ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ:Vector

Screenshot of skin.

Vector is a MediaWiki skin that has been designed with the goal of increasing usability. It was part of a site-wide beta test. On May 13, 2010, Vector was made the default skin on the English Wikipedia.

Why?

It is one of the first in a series of steps undertaken by the Wikipedia Usability Initiative, to create a more welcoming, understandable and useable website interface for readers and novice editors, in an effort to increase participation in editing among the public. Also the new Vector theme comprises a new sleek look which has been designed to be pleasing to the eye.

What has changed?

Not that much. The most visible to many people will be the visual changes of course. Different tabs and a moved search box. There is also a new toolbar and recently the Search results page has changed. All this is part of the first stage of the Usability Initiative and is called Acai. The skin will change several more times before the end of the project, and other elements such as the toolbar are also only the start of changes to come. See for instance the ideas for Babaco, the next step of these changes.

Did I ask for this?

No, most likely not. But change is not bad, Wikipedia will have to evolve and there are bound to be some things you might not like. Therefore there is a Beta period and a Feedback form, so that you can tell what you like and what you hate. Do remember however that there is no perfect design, for all users. The Monobook design is very "utilitarian" and optimized for editor usage. It can however also be cluttered, "busy", and confusing to readers. The Usability initiative is trying to strike a balance between both groups of course, but not everyone will be satisfied. Be aware however, that editors can always use CSS and JS extensions to change the interface to their heart's content. You will never be REQUIRED to switch and even if the skin does become the default skin, you will be able continue using Monobook if you prefer.

Feedback

• Usability wiki for project feedback
• Bugzilla for technical issues.

My gadgets and JavaScript tools are broken

Some gadgets and scripts might be broken. However the most popular tools should all be working. If you find an issue, be sure to contact the developer or maintainer of the javascript tool. Also you should not forget that many users use their monobook.js for their tools, but under vector you will need to use vector.js. A quick way is to put importScript('User:YourName/monobook.js'); into your vector.js