Author: decoy
Description:
extra version info from the source of en.wikipedia.org: <meta name="generator" content="MediaWiki 1.14alpha" />
The current user interface wrt diffs in wikipedia is *very* good, *except* for the initial impression which ought to let you know the simplest basics. That is:
-on the referred page, it is quite difficult to see "at first glance"/holistically (i.e. within the first .15sec or so, without reading anything) which column is the new and which the old version; this is a dire usability issue because edit histories are commonly used to quickly check:
--"what the hell just happened, should i perhaps revert", a function which should be easy and fast for a newbie even if the actual revert link is toned down a bit, and
--to check "what happened since i last edited this article, out of perhaps a thousand which i follow". in the second case you might think learning does its job, but visual guidance still helps that crucial millisecond or two per article, which compounds into usability for the expert editor.
-secondarily that sort of colour or symbolic coding should be extended to the primary "history" page, so that the common initial confusion about the roles of the two columns of checkboxes could be mitigated
--especially while browsing rapidly over many edit log entries, and perhaps not even seeing the first ones, it'd be worthwhile to get a single column division, and especially a consistent colour coding with the rest of the age markers inside wiki(p|m)edia; column coding helps in that a lot even for senior editors, i think
-tertiarily, it'd be *really* neat to get the edit history display to shade down the edits by timestamp; that'd let you easily decide which edits are the most recent against the baseline you chose, intensity shading against time ought to be easily implementable in your framework, it'd be perceivable by colour blind people as well, and it wouldn't disturb your colour scheme otherwise
--so by the above, i mean, do not touch colours, but just intensity values of them
Version: 1.14.x
Severity: enhancement
OS: Windows XP
Platform: PC
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ayaan_Hirsi_Ali&diff=226799355&oldid=216481728