Wikipedia:User experience feedback

This page is a place for you to tell the User Experience Team what issues you encounter when using Wikipedia. We are already aware of many bugs and wishes, but we also want to provide an open forum for less formal storytelling.

We welcome your ideas, but please focus on the issues rather than on possible solutions. If you want to propose a solution or request a feature, please do so but also tell us what problem it would fix.

Tell us your stories, tell us your frustrations. We will read them carefully and try to remedy as much as possible. (Please note: previous feedback has been archived, and carefully read, at Wikipedia:User experience feedback/Archive 1)

Note: Any spam on this page will be removed. Editing suggestions also won't likely be acted upon so editing the article would be your best bet at creating change here.

→ Add your story

Discuss the search box specifically

Help us debug font size issues

A straw poll about the location of the search box is being conducted here: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Usability/Search box poll 2010.

Responding to your feedback

First of all, thanks to everyone for providing feedback on the recent changes to Wikipedia. We really appreciate the time everyone's taken to let us know their thoughts on the changes.

Rather than to respond to each post individually, we've consolidated our feedback to address the recurring issues:

BlackBerry

• Update: BlackBerry users should now be redirected to the mobile site by default. This should also address issues with older BlackBerries that could not display the new site layout. Please report if you are still experiencing BlackBerry issues.--Eloquence* 18:52, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

Search

• Update: We've published a more detailed explanation regarding the new location of the search box.--Eloquence* 01:37, 15 June 2010 (UTC)
• Update: The search fixes have been deployed. You may need to bypass the browser cache by doing a shift-refresh. We hope the fix addresses the major concerns about search functionality. Howief (talk) 22:22, 20 May 2010 (UTC)
• Update: We're staging a fix of the search functionality here (one of the prototype sites). In addition to the increased width, this fix includes the allocation of more space to the auto-suggestions and the restoration of "Go" and "Search" functionality within the new interface. Howief (talk) 01:25, 20 May 2010 (UTC)
• Update: The width of the search box has been increased by approximately 56%, which also increases the width allocated for the auto-suggestions. We're still working on some different treatments of the auto-suggestions to better handle very long article names. Howief (talk) 20:12, 18 May 2010 (UTC)
• Update: The auto-suggest code causing the cut-off issues was rolled back over the weekend. You may need to press shift-refresh to bypass the browser cache to bypass the browser cache to get the fix to work. Howief (talk) 21:19, 17 May 2010 (UTC)
• We're aware of the bug (#23498) about the search terms being cut off. This is a serious issue. We're working on a fix right now and are hoping to have something over the next few days. Thanks to everyone for reporting this bug.

• We've deployed a fix so that the first tab on a page goes to the search box (rather than to the left nav). The first tab should bring the cursor to the search box (unless there are forms such as login, edit, etc.). This is the same behavior as found in Monobook.
• There are a number of comments that the new search box makes less of the search input viewable. We're experimenting with some different approaches to spacing to see if we can preserve the horizontal spacing.
• Quite a lot of you have mentioned frustration with the new location of the new search box. Based on our usability testing, the upper right corner was a more intuitive location for search for many users. In our first round of usability testing (conducted prior to any changes), users did not use the search box in the left nav. Rather, they repeatedly went to the search box in the upper right hand corner of the browser. In the second round of testing (which included the search change), none of the users had problems finding the search box in the new location (details here). As an example, there was one user who, when asked to search for something, instinctively found the search box in the upper right corner. When we asked this user if he'd noticed a change in the site, it took him a moment before he realized that the search box had changed locations -- he found the new location before consciously realizing it had changed. Nevertheless, we know this is a significant change for many users. We'd ask people to try out the new location for a bit before switching back.

Font size: Many users have reported that font sizes have become smaller in Vector. We're not sure why, but this is something we're looking into. Any additional info on this issue would be helpful in troubleshooting.

Does this help? -- Gabriel Wicke (talk) 18:46, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

r55333: Trevor Parscal set the bodyContent font-size at 0.8em; that's too small in my honest opinion. --Virgolette (talk) 00:02, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia shouldn't be changing the font size for the main text in the first place! The user has already chosen a default font size in the browser. Don't change that (for the main text of the page). -216.1.16.126 (talk) 23:41, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

I agree. Especially _reducing_ the default font size, is very unwelcome.Mpvdm (talk) 19:59, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

I second that. It was always so refreshing to have a site respect your font size preferences. Where can I more formally/profoundly express the importance of this font size issue?208.65.88.249 (talk) 17:47, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Pages are slow: The team has worked hard to ensure that the new features do not result in a decrease in performance. The initial slowness may be due to the stress resulting from the skin switch. Once the switch has propagated to all of the caches (which should be the case by now), performance should return to normal. Also, initial page loads may be slow since the new javascript and CSS needs to be downloaded. After the initial download, things should be quicker as everything should be in the browser cache. Please leave comment if the slowness persists after a few days.

The pages are still very slow; I have seen no improvement here. It's quite irritating when reading pages but really maddening if you e.g. need to track changes and compare and browse a large number of different versions. Any user should be able to easily, i.e. without account and without logging in, disable at least any active content. Missing the old pages! --Sivullinen (talk) 15:43, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Issues with certain browsers: Our team works hard to support as many browsers as possible and does extensive cross-browser testing. Our priority is obviously to support the most popular browsers (and the most fully standard compliant browsers). Unfortunately, this means that some users of browsers with very small usage (comparatively) may not be fully supported at this time.

• We are aware of an issue where right-clicking on the tabs in supported versions of IE does not work properly (bug #23490). We are working on a fix, but there are a number of potential cascading consequences. We'll keep everyone posted.

Languages in the left nav: To simplify the look and feel of the page, we've put the languages in an expandable menu. The tradeoff is that users who want to view articles in multiple languages will have to expand the menu to view the other languages. But once the menu is expanded, it will remain so until it's collapsed. We felt this tradeoff made sense since the language links were used relatively infrequently based on tracking data and cost of to these users is relatively small (only one additional click is required -- if an additional click were required every time the feature is used, we would have chosen differently).

For those of you who would like to follow the bug-squashing, check out Bugzilla. Most of the bugs have been categorized as Usability Initiative bugs and Vector bugs (hopefully these links will work).

We'll continue working down the list of known issues. Thanks again for your feedback.

Howief (talk) 00:57, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Double clicking search

Every time I go to the search bar I have to click it twice before I can type something in. I was wondering if you could look into that problem and fix it? The only exception is when I'm already writing something I can click on the search bar once and type right away. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Clark.d.kennedy (talk • contribs) 18:54, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

This has been reported at Template:Bug. ~ Ningauble (talk) 16:14, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

If you click on parts of the word "search" then you must double-click however it appearse that if you click to the right of the word "search" then it works with 1 click —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brennanmoriarty (talk • contribs) 17:14, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Little Header modification to make it leaner.

I think the new header wastes too much space and doesn't looks entirely right. This little javascript script I made solves the problem:

right = document.getElementById("right-navigation");
right.style.setProperty("margin-right", "270px", "");
right.style.setProperty("margin-top", "0px", "");
document.getElementById("mw-head-base").style.setProperty("height", "40px", "");
document.getElementById("left-navigation").style.setProperty("top", "0px", "");
document.getElementById("p-personal").style.setProperty("top", "10px", "");

Try it out, writing this in the direction bar:

javascript:(function(){right = document.getElementById("right-navigation");right.style.setProperty("margin-right", "270px", "");right.style.setProperty("margin-top", "0px", "");document.getElementById("mw-head-base").style.setProperty("height", "40px", "");document.getElementById("left-navigation").style.setProperty("top", "0px", "");document.getElementById("p-personal").style.setProperty("top", "10px", "");})();

why destroy something that works?

Searchbox on the right... It is supposed to be better, but please do listen to the users, and do not do as some others do, have it on the right side! There are far more pages where it is located on the normal side, to the LEFT! Some large searchengines do have it on the left, but those pages are not comperable, and are not usedin the same manner. A searchbox is not a searchbox is not a searcbox; as Miss Stein would have written. Why remove the language options? I speak 4 and use 8 languages. All scandinavians are able to read 4 languages.(Norwegian, danish, swedish and "nynorsk" Most of us comand at least 2 other languages. (English and german.) Residents of Finland should be able to read 5. ( To quite a large number islandic is not easy understandable. It is not a step forward. As wikipedia is based on contributions from individuals, to read in different languages of is a method of critical use of information. Do you wish to have this option as a "extra feature"? That diminnishes the source value of wikipedia. But, when changing something that works - and works well, maybe that was the changemakers plan? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.203.78.9 (talk) 09:23, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Sandy Kao

Hi, —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.100.105.157 (talk) 15:11, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

tms trim

hej här är en bra sida för att hitta trim http://www.ak47.se/

http://www.ak47.se/ http://www.ak47.se/ http://www.ak47.se/ http://www.ak47.se/ http://www.ak47.se/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hej55555 (talk • contribs) 18:05, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

size of online page

First of all, although some people don't regard Wikipedia as a proper source because of potential errors, I always refer to it first because often there is more information there than on other sites. Additionally, I know enough about "information" to know that a lot of it is inaccurate.

Is there any way that Wikipedia can narrow the Website page? Since I am an avid book reader, I have some difficulty reading across a "non-book" sized page.

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.203.123.82 (talk) 00:16, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Message

User Friendly —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.34.231.232 (talk) 16:19, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Interactive toolbox

I can't see Languages in the toolbox due to random JavaScript problems. Print a link to the "old" version with all opened options please! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.70.236.82 (talk) 08:24, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Hidden comment

Hi,

Just to say that i won't move to the new interface if there is no "Hidden comment" function and custom toolbar = Dog meal.

I contributed to Wikimedia Strategic Planning, we discussed how to improve the editing experience and i think this "Improved interface" a good step in that direction. I also participated to discussions related to community health and unfortunately i find the absence of the "Hidden comment" function detrimental to it. "Hidden comment" is good tool for interpersonal communication between editors. Often tags don't leave room for additional comment so you are at adding them through hidden comments. "Hidden comment" is also very useful to remember editors of consensus reached in article talk page or within related project because people won't bother reading talk pages and the like. Absence of "Hidden comment" functionality make communication between editors more complex thus rendering collaborative work more difficult so not something good for community health. --KrebMarkt (talk) 14:12, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Posting Articles to Social Media Sites

You know, for nerds such as myself, it would be handy to have a "Share" button that allows the posting of headlines and articles to Facebook and other social sites, especially for current events and such. Is there such a thing already and I just can't see it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.172.14.132 (talk) 20:34, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Searchbox

I prefer the searchbox on the left, for its placement on the top right corner is quite disturbing inasmuch as my eyes must describe a bigger angle from the middle of the screen to find it, which is even worse in large screens, and I don't see any reason for it to be consuming height space and pushing all the text a bit downwards, when it could be perfectly fitted in the left menu. Moreover the list of possible matches that scrolls down after the first letters are typed in really helps when one doesn't know the spelling of an article's title. This could be even improved by allowing an asterisk take the place of a string of characters; a slash followed by asterisks, the exact amount of letters as there are of asterisks; /*/ a word; or other meaningful combinations so that on can search for an entry by its last letters, or first and last skipping the middle. Wisapi (talk) 20:47, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Language

Hello, When I am reading English text and point at a word I always get a Russian translation. Is there a choice of language somewhere, and can it be canceled altogether?

Kind regards

Gunnar —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.230.6.14 (talk) 06:25, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Hi Gunnar, I think this has more to do with your browser. Does it only happen in wikipedia? In my sister's computer, the Internet Explore will usually give a Spanish translation although we use the Portuguese Windows. Wisapi (talk) 13:33, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

== CPS v Boyle 2008 EWHC 201 Adim ==

I would like my husbands case to to cited as an abuse of process, causing (him) injustice and offending one's sense of justice, as per pushishised in Professor Choo's book and upon his website monograms 'Abuse of Process and Judicial Stays in Criminal Proceedings 2008' Within his case Judge Openshaw, who does not know what a website is, I believe does not also know what abuse of process means, in that within a sentencing hearing he acted as a prosecutor, and instigated 17 new charges, with no new facts or evidence, when my husband had pleaded guilty to the same dates and times in the previous conviction, in order to ensure that my husband recieved a more severe punishment. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.64.252.66 (talk) 19:09, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

When hovering over external links in Wikipedia

Dear Wikipedia,

Thank you so much for this site. It is a pain having to open every page I like when reading an article in a new tab. I have a suggestion: When hovering over external links in Wikipedia, have a short summary appear in a pop-up box just above the link. This should not be a few words taken from the overview, since that will result in a "The battle of Lake Peipus was a decisive victory in the history of..." That doesn't enlighten anyone. Write a very short summary about every page... you should of course ask the community to help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Silenzer12 (talk • contribs) 22:53, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

new search bar

I find I have to click the search bar many times before a text cursor appears. Often I click and begin typing only to notice nothing has been entered into the search field. Something as simple as this should be very easy to fix. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.193.204.164 (talk) 01:55, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Search box bug (new look)

if you type WINDOWS? in the search box it search Wintdows —Preceding unsigned comment added by WindowsSeven (talk • contribs) 02:11, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

--58.169.23.63 (talk) 07:42, 15 July 2010 (UTC)cbtueg snkitlogb4u gbop ghjkiopvbgdr ghrweeaxfhhggggvgcfxcdxfcfgvc fyyr5r5rrrttdrctdfwe5dr5tqredFile:Bold textdxfasdxecfdgfxegfegftgdgcfgbscvsgt tbdvfydhtyxedegyhetevgryfhvfcrd6udyu6xxetxdyrftryswsefwtyefytrfwvtycefd56ycrw5tydrwetyrfwtgshretfdsthsarfghghadscvfscfwc adsbgac gbmjqweg

How about allowing non-logged-in users to select a skin?

It makes sense to require the user to be logged in to select more complicated preferences, but selecting the overall layout from a predefined set seems like something anybody should be able to do. Not R (talk) 13:35, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

There are technical reasons why this is not possible. Basically, using another skin will require 2 copies of a page to be cached. Thus giving people an option to change the skin, would result in almost every page to be cached twice instead of once. That would mean we would have to double the capacity of the caching servers, which would be a very costly operation. And once you give people one finger, they want a hand, so before you know it, there would likely be 3 and then 10 preference options for anonymous users (so 10 times the caching capability would be required). There is a reason why registering an account is a good thing, and having access to preferences is one of those reasons. Having said that, some more "you need to register an account in order to use this option" might be a good idea. If you know locations where such a message should be listed, please pass along your suggestion. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 19:53, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Wiki's Own Discussion Forum (Under each Subject)!

Dear Popular Wikipedia:

I think it would be a great idea to have a "Discuss" button under each individual subject matter. I really like to see a place where the readers can exchange information and may be new ideas.

The "discuss" (this matter) button should be an URL/Link to another page where people can log in and then discuss about that particular matter. For instance if we are reading about Beethoven or Edison or Paris we then should be allowed to share our information or experiences in regard to that particular subject matter without adding info to the original Wiki page. (To avoid creating unnecessary volume). This will open up a new frontier with limitless possibilities. I think it will be really good. The forum of this kind will have to manage/moderate itself. People should not discuss off-subject matters or use strong language and/or insult other users. As it is now the Wiki pages contain valuable information which many users have taken the time to provide/share. I do not see any problem in having such forums except the details of its technical side. (how it is setup, what kind of coding will be used etc.). Or redirect to a Blog. Please ignore this message if such forum already exists. I have seen the "MyTalk" page but I don't think it is the same thing?

Thank You Very Much! Best Regards; Mehdi B. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Matey1 (talk • contribs) 17:21, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

We have a "discussion" link for each page. It is at the top left, next to the tab of the current page and labelled as "Discussion" or "Talk page". —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 19:48, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Save the Book...

I absolutely love the book creator. However, when I close the browser and go back to Wikipedia, the book I had been creating is gone. Please include a save feature for the book creator - maybe save up to ten or something... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jammatmil (talk • contribs) 20:46, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Search on My Palm Treo

The new search doesn't work on my smart phone. I wish the separate search button would return. In the meantime I have to use Google to search from my phone, which is not good. Saltysailor (talk) 05:40, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

Featured article star logo does not show on Turkish Wiki

The Star logo for featured articles on the Turkish Wikipedia does not appear with the new page layout. See for example this week's featured article tr:Ankara ili. The local equivalent for {{featured article}} is tr:Şablon:seçkin madde, and its code does not appear significanly different from the English version. I know this is the English Wikipedia but I am hoping that knowledgeable people might be available. Any help would be much appreciated. --İnfoCan (talk) 07:02, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

Bogus Editorial Remarks

Dear Wikipedia:

With some frequency, I am seeing messages, like this one from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tools_to_create_Live_USB_systems:

"This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive and inappropriate external links or by converting links into footnote references."

The article in question is entitled, "List of tools to create Live USB systems." It is a list. Various items in the list are hyperlinked directly to other articles.

I love footnotes. But in this case, footnotes would add an unnecessary intervening step. They would also confuse the presentation and diminish the user's experience. If the creator had followed the wishes of the benighted editor who added this remark, then for every link that I wanted to follow, I would have had to jump to the bottom of the page to find the link that I would intend to open in a separate tab. Then back up to the list; then back down to the footnotes; etc.

I send you this remark because these pseudo-editorial remarks have infected a remarkable number of Wikipedia pages. As I have become more consciously aware of them, I have also found them more distracting. Sometimes such remarks linger for years, without anyone other than the original "editor" finding it especially important to administer the prescribed medication to a healthy page.

In lieu of a system in which self-appointed overseers apparently have free rein to mark up wiki pages with their notions of purity, I suggest that such editorial remarks themselves be submitted as tentative or proposed, visible not in full text but in the form of an icon or other indicator (e.g., "Editor Requests Improvements"), to which likeminded individuals can turn if they wish to get lost in the arcana together -- without, that is, screwing up the ordinary user's experience.

Yours,

Ray Woodcock —Preceding unsigned comment added by Raywood (talk • contribs) 13:05, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

Email

While I find Wikipedia invaluable for my research efforts, I often discover articles,

topics, and other items of interest that I would like to share with family, friends, and associates. Prior to submitted this comment, I searched the Wikipedia User Interface for any type of 'sharing' or email option. I believe some form of 'sharing' would be a very useful addition to the functionality of Wikipedia.

 Thank you,

michael j. carey michaelcarey1@cox.net —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mick0311 (talk • contribs) 18:06, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

Watch

I don't see the advantage, especially for the new user, of changing the simple words "Watch" or "Add to watch list" to a cryptic symbol. It makes it hard even for me, and I've been using and editing WP for several years. Zaslav (talk) 01:47, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Agreed, this is a step backwards. A while ago they changed "+" to "New section" in talk pages for exactly the same (good) reason. Also, star now means both "featured article" and "favourite". Another reason why we should change back to "Watch"/"Unwatch". 221.47.185.5 (talk) 00:36, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

srivastava

important srivastava ; prof.[dr.] ravindra nath srivastava parichay das' is an eminent bhojpuri-hindi writer in india. he has written above 20 books in bhojpuri-hindi.he is writer,editer,thinker,singer,actor,administrator,social activist. now he is hony.professor and head [hindi and indian culture dept.] - swami vivekanand subharti university,meerut,u.p.[india] and secretary,hindi academy,delhi govt. and secretary,maithili-bhojpuri academy,delhi govt. address-secretary,hindi and mathili-bhojpuri academy delhi govt. samudaay bhavan,kishan ganj,padam nagar,delhi-110007 e.mail- asianwriter@rediffmail.com website-www.kavita chaturthi/parichay das mobile-09968269237 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.177.201.75 (talk) 14:35, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

srivastava

important srivastava ; prof.[dr.] ravindra nath srivastava parichay das' is an eminent bhojpuri-hindi writer in india. he has written above 20 books in bhojpuri-hindi.he is writer,editer,thinker,singer,actor,administrator,social activist. now he is hony.professor and head [hindi and indian culture dept.] - swami vivekanand subharti university,meerut,u.p.[india] and secretary,hindi academy,delhi govt. and secretary,maithili-bhojpuri academy,delhi govt. address-secretary,hindi and mathili-bhojpuri academy delhi govt. samudaay bhavan,kishan ganj,padam nagar,delhi-110007 e.mail- asianwriter@rediffmail.com website-www.kavita chaturthi/parichay das mobile-09968269237 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.177.201.75 (talk) 14:36, 18 July 2010 (UTC)