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Update footer image links on all MediaWiki skins to be legible and accessible
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Description

Problem
Image links
image.png (128×470 px, 19 KB)
full desktop footer
image.png (278×2 px, 98 KB)

There are two image links in the footer of Wikipedia (and all MediaWiki skins) to provide movement awareness ("A Wikimedia Project") and software trademark ("Powered by Mediawiki") respectively. Both these image links are not accessible and inaccurate in the following ways:

  • Font-size of the image text is small. Generally does not appear to correspond with apt use of image text as defined in WCAG 1.4.5
  • PNG with alt text which is not translatable (e.g. it's English in French Wikipedia)
  • It is not readable by screen readers.
  • Design and rendered as a 'button' styling which may be misleading as it opens as a link to external sites
Related
Design considerations
  • Should these continue to be image links styled as buttons?
  • Can the links be revised to separate the logo/favicon from the text to be more translatable? (similar to the portal page display of projects?)
  • Where else do these buttons appear that may be impacted by design changes?
Acceptance criteria
  • Revised design of the image links to be more accessible (legible, readable by screenreader, etc)

Event Timeline

By the way, this is a little strange: 'A Wikimedia project' badge is a link to https://wikimediafoundation.org/ not to https://wikimedia.org/.

@Volker_E I want to hear your opinion, if you can, please :)

@Iniquity I agree with you, but bumping up the font-size would be a too-narrow solution, as those buttons have all kinds of issues, including not following any Style Guide any more, nor any of our interface guidelines. But given that MediaWiki community is a different one than Wikimedia, it would need an agreement from a lot of stakeholders to move this forward and this task would need to have widened its scope or be part of a larger task addressing above.

@Volker_E Thanks for the comment :) In my opinion, at least they can be replaced with plain text.

IMHO, changing logo in the footer is needed, doing some refinements of the old buttons is also nice (like dropping the shadows) but anything drastic is going to cause a backlash if done without a proper community-based decision making. So I recommend keeping changes to a minimum (we also need to replace the logo in a million places, let's not bloat the work too much)

IMHO, changing logo in the footer is needed, doing some refinements of the old buttons is also nice (like dropping the shadows) but anything drastic is going to cause a backlash if done without a proper community-based decision making. So I recommend keeping changes to a minimum (we also need to replace the logo in a million places, let's not bloat the work too much)

In any case, these buttons need to be fixed, this is the only visible interface element that violates absolutely all recommendations for accessibility :)

The proposed one that got votes is this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Powered_by_MediaWiki_proposal_(gradient_translucent,_capitalised).svg

image.png (81×156 px, 7 KB)

We can reuse this for "Wikimedia" button as well.

We re-uploaded all logos in their pure form to keep the competition versions competitive.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:MediaWiki_logo_(2020)

I think since the deployment of the logo is very close, then we can start discussing this issue. Tell me where to start a discussion? :)

I think this can go independent of the mediawiki logo change (possibly later). I think reading web (@ovasileva and @alexhollender ) can take ownership of this once they are a little bit less busy?

It would be nice if there was a template or guidelines on what the new "Powered by" images should use. For MediaWiki-Debian we have https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Powered_by_Debian.svg and I want to make sure it stays in sync with whatever changes are implemented in core.

Related:

This is not at all blocked by T42465; if anything, the reverse.

Maybe we return to this issue in connection with the launch of a new design? :)

I'm sorta on it. Started the discussions about this a week ago on resourcing and timeline. No promises. It doesn't have to be done at the same time of DIP specially since it means more work for reading web team.

Thank you for answer :) I will wait!

I'm sorta on it. Started the discussions about this a week ago on resourcing and timeline. No promises. It doesn't have to be done at the same time of DIP specially since it means more work for reading web team.

Hello! Is there any summary of this discussion? :)

I revived the discussions, will keep you posted.

I revived the discussions, will keep you posted.

Thank you! :)

@Iniquity @Jdlrobson do you mind providing links to any context on this issue? I need to wrap my head around the discussion to date before we can make a decision.

@DTorsani-WMF This might be something you and I could work on. Stay tuned.

@RHo do you have any background on this?

Moving back to incoming until I have enough context to move forward on this one.

Let me know if I can help on providing more context on this.

Reedy renamed this task from Remove or remodel small site ownership icons which used in every MediaWiki skin to Remove or remodel small site ownership icons which are used in every MediaWiki skin.Mar 18 2024, 4:17 PM

The context is that if you visit any page in desktop, at the bottom there are two buttons that show "this is part of wikimedia movement" (movement awareness) and "this is powered by mediawiki" (software trademark).

grafik.png (957×1 px, 339 KB)

The issues:

  • It doesn't show up in mobile
  • it is too small
  • It is PNG
  • the design is subpar (the old apple key look?)
  • the link to wikimedia project goes to the foundation. Brand team said it'd be better for that to link to https://wikimedia.org but that aforementioned page needs a complete redesign (and more prominent link to wmf)

There are also discussions to be had around the larger footer issues. e.g. parts of the footer that's missing in mobile and lack of any branding to "wikimedia" or "wmf" in mobile. The legal text being different in mobile and desktop and generally many more footer clean ups that can be done. But I'd assume that is outside of scope of this ticket

The context is that if you visit any page in desktop, at the bottom there are two buttons that show "this is part of wikimedia movement" (movement awareness) and "this is powered by mediawiki" (software trademark).

grafik.png (957×1 px, 339 KB)

The issues:

  • It doesn't show up in mobile
  • it is too small
  • It is PNG
  • the design is subpar (the old apple key look?)
  • the link to wikimedia project goes to the foundation. Brand team said it'd be better for that to link to https://wikimedia.org but that aforementioned page needs a complete redesign (and more prominent link to wmf)

There are also discussions to be had around the larger footer issues. e.g. parts of the footer that's missing in mobile and lack of any branding to "wikimedia" or "wmf" in mobile. The legal text being different in mobile and desktop and generally many more footer clean ups that can be done. But I'd assume that is outside of scope of this ticket

Thanks @Ladsgroup for articulating the issues. I am going to update the task description to capture the issues as you stated, as well as update the graphic to the new status quo (the new mediawiki logo button has been changed since the task was first filed). The mobile footer differences is captured separately on T310071: Update mobile footer to be more consistent with desktop footer and T240807: Change footer of mobile

RHo renamed this task from Remove or remodel small site ownership icons which are used in every MediaWiki skin to Update footer image links on all MediaWiki skins to be legible and accessible.Wed, Mar 20, 6:03 PM
RHo added a project: Wikimedia-Design.
RHo updated the task description. (Show Details)