Written by Did you notice the change? Well the Free Encyclopedia – Wikipedia has arrived with new improvements.
Wikipedia Logo
Today, after millions of beta testing, Wikimedia Foundation has now introduced Vector skin, a new look and feel to Wikipedia. The effort started in April 2009 as a matter of simplicity and to make it easier to use with improved functionality. And it’s the first major initiative undertaken by the Wikimedia Foundation and its volunteers for Wikipedia’s interface.
As Wikimedia shares on its blog.
“It’s been one year since we began the usability initiative, and we’ve rolled out the new interface to Wikinews (English and Serbian), Wikimedia Commons, and now English Wikipedia. That means that hundreds of millions of people around the world will now experience an easier to use, and more importantly, easier to edit Wikipedia. Our most recent interface launch, on Wikimedia Commons, was a great success with continued adoption by over 91% of Commons contributors. Over the next few weeks, the new interface will cascade to all language Wikipedias.”
Here’s the new changes.
- Wikipedia Puzzle Globe and wordmark: Wikipedia globe and wordmark, originally created in 2003 have been refreshed. The internationally-recognized puzzle globe has been updated, improved and recreated in 3D and includes even more languages. Wikipedia has included a separate post on it. Read More Here.
- Navigation: Navigation has been improved for reading and editing pages. The tabs at the top of each page now more clearly define whether you are viewing the page or discussion page, and whether you are reading or editing a page.
- Editing toolbar improvements: Formatting pages has now been made simpler and more intuitive. The editing toolbar has been reorganised to make easier to use.
- Link wizard: Linking to other wiki pages as well as to external sites is easy and simpler with this easy-to-use tool.
- Search improvements: Better improved search suggestions for more quick navigation to the page you are looking.
- Pediapress book creator: Aligning with Pediapress, Wikipedia now allows you to create a book by selecting Wikipedia articles and adding them to the Book Creator and your articles will be turned into a PDF (or OpenDocument) file.
- Other improved Features: A table wizard has been introduced to make creating tables easier and find and a replace feature to simplify page editing.
If you prefer the classic interface – Monobook (without the enhancements), do not worry, just click on the “Take me back” link at the top of the page and you can go back to the previous interface. You can switch to old interface whenever you’d like after you log-in.
The new Vector skin is introduced after a beta testing group of 635,000 people and an 83% user retention rate and… there are more chances that you like it.
Tell us what you think of the new improvement.