This page describes Appropedia's guidelines regarding the user interface.
Guidelines[edit | edit source]
- Superior UI makes help pages unnecessary
- Help info should appear only when it's most relevant and likely to be useful
- Add ?uselang=qqx to the URL of any page to see the names of the interface messages used in that page, rather than the messages themselves (try it)
- Admins can change any interface message by editing "MediaWiki:Name of the message"
- Interface messages are language-specific, so if you modify for example MediaWiki:Newarticletext it will only affect users browsing in English. Therefore, we usually favor modifying interface messages via the Appropedia extension, so that the changes affect all languages and and all users, and can be easily translated to other users via translatewiki.net
- Interface messages allow any wikitext, but plain text, links and buttons work best across devices
- Hide confusing or unnecessary elements via MediaWiki:Common.css or by emptying the relevant interface message (example)
- Avoid adding or modifying HTML or CSS via JavaScript because it tends to cause flashes of unstyled content
Testing[edit | edit source]
- Test in at least two browsers (Firefox and Chrome, usually)
- Test in mobile (50% of our visitors browse from mobile!)
- Test in visual editor
- Test in at least one language other than English (by adding ?uselang=es to the URL, for example)
- Test in at least one skin other than Poncho (by adding ?useskin=vector to the URL, for example)
- Test as a non-logged-in user (usually in incognito)
- Test as a non-admin user (usually with a testing user)