This is a WikiProject, an area for focused collaboration among Wikipedians. New participants are welcome; please feel free to participate!

WikiProject Usability menu
Introduction to web usability Scope of this usability project FAQ and common pitfalls
Layout guidelines Readability guidelines Color usage Progressive enhancement
Content guidelines Understandability Scannability
Navigation architecture Navigation menus Breadcrumbs
Site-wide guidelines Style guide draft Cross cultural considerations Interface improvement proposals
Miscellaneous Reducing interface complexity HTML MediaWiki RW Marloe's proposal
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The Wikipedia Usability Project aims to make Wikipedia easier for everyone to use.

This project aims to promote the application of usability best practices and/or web usability. Many other projects focus on the content of Wikipedia - this project focuses on the presentation of that content.

Issues[edit]

The logo of the project by Kooky. Green represents the user, the three branches represent the web of information Wikipedia provides, and the middle path is the clearest, the one the project strives for. The shape recalls a blooming flower and the Wikimedia logo, as well.

This project hopes to make Wikipedia easy and pleasant to use by applying itself to the following areas:

Being intuitive - contents made understandable by everyone; using familiar and affordance interface design for universal usability
Architecture - Organisation of information.
Design - Visual appearance of Wikipedia; making it "easy on the eyes", and standardized (all things of a certain type should appear in the same form).
Interface - Making editing and other interactions easier.
Compatibility - Cross-browser support; ease of use for everyone on any device and any browser
Standards and accessibility - making use of W3C-recommended XHTML and CSS in a manner that promotes the above and accessibility
Speed - loading time of Wikipedia page (yet to be added area)

Current projects[edit]

Past projects[edit]

Future projects[edit]

See future projects for what we may tackle next!

Queries[edit]

Wikipedia talk:Community Portal#Request [1] - "is there no way to get a better interface? most people have javascript its just that its all so very confusing- maybe that is supposed to put most people off? NO indication where one is supposed to join up/post/ pages and pages....protocols... and all the jargon offputting. you need to attract people who don't necessarily have computer knowledge but subject knowledge you should make it easy for eg. my grandfather, who is an expert on aviation history to contribute to this online resource- its all so very confusing!!!!!"

At Talk:Isotope table (complete) we are debating a proposal by User:Greg L to put the article's full isotope table, and Isotope table (divided)'s table, in a single larger article. Much of the argument is about usability, as well as performance. Input from the Usability project might be useful. --JWB (talk) 16:49, 22 February 2008 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Tasks[edit]

Tasks/to-dos, current efforts, requests for help, and major notices. (Remove when resolved.)

Spreading the word about this WikiProject!

If you know anyone who may be a valuable addition to this project, leave a comment on their talk page directing them here. You could also leave comments on talk pages that are directly related to this subject.

Discussion[edit]

The talk page

Sub-pages[edit]

/Color - use of color in Wikipedia
/Color Tabs - side tabs for browsing (color coded)
/Sizing examples - browser width and image size
/HTML - use of HTML and CSS in Wikipedia
/Images - images in Wikipedia articles
/Notices - notices, boxes, and other "meta" elements
/MediaWiki - key MediaWiki pages/interface parts

Templates[edit]

((WikiProject Usability)) - project banner (mostly for the talk pages of templates that serve usability functions, as well as pages having to do with usability issues)
((User WikiProject Usability)) - user box to "advertise" your participation in the project.
((The Usability Barnstar|put your message here ~~~~))

Participants[edit]

If you'd like to join (please do!), add yourself and optionally your areas of interest/expertise to the list of participants. Feel free to add ((User WPUsability)) to your list of userboxes.

/Participants

Listing yourself does not obligate you to do anything. This section serves primarily as a gauge of project interest, and to provide links to users who may be contacted in regards to this WikiProject, their interests, or usability in general.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Design, including the Wikimedia Style Guide

v t e WikiProject Council
WikiProject guides	WikiProject Council Talk Guidelines/Intro WikiProjects Task forces Technical notes Assessment FAQ Work via WikiProjects
Directories and summaries	Directory Proposals Deletion Signpost Shortcuts Popular pages Database reports Watchers
Culture and the arts	Arts Music Performing Plastic Visual Broadcasting Crafts and hobbies Entertainment Games and toys Food and drink Internet culture Language and literature Biography Linguistics Media Philosophy and religion Sports
Geographical	Bodies of water Cities Countries Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania Landforms Maps Parks, conservation areas and historical sites
History and society	History and society Business and economics Education Military and warfare Politics and government Transportation
Science, technology and engineering	Science Biology Chemistry Economics Geosciences Information science Mathematics Medicine Meteorology Physics Space Technology Time
Wikipedia assistance and tasks	Contents systems Maintenance Files Article improvement and grading Classroom projects WikiProjects

Wikipedia key policies and guidelines (?)

Five pillars
- Ignore all rules

Content (?)

P	Verifiability No original research Neutral point of view What Wikipedia is not Biographies of living persons Copyright (Copyright violations) Image use Article titles
G	Notability Autobiography Citing sources Reliable sources Medicine Do not include copies of lengthy primary sources Plagiarism Don't create hoaxes Fringe theories Patent nonsense External links

Conduct (?)

P	Civility Consensus Harassment Vandalism Ignore all rules No personal attacks Ownership of content Edit warring Dispute resolution Sockpuppetry No legal threats Child protection Paid-contribution disclosure
G	Assume good faith Conflict of interest Disruptive editing Do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point Etiquette Gaming the system Please do not bite the newcomers Courtesy vanishing Responding to threats of harm Talk page guidelines Signatures

Deletion (?)

P	Deletion policy Proposed deletion Biographies Criteria for speedy deletion Attack page Oversight Revision deletion

Enforcement (?)

P	Administrators Banning Blocking Page protection

Editing (?)

Editing policy

Article size Summary style Be bold Disambiguation Hatnotes Broad-concept article Understandability
Style	Manual of Style Contents Accessibility Dates and numbers Images Layout Lead section Linking Lists
Classification	Categories, lists, and navigation templates Categorization Template namespace

Project content (?)

G	Project namespace WikiProjects User pages User boxes Shortcuts Subpages

WMF (?)

P	Terms of Use List of policies Friendly space policy Licensing and copyright Privacy policy

List of all policies and guidelines
- P: List of policies
- G: List of guidelines
Summaries of values and principles