User:Pyrospirit/Design the interface for newcomers
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 | This page in a nutshell: Design the Wikipedia interface primarily for newcomers, but make it easily modifiable. That way, it will be accessible to newcomers, and experienced users can customize it with CSS or JavaScript. |
One of the most commonly cited problems with Wikipedia is that it is too hard to figure out, or that its openly editable nature is not easily visible enough. Wikipedia's interface is obviously not the most intuitive there is, and the whole mass of policies and guidelines, though mostly necessary, further acts to turn away potential new contributors.
Nearly as bad of a problem is the issue of newcomers who seem unaware of our most basic policies and procedures. While it would be unreasonable to expect newcomers to be knowledgeable instantly, there is clearly something wrong when a large portion of new editors do not know about verifiability, reliable sources, signing your posts on talk pages, or even using an edit summary!
One major source of the problem is this: The interface, as it currently is designed, is made for experienced editors, not people who have just arrived here. Many of us take Wikipedia's interface for granted, complexities, peculiarities, and all, but this is only because we already know how to use it! Newcomers, on the other hand, often will have never seen anything like the MediaWiki interface, which differs significantly from that of most major websites.
The interface has come to be built for experienced users for two main reasons:
- Experienced users designed it. They most likely thought of what seemed the most intuitive or easiest for users like themselves, not always taking new users into account.
- People who suggest changes to the interface are usually those who already have a good knowledge of the interface. Furthermore, suggestions for changes to the interface that actually will be listened to and be workable are dominated by technical-minded, experienced users to an even greater degree.
Thus, inexperienced users rely on experienced users to suggest more intuitive, newcomer-friendly designs for the interface for them. Yet, whether out of inertia, resistance to change, or simple lack of awareness of the problem, few such proposals are adopted, and suggestions to center the user interface around new editors are often ignored.
There is no good reason to resist such changes! We can all agree that editors should have the interface best suited to their needs. A new editor should have a default interface designed for their use: one that assumes little to no knowledge of previous procedure, one that frequently directs their attention to relevant information, and an interface that values clarity above efficient use of space. The default interface must favor new editors, because they cannot reasonably be expected to know how to modify the interface in any way.
For longtime editors, it is an entirely different story. The Wikipedia interface is made to be easy to modify with the right technical knowledge, and experienced users are the ones who know how to make such modifications. It would be a trivial matter to hide or ignore things designed for new users. A little JavaScript to modify tab names, add special tabs, and add functions that would be confusing to newbies, some CSS to hide information for newcomers that you already know, and you too have an interface suited to your editing.
Consider this example. A proposal currently under discussion is to change the "new section" button from a + symbol to something new users would recognize and notice, such as add comment. This would be a great boon to people who have perhaps never edited a talk page before, or are just not familiar with the MediaWiki interface, as they would be much less likely to be confused and more likely to begin editing. Additionally, it would present no downside to users comfortably with the + tab or who already know what it does and don't want to waste space with a lengthy add comment button; since they know how to install user JavaScript, it is a trivial matter for them to change it. A user element with a design centered around newcomers would thus have a definite advantage without any disadvantage.
The same applies much more broadly. Design the interface for newcomers who cannot modify the interface, because those who can modify it themselves can make their own, personal interface design.