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Display settings and input settings should have their own labelled buttons in the languages dropdown in Vector 2022, instead of the cog icon or three dots
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Authored By
The_Discoverer
Jan 13 2023, 7:36 PM
Referenced Files
F36201575: e1.png
Jan 13 2023, 7:36 PM
F36201574: e2.png
Jan 13 2023, 7:36 PM
F36201566: b1.png
Jan 13 2023, 7:36 PM
F36201555: 4.png
Jan 13 2023, 7:36 PM
F36201551: 2.png
Jan 13 2023, 7:36 PM
F36201552: 1.png
Jan 13 2023, 7:36 PM
F36201554: 3.png
Jan 13 2023, 7:36 PM

Description

Easy access to the display language settings and input settings are important for users of multilingual wikis (like Commons) and multi-script wikis (like gomwiki). In the Vector 2022 skin, access to these is through the languages dropdown and then either a cog icon or three dots. These are not intuitive for first-time users, and the situation is that you only know what the cog icon does if you know what it does.

Instead of accessing the display language and input settings through another (cog) button, these should have their own buttons in the 'languages' dropdown, something similar to how it is when ULS is in the personal toolbar. That approach is much more accessible and clear than having to guess what the cog icon does, even if it is labelled 'Language settings'.

Examples of unintuitive access to display languages and input languages (existing situation)
3.png (498×1 px, 68 KB)
1.png (484×1 px, 35 KB)
2.png (509×1 px, 34 KB)
4.png (338×362 px, 14 KB)
A little better, atleast in this mockup from T316559, the cog icon is labelled
b1.png (529×769 px, 133 KB)
Recommended UI: display languages and input settings get their own buttons inside the Languages dropdown
e2.png (538×1 px, 156 KB)
e1.png (786×1 px, 250 KB)

Event Timeline

I like this approach. I'd also strongly encourage making it 2-3x less wide, and making the lineheight no greater than that of the article.
The excess whitespace is distracting and repaints an unnecessarily large part of the page.

Pginer-WMF subscribed.

The language selector integrates multiple options related to languages. However, the main and most frequent use is to switch content language. In terms of prominence it makes sense to keep most of the focus for that and separate more advanced options.

With the recent improvements in this area to provide separate access to contribution and settings (T323694), and the use of empty states (where additional options are labelled more prominently) I think we can consider this cycle of improvements complete. Note that once the new front-end technology is more available, we may need to rewrite the language selector (T287860) and it will be a good time to reevaluate the research and designs for it.