Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2018-03-29/Technology report

Technology report

Timeless skin review

Timeless skin on en.wikipedia.org

Timeless

Timeless is a browser skin, created in 2015, based on the now-defunct MediaWiki project Winter, which incorporates some suggestions from a 2015 English Wikipedia village pump discussion. It aims to provide equal emphasis on both content and editing tools simultaneously. It will try to do this by creating viewing modes by which one can view only content, or use edit tools simultaneously as well. The skin has been rolled out on many Wikimedia wikis and is in beta stage (mw:Skin:Timeless). A grants proposal has been made to develop the skin into a fully-functional stable product.

Appearance

First off the Timeless skin is a stunner in terms of looks. It provides a respite from the blue–black–grey–white interface design of the other Wikimedia Foundation skins by adding splodges of color where you least expect them: section headings, search bar, Special:Search, etc. The skin centers the text area leaving space on the sides for different menus which are collapsed in smaller resolutions. The skin substitutes intuitive icons for words in lower resolutions. The skin also handles categories differently by placing them as list beside the article rather than as a plain list at the end of the article. The skin's forté is its compatibility with mobile browsers, where it fits like a glove.

What worked for me

I was able to read articles on my smaller-than-usual laptop far more easily (without using the zoom option of Google Chrome) thanks to the elimination of the the fixed sidebar, which was an unvarying element of almost all the other WMF skins (except for the mobile skin MiniveraNeue).
I liked the way the skin somehow (most of the time) manages to follow the Visual Style guide of the Wikimedia Foundation and yet look distinctly different, colorful and lively.
I found no lag whatsoever while using the VE editor, 2017 source editor coupled with syntax highlighting for long periods of time on my mobile, something I had been used to expecting while using Vector on mobile.
I really liked the fact that the skin automatically enlarged the text so that it fit into any screen I used.
I personally found the design of the top search bar to be really cool. (I would have loved to have it in Vector.)

What I did not like

Certain elements, such as notices, display oddly while using a smaller screen.
The skin's handling of wide boxes is less than impressive.
I personally don't like the way <code></code> extension displays, neither do I like way the code pages are displayed.
Certain popular Gadgets, such as MoreMenu and HotCat, are incompatible with this skin.
The notification color scheme (grey all the time) does not match with the current MediaWiki system: red for alerts, blue for notices, both of which turn grey on being viewed.

Verdict

I personally liked the skin as it provides a different and refreshing outlook into the interface design of an online encyclopedia. I believe that this skin, if properly developed, could become an effective tool in curbing the rise of Wikipedia readers such as WikiWand. As of now, in its beta stage, I would like to recommend it for those who read Wikipedia on desktop and as an alternative, fully functional web interface for mobile users.

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29 March 2018 (all comments)

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I am surprised to be the first to comment. I don't much mess with skins, partly because I teach newbies and they oughtn't bother their pretty heads by seeing a strange screen on my laptop. However, Timeless managed to get onto Signpost, which might mean it's important. I put it in Simple English WP only, which is my usual testbed.

I too shall first say what's good, then make a longer list of disappointments. Yes, it is attractive on a small screen, in my case the 10 inch iPad. The switch between having and not having a left panel is useful when it is made at the right time, which is usually. As a heavy Watchlist user I was surprised to have to bring up a menu to see that, but after a couple days it doesn't seem so strange. However, when I reach the Watchlist, that's where the disappointments start.
First little item, I am accustomed when looking at the Diff list of an article, to see the bullets at the left in different colors depending on whether the change happened before or after my last view of the page. Now the bullets are all black.
Bigger problem, the right panel. When using Contr-scroll (Windows) to shrink the font and see more items, suddenly the Watchlist acquires a right panel. The panel has very few items, but it squeezes the list, thus defeating my purpose. I'd rather there were no right panel, ever. Well, I don't much mind the right panel squeezing the text when reading an article, but on the other hand I never think the right panel is doing me any good. Everything ought to be on the left panel or the top. Of course, this is not just a little bug like the difflist color problem; I appreciate that it's a carefully designed feature. Surely someone besides the industrious designer thinks it a good feature; for me it's just an irritant.
Biggest problem for my use in Commons, there is no Hotcat. That's deadly for me, in that particular wiki where I spend close to half my editorial time. I assume that's another bug, perhaps more difficult to fix than the one about the difflist colors.

So, that's it for this evening. Two items that I call bugs, and one design decision with which I firmly disagree. Jim.henderson (talk) 01:20, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I like the design of it, but there are some things that don't make any sense (perhaps an oversight). As an example, when on a user page there's no "User contributions" in either the left or right toolbar. Sincerely, InsaneHacker (💬) 21:02, 5 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the article! I'm glad to see the skin being given some attention, since Timeless is by far my favorite skin among the Special:Preferences options and the one I use as my default. Overall, I have been very satisfied with the design (which I consider far more modern than Modern), though I have encountered some bugs with it. For example, sometimes the search prediction box overlay won't retract even when clicking off the search bar. Usually, however, deleting all text in the search bar solves that. Recently (and far more frustratingly), it appears that indenting for subsections in the table of contents on articles has disappeared entirely, at least for me, which has been a frequent annoyance that slows down navigation. I have even considered switching skins entirely due to this issue alone. Were it not for the fact that there is no clear and active place for me to report these issues, I would do so. They are basically my only complaints with an otherwise excellent skin. ―Nøkkenbuer (talk • contribs) 15:51, 7 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I have always used Monobook and when I venture out to test other skins they are extremely annoying and unsightly (at least to me). Many skins lose the Wikipedia symbol, others hide a great deal, and, of course, the mobile skins ban templates, categories, and other essential components of Wikipedia. Hard to fathom why Monobook isn't the default skin, but to each his own. Randy Kryn (talk) 14:56, 10 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

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