Feature summary (what you would like to be able to do and where):
In Wikipedia, the language dropdown shows lots of different languages with a large set of "Suggested languages at the top and all the rest sorted by continent.
The place of the links for the languages actually relevant to the user always vary and have first to be manually found by manually looking through the of the long list of languages.
Most users aren't very interested in dozens or hundreds of other language versions because they only speak one to four languages.
Enabling the user to pin a few languages they'd like to see in the always same order always at the top would make it much easier and quicker to switch between languages.
The image shows how it could look like and better illustrates what I mean:
Here the user has pinned the following languages: German, French, Spanish, Simple English, English (article open is English)
Use case(s) (list the steps that you performed to discover that problem, and describe the actual underlying problem which you want to solve. Do not describe only a solution):
For example, I'd like to set English, German, simple English Wikipedia and maybe a few more that I can manage to understand and write somewhat. Just with a click I could then see whether/which of these exist and consider switching to them. THis is also useful in smaller language versions where if English is set as preferred language there, it becomes much easier to switch to the ENWP article which very often is much more comprehensive and up-to-date.
Benefits (why should this be implemented?):
Enabling the user to pin a few languages they'd like to see in the always same order always at the top would make it much easier and quicker to switch between languages.
Additionally, it makes it much much easier for users to see that a simple English Wikipedia version exists and quickly switch to it in case the article is too long and complex (one of the biggest Wikipedia problems in the real world today). It also motivates users to take a short look at that dropdown more often as they will be able to expect to find out whether it exists in their preferred alternative language(s) fairly quickly and without mental exhaustion.
One could even use blurred colors in the background of the dropdown with one color assigned to each of 10 maximum preferred languages and then color the large button accordingly so one can see without even clicking it in which of the languages it's available in. T344028: The "missing relevant languages banner" with slow loading makes the interwiki links jump down addressed parts of the problems to some extent; having pinned language would address it much further. Note that instead of uselessly showing random languages the article is not available in, that panel would then only show the pinned languages the article is not available in so as to be of actual relevance to the user. The pencil edit button allows to easily reconfigure the pinned languages in a self-explanatory way (this can also be done via the settings wheel in the bottom right).
This also incentivizes users to register on Wikipedia and log in / stay logged in because they then can configure their preferred languages and more easily switch to them.
Adding functionality for pinned languages helps the information needs of the readers and makes them stay within the Wikiverse instead of going off-site to look for the info elsewhere (e.g. to a website that explains it in simpler terms or a site that has the information that the DEWP article does not but which would be in the ENWP article) or to switch to their language version whether some info in the article is also present there to improve it if needed etc. There's many reasons for why improving language switching has lots of benefits.
UX flow
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Entry point
- The user opens the article language dropdown.
- The user clicks the settings gear in the dropdown.
- By default the Preferred languages settings surface is open.
Empty state
- If the user has no preferred languages set, the user sees an empty configuration state.
- The empty state explains what preferred languages do.
- The user can search for languages to add.
Search and selection
- The user searches by language name.
- Matching languages appear in the results list.
- Selected languages are added to the preferred list.
- The preferred list is limited to up to [final number] languages.
- The order shown is the same order the user added them.
Apply settings
- The user confirms the selection with Apply settings.
- Closing without applying does not save changes.
Dropdown after save
- After saving, the article language dropdown shows a Preferred languages section at the top.
- Preferred languages replace the heuristic Suggested section.
- The remaining languages continue to appear in the full language list below.
Design details
Left-rail tab: "Preferred languages"
Third row in the Language settings dialog, after Display and Input.
- Icon: language glyph (same as the article-language dropdown trigger).
- Label: Preferred languages.
- Description: Shown first in language menus.
- Selected by default when Language settings opens from the article-language dropdown's gear. Other entry points keep Display as default.
- Visual treatment matches the existing Display and Input rows.
Preferred-languages editor (right pane)
- Label: "Add a language" (Codex cdx-field label; default Codex label tokens).
- Help text: "Pin up to 10 languages. They appear first when you switch languages on any article." (Codex cdx-field description; default Codex description tokens).
- Chips + search input: Codex cdx-multiselect-lookup. Chips render inline above the input in insertion order, each with a ×. Placeholder text "Type a language name…".
- Search menu (while typing): Codex default popup menu, up to 8 items visible. Empty state inside the menu: "No matching languages found."
- Selection status: "4 of 10 selected" (Codex cdx-field help-text slot; default help-text tokens).
- Remove a language: click the × on its chip, or open the search menu and click the already-selected item to deselect it.
Dropdown after save
- Section heading: "Preferred languages" (same slot where "Suggested" sits today, same heading style).
- Shown only when the user has at least one preferred language set. Otherwise, the existing heuristic "Suggested" section renders as it does today.
- Order: insertion order (same order the user added them). Not alphabetical, not frequency-based.
- All preferred languages appear, up to the 10 cap.
- Preferred languages appear even when the current article has no version in that language. Unavailable preferred languages use the treatment described in Preferred languages availability.
- "All languages" section below is unchanged
Pinned languages cap
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- Triggered when the user has pinned the maximum number of languages.
- Show inline status: 10 of 10 selected.
- Show one hint: Remove one to add another.
- If user focuses/searches at the limit, use the same short hint.
- Chip remove buttons stay active.
Preferred languages availability
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- Keep Preferred languages as one continuous list.
- Preserve the user’s preferred-language order.
- Available preferred languages remain active links.
- Unavailable preferred languages use subtle text color @color-subtle and are non-interactive/disabled in place.
- This applies whether some or all preferred languages are unavailable.
Note: When Preferred languages are set, any “Missing in…” banner should be based on the user’s preferred languages rather than heuristic suggested languages. When no preferred languages are set, the existing Suggested languages behavior remains unchanged.
Open decisions
- Preferred languages cap
- Consider ways to show a temporary discoverability hint on settings gear after launch.
