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 (Please note: previous feedback has been archived, and carefully read, at Wikipedia:User experience feedback/Archive 1)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)

The new font choice and size make wikipedia pages difficult to read. This is a very negative change from the previous format. Changing the font size in Internet Explorer 8 from medium to largest helps some but the new font is still difficult to read and work with using a 21" monitor (fairly large by usual standards) set at 1600 x 1200 resolution. By comparison, most web pages are easy to read and work with the font size in Internet Explorer 8 set to a default of medium.

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)

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", "");})();

Regarding MALAYALAM Version

There are five letters in Malayalam namely "CHILLUKALL". They are "N", "L", "R" respectively pronounced as the second half of their English pronounciation and also "NN" as RN in TURN and "LL" as "L" in CRAWL. This letters are not shown properly in ur Malayalam Version. They are shown just as unknown letter. The font may not be compatible with this letters. Changing the font may make it correct.

Abdul Majeed Neeliyat (00-91-8106273334)

somali, english and arabic>

New Wikipedia user. Cannot post a new article after many tries. Interface is horrid. Maybe I'll sign in again on Halloween to better appreciate scary interface!

I do press relations for a large company. I asked for something to be deleted that was highly confidential earlier this week. The article was deleted but the headline stayed, which is not right at all and may have some serious legal exposures attached to it. (We alert you that something is a confidentiality breech and you keep the words up?) Now it's not confidential anymore and we want an article to be posted but the user interface is so terrible and hard to deal with, I can't get it posted.

Not only that, but the old "this has been deleted" pink highlighted message with the right headline is still there. Someone with an offensive user name "It's me ladies, Calvary" supposedly holds control over this article that's been deleted with remaining headline. No matter how open this system is, it's offensive and wrong for this person to have control over this page and this brand name.

I have tried over and over to post something to replace what was partially deleted, after many many tries, and answering 20 ridiculous questions, actually got to the "put your story here" box, only to be asked to sign in yet again, thus erasing the link to the page to post. I'm out of time on this. All I know is Wikipedia's user interface is not friendly and this article title should not have stayed up after our warning. It needs to be taken down and removed from the offensive user so someone can give people the right information in a timely manner. I don't have to control the words in it but someone with a name like "Hey ladies, come and get me" is not the appropriate owner.

So issues are: -someone needs to delete that old headline -someone needs to delete the "offensive person" from the post and topic altogether -someone needs to fix the user interface so a new user can post something more easily

—Preceding unsigned comment added by SiliconValleyMichelle (talk • contribs) 23:33, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

GREAT IDEA!!!!!

hey you guys should do something when people sign in its brings it to a home page and brings up new articles everytime based on you past searches —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.194.132.152 (talk) 08:50, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

I love you

You are the greatest. I use Wikipedia all the time, just like everyone else. Man, it sure would be bad if someone corrupt/evil got a hold of this wonderful tool and used it for evil. I hope that never happens.

Stay just the way you are,

<3 A Happy User

"personal appeal" from J. Wales

I live in Amsterdam. I was reading en.wikipedia.org. I clicked on the "personal appeal" from J. Wales. I got a page in dutch. This is obviously not correct. Even supposing I could read dutch, not everyone who lives in this country speaks dutch. This is a major fail. You also make it extremely difficult to find a place to leave feedback. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.161.35.206 (talk) 05:36, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

প্রথমত, উইকিহিডিয়াতে যে ভাবে বাংলা লেখা হয়, বাংলা আসলে সে ভাবে বলা বা লেখা হয় না। এমন কী, বাংলাদেশের বাংলা বলা বা লেখার ধরণ ভারতের থেকে আলাদা। যার কনওটার সাথেই উইকিপিডিয়ার বাংলা মেলে না। এমনকি বেশ কিছু জিনিস পড়ে বোঝাও যায় না। কিছু জায়গায় জোর করে বাংলা লেখা হয়। যেমন Cup কে বাংলায় পেয়ালা বলা হয়, Chair কে বলা হয় কেদারা, কিন্তু কেউই এই শব্দ গুলো বলেন না। ইংরাজি শব্দই ব্যবহার করা হয়। এই সাইটের বাংলা পড়লে মনে হয় কোনও ইংরাজি লেখাকে আক্ষরিক ভাবে বাংলায় আনুবাদ করা হয়েছে। আমি জানি না যে উইকিপিডিয়ার বাংলা লেখাগুলি কে সম্পাদনা করেন। কিন্তু আমার প্রিয়তম ওয়েবসাইটি যদি এই পথে এগোয় তবে বাঙ্গালীর কোনও কাজে লাগবে না। —Preceding unsigned comment added by Inkelabzindabad (talk • contribs) 15:37, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Dude... change your browser/internet settings. Just like you use google and it knows where you are based on your ip. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.70.255.151 (talk) 18:45, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Thank You

I would like to thank you for creating this wonderful Encyclopedia its the best Encyclopedia ever made in history and it will remain the best i want you to say Thank you for spreading the knowledge all over the globe free of cost and i am proud of being member of it —Preceding unsigned comment added by Koolkeval007 (talk • contribs) 16:34, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

failed to make a donation

I tried to make a donation several times, from different browsers (IE7, Firefox 3.6.12), but the transactions were all failed with the following information:

"Your transaction could not be accepted. There was an error processing your transaction. Please try again later. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.224.148.156 (talk) 21:28, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Message from Mike Posner

I use Wikipedia almost every day.

I read your message for the donations from users. I highly agree that you should be earning a revenue from this website. It's highly useful (even if the info isn't always correct!)

Advertise on it. Accept advertisers and do it in a non intrusive way. It won't bother me or most users if it's done in a way that doesn't interfere with our experience. You guys deserve to make money off of this site and donations aren't gonna cut it. I think we all appreciate the attempt to keep it free from advertising but no successful business can maintain that.

Your ideas and work deserves to be paid and rewarded.

Kevin —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.70.255.151 (talk) 18:41, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

"no successful business can maintain that"

Good thing this isn't a business. Wikipedia just needs to pay it's bills, we don't need to make a profit. Donated money is not used to pay people for editing Wikipedia, editors are all volunteers. Beeblebrox (talk) 19:12, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

how long?

I know this has been asked before, but it never seems to get answered. How long are the "new features" and "take me back" links going to stay at the top of the page? Any experienced user has made their choice by now, and a new user doesn't know the difference anyway. Seems kind of silly to keep them up this long, is there a date set for removal? Beeblebrox (talk) 19:15, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Taking it to the people

Since this question has been ignored at least three times now, I have opened a community discussion on the subject at Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)#New features/Take me back links. Beeblebrox (talk) 22:04, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Jimmy Wales Mug all over Wikipedia - Egomaniac?

Why does Jimmy Wales have to plaster his mug all over Wikipedia? Does he think he is so good-looking, people will fork over $ for his panhandling if he puts his face all over the website? I am sick of looking at him. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.177.23.15 (talk) 02:59, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Really like the look and style

I'm so amazed at the level of information here and I'm glad that it seems knowledgeably written by the contributors. THE LOOK and LAYOUT OF INFO is really so well done. I REFER SPECIFICALLY to the details presented on the page "DANCE ON SUNSET". This layout of info and dates and program details about this particular TV SHOW was so nicely done with great info provided and with layout so clean and easy to read that I'm just delighted to use it. I was looking at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, also nicely laid out and jammed with amazing detailed info, and decided to click the name of the "DANCE ON SUNSET" link as I used to enjoy that show too. So that's the reason for the enjoyment of being able to QUICKLY read through the FACTS AND DATES. LOVE IT. Readers of this can check it out if need. I don't have chance to use Wiki very often at this time, so maybe the pages have looked this great for some time. Either way, keep up the good work. I hope all articles are easy to read like that. The font is great, the title area is perfect, the TABLE ITEMS are superb.

 Also I don't mind the FOUNDER having a banner note to provide user info posted at page top for

all users to see. That provides some unity to the efforts of all the good contributors as they are adding info to the articles. Having some common sense rules put forth is always good to keep it so nice and classy as it is, and I hope it stays that way. ALSO ENJOY THE WIKI HOME PAGE. Nice to have that for some unity as a solid entity as well. Thanks - frank, in lincoln nebraska (hisroyalness) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hisroyalness (talk • contribs) 06:25, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Tried to make credit card donation, foiled.

Tried to make a donation just now -- after filling out information, was informed you needed my address and postal code -- why? -- though, curiously, not my country (not USA). Filled it out. Then presented with the little box with the mucked-up characters, filled it out, then forcibly returned to screen to fill in credit card information -- again. No. I gave up. Now have spent another five minutes going through a labarynth to try to leave you folks a message. Makes automated phone answering systems seem utterly user-frienly by comparison. Is this as straightforward as you can make it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.224.73.38 (talk) 23:52, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

having more discussion

I think its better to have a meaning of names because for sure teens will like it, especially my classmates.. I'm just requesting if you cant have it, well its OK with me. thank you for your time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thena puff (talk • contribs) 12:19, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Jimmy Wales ---- Uggggh

Please, get Jimmy Wales face off of Wikipedia, Ugggh, Uggh, puke, puke —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.249.121.90 (talk) 12:50, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Why Arn't There 6 Tabs?

There should be 6 tabs: 2 each of the article and discussion page of reading, editing and history.199.126.224.245 (talk) 11:59, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

MAKE HIM STOP STARING AT ME

please please PLEASE take down jimmy's picture everywhere on wiki. it's like being stared at by a child molester (yes, jimmy, you look like one, blame your parents if you must.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.171.112.218 (talk) 07:52, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Hi Jimmy wales put some adds instead of your sweet face to earn money.

Hi Jimmy wales , no doubt you’re one of the great achiever, built one on of the most searched website who helped millions and equally damaged millions with unverified , misleading content. Running nonprofit organization with donations is great as long as it is meaningful and people willing to donate without any appeal. I see big banner of “Personal appeal” for 2 to 3 months every year, if you use same banner for advertisement I’m sure Wikipedia can earn enough money to run its shop. Somebody should not beg when they have power to earn. I agree displaying adds is ugly, But for me it does not make any difference from displaying big Personal appeal banner. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.184.58.125 (talk) 09:05, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Suggestion: add button to save any Wikipedia page as a PDF file

I think this would be super useful and many users would appreciate it. There is already open source programs that can accomplish this quite easily. WDYT? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.93.172.48 (talk) 09:18, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Sable232

Sable232 is out of control read the post about his talks with other users. Sable232 is blocking users because they do not meet his view points. He has also removed information which is true an accurate such as Chevy Cruz is the replacement for the Saturn ION. One can go to GM and find the replacement match for their Saturn counterpart and the car is the Cruz, Sable232 has removed this information. I have received a warning from him and if I edited anymore I will be blocked because of vandalism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Sable232#Warning.3F —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.117.123.72 (talk) 14:38, 20 November 2010 (UTC)