Wikipedia to Get a Major Redesign Next Month

Wikipedia is getting ready to launch a redesign that has been in the works for several months now. The new theme, dubbed Vector, is much more pleasing to the eye than the current design, but is also more ergonomic and focuses on several things that should make the site easier to use. The new theme will be rolled out next month. The edit box is also getting a revamp.

"In April, the Wikimedia Foundation is rolling out the first of several significant changes to the user experience of Wikipedia as part of our usability and user experience program," Naoko Komura wrote for the Wikimedia Foundation User Experience team.

"We will begin deployment of these changes in the week of April 5 on Wikimedia Commons, the media repository used by Wikipedia. Provided that we don’t encounter major hiccups with this first roll-out, we are planning deployment of the changes to Wikipedia in late April, beginning with the English Wikipedia, followed by other languages," the announcement read.

The Vector theme has been in 'beta' for an extended period and Wikipedia says 500,000 people have tried it so far. All logged-in users had access to the redesign beta and all they had to do was click on the "Try Beta" link. 80 percent of those who tested the new designed sticked with it, Wikipedia says. The theme is ready for a wider release and has been localized to support right-to-left languages.

There are plenty of other changes coming to Wikipedia starting next month. All users of the English version of the site will now be able to get PDF or printed book versions of Wikipedia articles, as opposed to just logged-in users. The famous Wikipedia logo is also getting some sprucing up.

Other changes are slated for later in the year, like the improved article editor. The new editor aims to make it easier for even the most casual users to create and modify Wikipedia articles by removing as much of the wiki code as possible. The image and video upload section is also getting a revamp. These final changes are still in the works and will be available for testing to logged-in users.