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Wikipedia to Undergo a Casual, Calm Facelift Slated for April 5th

by Warren Riddle on March 29, 2010 at 08:30 AM


When established and enormously popular Web sites implement aesthetic changes or programming upgrades, devoted followers inevitably voice their disapproval. Amid constant progression and technical evolution, though, such redesigns are absolutely necessary for services to remain relevant and user-friendly. It won't be news to 500,000 lucky beta previewers, but Wikipedia, one of the Web's most revolutionary and prominent sites, is currently unrolling a series of significant changes that will modify the way in which the site operates.

Wikipedia will officially unveil its first round of alterations April 5th, and it will subsequently release a second set later in the year. The initial upgrades will primarily include superficial and stylistic changes, such as a search box positional shift, all of which are intended to ease site navigation and enhance the site's appearance.

The second cycle will feature interface upgrades that will purportedly facilitate the editing process. These editing improvements should be instrumental to the site's continued success, as it has reportedly experienced a dwindling supply of editors and new entries of late.

With its upgrade formula, Wikipedia seems to be establishing a proper metamorphosis protocol, as casual users and infrequent Wikipedia visitors may not even notice the seamless April 5th upgrades. Perhaps a certain social networking site should take a page out of Wiki's book, learn how to do an organic redesign, and thus save us the ridiculous drama of Internet upheaval. [From: Read Write Web and Mashable]

Tags: design, redesign, top, user interface, user interface design, UserInterface, UserInterfaceDesign, wikipedia, wikipedia entries, wikipedia entry, WikipediaEntries, WikipediaEntry

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