Change of the default interface for desktop on English Wikipedia - Wikimediauk-l

13 Jan 2023

Dear all

I'm sharing the text of an email I've received this evening from the
Wikimedia Foundation, who have asked me (and other Affiliate leaders) to
spread the word amongst our communities about a new skin for the English
Wikipedia, which will be deployed next week.

Wishing you all a great weekend.

Lucy

After many years of work, community conversations, and completing the
changes specified by the consensus of the Request for Comment
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Deployment_of_Vector_(2022)>,
the *Vector 2022 skin* is finally ready for deployment as the default
desktop skin on English Wikipedia. The deployment is scheduled for January
18th, at 15:00 UTC.

Vector 2022 is a skin <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Skins>
developed between 2019 and 2023 by the Wikimedia Foundation Web team
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web> with the goal of making the
interface more welcoming and usable for readers and maintaining utility for
existing editors. It introduces changes
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Deployment_of_Vector_(2022)/More_about_Vector_(2022)#New_features>
to the navigation and layout of the site, adds persistent elements (such as
a sticky header and Table of Contents), and makes changes to the overall
styling of the page. Currently, the skin is the default on more than 300
projects of various sizes, accounting for about 1.5 billion page views per
month. On English Wikipedia, it is the most popular non-default skin, with
more active editors using it than any other non-default skin (Monobook,
Timeless, etc).

While these changes will provide a much better experience for Wikipedia
readers and contributors (and a cleaner interface will make work easier for
community developers and staff working on the website in the future),
they’ll also help to remove barriers to the Wikimedia movement. The new
Wikipedia desktop marks the start of an ongoing process of user empowerment
and improvements across the entire Wikimedia ecosystem, as well as an
exciting and meaningful step in furthering Wikimedia’s knowledge as a
service and knowledge equity
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017#Our_strategic_direction:_Service_and_Equity>
efforts. An easier-to-navigate Wikipedia will help more users, regardless
of their tech literacy or familiarity with the platform, to access and
contribute to free knowledge.

You will find more information about the project on the landing page on
English Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vector_2022>.
There are instructions on how to turn the skin off as well as information
about what will happen on the day of deployment. You can also read more
about the Desktop Improvements Project on the project page
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web/Desktop_Improvements> and our
FAQ
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web/Desktop_Improvements/Frequently_asked_questions>.

-- 
Lucy Crompton-Reid (she/her)
Chief Executive