Hi Amir, While I think that you are well-intentioned, you may be underestimating the effects of small changes that are done on a large scale. I believe that color changes to the UI are not urgent changes, and there is every reason to do widespread communication about proposed changes (*not* the week that changes are rolling out, but instead two to three months in advance), to provide opportunity for discussion, and to provide a buffer time period between the finalization of the decision and the execution of the change.
Perhaps an organizational change that would be helpful here is assigning a Community Liaison to the the WMF Design team to help that team with communications and rollout plans. Also, perhaps it would help my project if I had a meeting with someone from the WMF Design team to get a better sense of what UI changes to expect over the next 24 months. I am working on help videos for Wikimedia content wikis, and I would like those videos to reflect the real-world environment to the extent possible. Is there a particular person on the Design team that you would recommend that I contact about setting up a meeting? Thanks, Pine On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 12:53 AM, Amir Ladsgroup <ladsgr...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hey, > If a community dislikes a change they can instantly override it using > mediawiki:common.css. In that case, no one would forces them to change it > back. > > But these changes are too small to notice and even smaller to dislike. For > example no one is trying to change blue to red, But we changed a certain > shade of blue to another shade that you are more familiar with and seen in > other places. That's why for small changes we never got negative feedback. > We are doing this to give users better experience by using familiar colors. > It's really hard to see any objections overall. > > Best > > On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 10:03 AM Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Hi Amir, > > > > Were these changes discussed in advance with Wikimedia communities on > > mailing lists, village pumps, etc? I am thinking particularly of template > > designers and maintainers, who may have coordinated their work with the > > previous color scheme. It seems to me that Wikimedians should be given > > plenty of notice that color changes like these are proposed, and should > be > > given ample opportunity to comment on them before they are rolled out, > but > > this is the first that I recall hearing of these changes. I would go so > far > > as to say that there should be an RfC before making changes like this to > > community wikis. > > > > Also, it seems to me that there should be a period of a few weeks between > > the commitment to make a change like this and the implementation of a > > change so that Wikimedians whose work is affected have an opportunity to > > prepare for changes. > > > > I'm not going to push for a rollback of this change unless I hear a lot > of > > community voices saying that this particular set of changes is a problem, > > but I would hope that changes like this would be communicated and > discussed > > widely in the future and that an RfC would be undertaken before making > > these kinds of changes to community wikis. > > > > Pine > > > > > > On Thu, Dec 8, 2016 at 4:45 PM, Amir Ladsgroup <ladsgr...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > > > > > Hey, > > > With the deployment of 1.29.0-wmf.5 which just finished on all wikis, > > > several changes were made in user interface colors. > > > * Gray boxes (TOC, Wikitables, catlinks, thumbnails, elements in > history > > > etc.) has changed from #f9f9f9 as background to #f8f9fa and #aaa as > > border > > > to #a2a9b1. [1] This change is almost not noticeable but in order to > keep > > > consistency between all elements of a wiki page, change such usages in > > your > > > Mediawiki:Common.css (for example for infoboxes). > > > * Search results border and background colors also changed and this one > > is > > > also not noticeable. [2] > > > * "You have new message in your talk page" notification color has > changed > > > from #f9c557 to #fc3 (yellow). [3] This change is noticeable. > > > > > > These all are parts of works ongoing by WMF designers and engineers to > > have > > > a standard UI [4] using standard colors picked from Wikimedia color > > > palette. [5] > > > > > > Using consistent colors helps users have better experience and > strengthen > > > branding. Also these colors have passed WCAG standard for accessibility > > > (for color blind people). Lots have been done already. Such as content > > > translation [6] wikipedia.org portal [7] [8], mobile frontend [9], > Echo > > > email notification [10], Deffered changes [11] ORES review tool [12], > > > disambig icon [13] [14], WMF wiki main page [15] and a lot more. > > > > > > So I recommend you to use the color palette [5] as much as possible. > > > > > > I must explicitly note that I did a little and I don't think I can talk > > on > > > behalf of UI-standardization team :) > > > > > > [1]: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/324534 > > > [2]: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/324549 > > > [3]: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/324161 > > > [4]: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/ui-standardization > > > [5]: Wikimedia color palette: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/M82 > > > [6]: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/321609 > > > [7]: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/322831 > > > [8]: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/325057 > > > [9]: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/317746 > > > [10]: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/323554 > > > [11]: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/323558 > > > [12]: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/320341 > > > [13]: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Disambig.svg > > > [14]: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Disambig_gray.svg > > > [15]: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home > > > > > > Best > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Wikitech-l mailing list > > > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikitech-l mailing list > > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
