In a post on The Signpost, Wikimedia Foundation Senior Designer Brandon Harris outlined a radical set of goals to improve Wikipedia over the next year. In short, the encyclopaedia is a broken, disorganised mess and the whole system for creating and editing articles needs a fundamental overhaul. Here’s how he plans to fix it.
Wikipedia is bleeding editors, but that’s just a symptom of the problem with Wikipedia. According to Harris, the encyclopedia’s software is outmoded and hard to use, which keeps many would-be contributors from getting their hands dirty:
Let’s face it: our interface would feel right at home in the year 2002. However, we find ourselves rapidly moving towards 2013. Our editors and readers deserve a modern interface with modern tools.
The plan, then, is to introduce a series new features that bring the encyclopedia up to speed with current trends in design and user experience. The goals for the next year include real-time notifications, an overhauled talk-page system, making mobile contributions easier, and a new data-rich “Global Profile” for users. [The Signpost via Hacker News]
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