Acknowledged, thank you.

(Next time, please allow at least two weeks between when announcement goes out and change happens. This means that if you want our team involved, you need to think about it way in advance :) )

I am pretty sure you sent out announcements before, what's different now that you need us?
I am gathering that you only want to send out a heads-up, since there wouldn't be much time for people to review the mockups in the task and provide feedback before the change happens.

I put https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tech%2FNews%2F2018%2F12&type=revision&diff=17836459&oldid=17836446 into Tech News, that will barely be enough since it reaches people just the day before change hits. Please review - it gets frozen for translations in a while.

Tech News ends at several Village Pumps, so it could be enough to flag a change that "only" affects VE/2017WE.

If you can write a short, concise update, it could also be shared/crossposted with wikitech-l, ambassadors-l, design-l .

Does this work for you?

Is this going to change the width of the toolbar's buttons? If so, then some users will find that the toolbar wraps at their preferred/needed zoom, and that it didn't do this beforehand.

Thanks for your inputs @Elitre! For the rollout plan: This is planned to happen in OOUI v0.26.0, which is – if everything goes right – scheduled for next Tuesday and won't be in first production wikis until one week later, starting Tuesday 27 March. But it's not merged yet!
So the Tech News announcement seems too early here.

@Whatamidoing-WMF This is going to change the width slightly by increasing the width by 2px resulting in current VE interface with its 13 elements in a horizontal space increase of 26px – yes, this might result in certain cases in unexpected wrapping. We could see to tame this or possibly considering horizontally decreasing needed space. But first I need to have general feedback by VE developers about the current code.

So the Tech News announcement seems too early here.

I've removed it.

In T189564#4054753, @Volker_E wrote:

But first I need to have general feedback by VE developers about the current code.

Assuming this is before merging, correct?

Volker, have you been thinking about a general solution to the wrapped-toolbars problem? I know it's not in scope for this task, of course, but it's a really big problem for some users (and for me, whenever I need to make high-resolution screenshots).

In T189564#4056478, @Elitre wrote:

In T189564#4054753, @Volker_E wrote:

But first I need to have general feedback by VE developers about the current code.

Assuming this is before merging, correct?

@Elitre Yes, for sure. The current patch set stack is https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/416919/ and is also connected to the parent task T97631 where gerritbot will announce when it's merged.

@Whatamidoing-WMF There are a few issues with toolbar and overflowing items, which one are you referring to here?

In T189564#4054753, @Volker_E wrote:

@Whatamidoing-WMF This is going to change the width slightly by increasing the width by 2px resulting in current VE interface with its 13 elements in a horizontal space increase of 26px – yes, this might result in certain cases in unexpected wrapping. We could see to tame this or possibly considering horizontally decreasing needed space. But first I need to have general feedback by VE developers about the current code.

I think this would be very helpful to pursue. The current linewrap is triggered at various widths depending on my browser and logged-in status, but the IP-editor in Firefox Mint-Linux window is getting it at around ~1033px, and logged-in Firefox at ~994px. IP-editor in Chromium (not in screenshot) gets it at ~1010px, and logged-in at ~951px.
That's all right around the 1024px that a few people still have as monitor size, so any space-savings will be potentially impactful.
(Obviously those widths differ by language, too!)

In T189564#4057748, @Volker_E wrote:

In T189564#4056478, @Elitre wrote:

In T189564#4054753, @Volker_E wrote:

But first I need to have general feedback by VE developers about the current code.

Assuming this is before merging, correct?

@Elitre Yes, for sure. The current patch set stack is https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/416919/ and is also connected to the parent task T97631 where gerritbot will announce when it's merged.

@Whatamidoing-WMF There are a few issues with toolbar and overflowing items, which one are you referring to here?

Given the Tech News deadline, we need to make sure we put it in there the week before people get it on their computers. Mind that TN is usually delivered on Mondays (but we should pay particular attention to make sure people have enough time to get it and actually read it before it's live, and that's tricky with timezones and all).
The fact that it will also impact Structured Discussions seems relevant enough to mention that explicitly, so keep the info coming :)

Reposting the suggested text for TN:

*<translate>The interface for the visual editor and the 2017 wikitext editor is going to change. The toolbar, dialogs and menus will appear slightly bigger; some icons will look different. Content or functionality will not change.</translate> [https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T97631]

@Volker_E please review and let me know if there is anything else that needs to be communicated. The message doesn't mention Structured Discussions yet, for example. This needs to go into Tech News today.
This is the only message that goes out: it will be copied verbatim in the mailing lists I had mentioned. If you need to add anything, please let us know what that would be.

@Elitre Hmm, this is just emphasizing on the slight growth in VE, but not about the unification of interface and shrinking sizes in f.e. RCFilters?
Let me know what you think about:

*<translate>The interface for VisualEditor together with the 2017 wikitext editor and other interfaces of Special:Pages like Recent Changes have been harmonized in size and iconography. While editor toolbars, dialogs and menus will appear slightly bigger; elements on Special:Pages will be slightly smaller. Content or functionality will not change.</translate> [https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T97631]

Should we refer to more than this task?

In T189564#4074854, @Volker_E wrote:

@Elitre Hmm, this is just emphasizing on the slight growth in VE, but not about the unification of interface and shrinking sizes in f.e. RCFilters?

How would I know about that? :) See the title and description of this task you filed. Because we are only involved now, we can only spread the information you share with us here :)

Let me know what you think about:

*<translate>The interface for VisualEditor together with the 2017 wikitext editor and other interfaces of Special:Pages like Recent Changes have been harmonized in size and iconography. While editor toolbars, dialogs and menus will appear slightly bigger; elements on Special:Pages will be slightly smaller. Content or functionality will not change.</translate> [https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T97631]

Should we refer to more than this task?

@Quiddity , please note that the change is not just about icons :)

@Volker_E , we'll have final wording in place in some hours, because the text needs to be frozen for translation. However, feel free to provide links to any tasks or pages that you feel relevant: those are not part of the translated bits and you can submit them between now and Monday. (Note that people have a tendency to consider those links as the place they would go to to also provide feedback or ask questions.)

HTH!

In T189564#4057428, @Whatamidoing-WMF wrote:

Volker, have you been thinking about a general solution to the wrapped-toolbars problem? I know it's not in scope for this task, of course, but it's a really big problem for some users (and for me, whenever I need to make high-resolution screenshots).

I think this is what T190479 is for!

I've put the 2 related changes into 1 news item, and emphasized the more noticeable aspect, like so:

Some of the interface icons and text sizes will change slightly, as part of the updates for improved accessibility and consistency. These icons are used in many features, including Notifications, Recent Changes, Beta Features, Visual Editor, 2017 Wikitext Editor, Code Editor, and others. While editor toolbars, dialogs, and menus will appear slightly bigger; elements on Special:Pages will be slightly smaller. Functionality will not change. [1] [2]

I used simple language (no "harmonized"! :-) and a list of examples so readers could understand the scope. I'll freeze it for final translations within the next hour or so. Let me know if you have any concerns with that wording, otherwise I'll assume it's good to go.

@Quiddity Small comment, “elements on Special Pages and Notifications“

@Volker_E , I see you sent out https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2018-March/089679.html .
It's a good piece of communication. Should it just be cross-posted to a few more mailing lists, or is there a specific, different message that you want to be conveyed to a specific audience?
I guess I am still confused as to what you were hoping to get out of our involvement, since you seem to be doing fine already, and when you would consider this task done. Thanks!

@Elitre Maybe “support” was too much cautiously forecasting. If feedback were to boil up, I thought it might be good to point you early-on to the resources, tasks and reasons for the changes as users are often more sensitive to visual changes…?!

In T189564#4081884, @Volker_E wrote:

@Elitre Maybe “support” was too much cautiously forecasting. If feedback were to boil up, I thought it might be good to point you early-on to the resources, tasks and reasons for the changes as users are often more sensitive to visual changes…?!

Not a big deal, we definitely appreciated the headsup :D

This was the last task I was evaluated on. @Qgil would it be useful to move it?