software, and anyone able to program in PHP can contribute. Check out mediawiki.org .
“[Wikipedia Redefined is] an incredible example of proactive, forward-thinking design work which actively seeks to solve real problems and make the world a better place, one design at a time.”
It’s pretty, and there are some neat reader-focused ideas like quote highlighting, but there are also a number of points where the other design is wildly impractical or simply ill-thought-out. For one, the alternate logos would entail throwing out the well-known puzzle globe logo—one of the strongest bits of brand identity Wikimedia has. The language “rainbow” is another point. It’s not obvious how to switch languages, and with over 250 language editions of Wikipedia, it would be highly impractical for users of all but the most common languages. Hell, were all 250 to be on-screen at once, that would mean that a language would be lucky to have 4–5 pixels of colour-bar width onscreen.
It’s interesting as a thought experiment, but it wouldn’t be practical for the real world.
If you want to see more concrete, well-thought-out designs, check out the in-progress “Athena” UI set to replace the current “Vector”: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Athena .