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Adjust labels when no results are found for Wikidata items on article guidance
Closed, ResolvedPublic2 Estimated Story Points

Description

As part of Article Guidance (T396029), assistance is provided to identify the subject for the article users are trying to create. The "article type selection" step (T415483) shows Wikidata items matching the proposed title for the user to select the relevant ones, as well as the "None of these? [Pick a type instead]" option. The later message assumes that some results are shown above. However, currently that message also shows when there are no results:

b24e11a4f1.catalyst.wmcloud.org_w_index.php_title=Special_NewArticle&newarticletitle=Paris(Wiki Mobile) (1).png (320×568 px, 33 KB)

This ticket proposes to adjust the "None of these? [Pick a type instead]" when there are no results (and only in that case). The message could become just "[Pick a type instead]" (i.e., removing the "None of these?" part) since there is a message shown above explaining that there are no results.

Design

Current footer "None of these? [Pick a type instead]" carries an assumption that only holds when results are rendered above.

  • "None of these?": "these" needs a visible antecedent. Breaks in the no-results state and in the technical-failure state (T422841).

Design direction
A single state-independent label that names the situation ("subject unavailable") without depending on what's rendered above.

Proposal

New Article Moto G4 (13).png (1,080×1,920 px, 169 KB)

Subject unavailable? Pick a type instead

Event Timeline

Pginer-WMF triaged this task as Low priority.

The current footer "None of these? [Pick a type instead]" makes two silent assumptions:

  • "None of these?" assumes results are visible above. When there are no results(this task) or an error (T422841), then "these" points to nothing.
  • "instead" assumes a first option exists to compare against. Both words tie the footer to a state that isn't always true. During live search, that state flips quickly (results / no-results / error / loading), and copy that references the state above will keep reading oddly.

Proposal
Replace both parts with a single state-independent label:
"Need help? Choose an article type"

@SBisson given you are currently working on T422841, What do you think of this proposal for this task?

Pginer-WMF raised the priority of this task from Low to Medium.Apr 29 2026, 9:44 AM

Also: Move the footer closer to the page chrome, keeping ~16px(@spacing-100) between them.

@SGautam_WMF regarding your proposal to move the footer closer to the page chrome, you may want to check a related ticket to consider how those may play together T425623: Avoid footer to take most of the viewport in Article Guidance
Maybe these layout adjustments could go together in T425623 and leave the present task focused on the label change if that makes things easier (or clearer).

Change #1286458 had a related patch set uploaded (by Sbisson; author: Sbisson):

[mediawiki/extensions/ArticleGuidance@master] Search step: reword "None of these?" -> "Subject unavailable?"

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1286458

Change #1286458 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/ArticleGuidance@master] Search step: reword "None of these?" -> "Subject unavailable?"

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1286458

Also: Move the footer closer to the page chrome, keeping ~16px(@spacing-100) between them.

@SGautam_WMF regarding your proposal to move the footer closer to the page chrome, you may want to check a related ticket to consider how those may play together T425623: Avoid footer to take most of the viewport in Article Guidance
Maybe these layout adjustments could go together in T425623 and leave the present task focused on the label change if that makes things easier (or clearer).

Agreed! updated T425623

New label is showing:

simple.wikipedia.org_w_index.php_title=Special_NewArticle&mobileaction=toggle_view_mobile(iPhone SE).png (750×1,334 px, 105 KB)