Consider moving the "desktop version" button to the toolbar for accessibility
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	Daimona
	Mar 20 2021, 11:52 AM

Description

Original proposal

In this discussion on itwiki, several users expressed concerns about the positioning of the "desktop version" button in the mobile version. Right now it is located at the bottom of the page, which, according to these users, is hard to find and hard to reach (because you have to scroll down to the end of the page).

The proposal there is to place the button somewhere more visibile, e.g. in the sidebar. I think an option might be to move it under "Settings", i.e. similar to what the following code would do on-wiki:

mw.util.addPortletLink(
    	'pt-preferences',
    	mw.util.getUrl( mw.config.get( 'wgPageName' ), { mobileaction: 'toggle_view_desktop' } ),
    	'Desktop version',
    	''
);

The link at the end of the page could stay anyway.

Proposal from stjn

In T337709, @stjn wrote:

Users in cases like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36114385 do not discover easily that you can switch from the mobile website entirely by using ‘Desktop version’ switcher. In general, it is pretty hard to find: you have to scroll all the way to the bottom and click on a small last link in the series. I propose that, to improve discoverability for those who for any reason want to switch to the desktop website on their phones/tablets (last time I’ve done it because I was logged-out [and didn’t want to go through 2FA login] and needed to look at some ‘advanced’ links), it can be added to Minerva’s navigation drawer’s footer.

(Honestly, I don’t get why flyout navigation footer links and general footer links differ in the first place. Could be good to just keep it simple in this case and make them the same.)

Related Objects

Mentioned Here: T337709: Add Desktop version link to Minerva’s navigation drawer

Event Timeline

Daimona created this task.Mar 20 2021, 11:52 AM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptMar 20 2021, 11:52 AM

Jdlrobson added a project: Web-Team-Backlog.Mar 22 2021, 10:42 PM

Jdlrobson added a subscriber: • alexhollender_WMF.

Jdlrobson assigned this task to ovasileva.Mar 24 2021, 11:05 PM

Jdlrobson moved this task from Incoming to Needs Prioritization on the Web-Team-Backlog board.

ovasileva triaged this task as Low priority.Mar 25 2021, 9:13 AM

ovasileva moved this task from Needs Prioritization to Triaged but Future on the Web-Team-Backlog board.

Jdlrobson moved this task from Backlog to Team: web on the MobileFrontend board.May 4 2021, 9:15 PM

This task was closed as part of backlog upkeep. If you believe it was closed in error, please respond on the ticket.

Legoktm reopened this task as Open.Jul 19 2021, 3:09 AM

Legoktm removed a project: Web-Team-Backlog.Jul 19 2021, 3:12 AM

My understanding of the sidebar is that it's for the main navigational items of the website. While going to the desktop site is important in certain cases, I think it would be difficult to justify putting in the sidebar. I wonder if we can find some data about how often that link gets tapped, which may help us clarify what is an appropriate place for it?

From a technical point of view, MobileFrontend expects the mobile link to be in a consistent place across skins (currently the footer). The Minerva main menu is non-standard at time of writing so it would be impossible to add an item in the main menu consistently across all skins.

A project could add a user script or gadget for adding a link into the mobile main menu, but be wary this may lead to some confusion as some users may come to expect that in the sidebar (which it wouldn't for the desktop site).

Doing this inside MobileFrontend thus requires a lot of user testing and data analysis which we currently do not have bandwidth for and this is why it was previously declined.

Jdlrobson moved this task from Untriaged to Discuss further on the Web-Team-Backlog (Tracking) board.Sep 16 2021, 4:44 PM

Declining, the sidebar is reserved for navigational items and links.

For those who want a solution to the original problem posed here, the "responsive" mode preference in Special:Preferences is the best way to serve this use case IMO. When checked, it will disable the viewport making it quicker to access the link in the footer.

In T278004#8915221, @Jdlrobson wrote:

For those who want a solution to the original problem posed here, the "responsive" mode preference in Special:Preferences is the best way to serve this use case IMO. When checked, it will disable the viewport making it quicker to access the link in the footer.

That is a highly technical solution that is weird to suggest to regular readers. What is the problem with just putting the link in the navigation drawer? ‘It is for navigation’ is not a sufficient answer: ‘Disclaimers’ link is also not really the best navigation item and it is still there.

In T278004#8916426, @stjn wrote:

What is the problem with just putting the link in the navigation drawer? ‘It is for navigation’ is not a sufficient answer: ‘Disclaimers’ link is also not really the best navigation item and it is still there.

From a technical perspective, doing this would also add the "Mobile link" to desktop skins like so (Monobook shown):

Screenshot 2023-06-08 at 3.52.48 PM.png (302×623 px, 88 KB)

since the desktop/mobile link is consistently added to the same place. I'm not sure what people would make of that. I'll let the designer/Olga reply about the design-thinking aspect of this.

I’m not proposing to add it to navigation portlet though, I am saying it should be in the same ‘navigation footer links’ place as ‘About Wikipedia’ and ‘Disclaimers’ links. I’m pretty sure that is unique to the mobile version, and won’t do anything to desktop version.

I’m pretty sure that is unique to the mobile version, and won’t do anything to desktop version.

That will be changing soon. We're working towards consolidating menus in mobile and desktop skin for gadgets.

Well, in that case, wouldn’t consolidating footer links in both versions of Minerva’s footer work fine to see this task accomplished? As I’ve proposed in the now merged T337709: Add Desktop version link to Minerva’s navigation drawer

Novem_Linguae subscribed.Jun 9 2023, 12:56 AM

Since my task was merged as duplicate to a task with a slightly different intention, I’ll boldly re-open it so that intention can also be discussed. I don’t think ‘navigation is for navigational links’ is enough of a justification to deny putting desktop version link in a more prominent place at all, it should just not be a navigation item.

Izno subscribed.Jun 28 2023, 2:36 AM

@ovasileva: Per emails from Sep18 and Oct20 and https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Bug_management/Assignee_cleanup , I am resetting the assignee of this task because there has not been progress lately (please correct me if I am wrong!). Resetting the assignee avoids the impression that somebody is already working on this task. It also allows others to potentially work towards fixing this task. Please claim this task again when you plan to work on it (via Add Action... → Assign / Claim in the dropdown menu) - it would be welcome. Thanks for your understanding!

	F37098593: Screenshot 2023-06-08 at 3.52.48 PM.png
	Jun 8 2023, 10:56 PM

Consider moving the "desktop version" button to the toolbar for accessibilityOpen, LowestPublicActions