Reading/Web/Accessibility for reading
Accessibility for reading
![]() Typographical changes and preferences making the site more accessible
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The interface of Wikimedia projects must be accessible and readable, regardless of language or script. This includes both the majority as well as individuals with specific needs. The current typography on desktop and mobile makes readability difficult, though. Also, night mode can be helpful in low-light settings and for users who prefer low-contrast reading environments. Our interfaces do not provide this functionality now.
We would like to change the default typography. We will also build additional settings for typography and night mode as preferences. These changes will be available for both logged-in and logged-out users.
Background
Over the past few years, we have introduced the Vector 2022 skin across many wikis. We have designed it to improve the reading experience. Another goal was to provide an experience that is comfortable for existing users and more welcoming to new users. However, there are still issues with readability we have yet to address. During the research for that project, one of the issues we recognized was the size of the text itself.
Compared to the more accessible digital text, it takes longer to read our content on desktop and mobile. The ability to remember text that was read is also affected. An important factor to keep in mind is that people engage both in in-depth reading and scanning of text.[1] We would like to improve our typography for both of these ways of using the projects.
Also, our desktop site does not allow to set a font size that is comfortable for the user. Instead, readers with specific needs and likings depend on browser functionality to alter the font size. These capabilities vary by browser and are not always supported by the rest of our user interface. This causes issues with tools or navigation.
Quotation from the Foundation's 2023/2024 annual plan
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Project overview
As part of the Accessibility for reading project, we will focus on two main initiatives:
- Improving the typography of the site and allowing users to choose their settings
- Introducing night mode that users can opt-in to.
Goals
Typography improvements
The goals of this project are:
- To identify and better understand problems. Review and classify issues with the current typography on wikis
- To make the site easier to read. Improve readability on mobile and desktop sites
- To provide typography that better suits different languages and scripts. Optimize readability with the support and expertise of the different communities
- To allow readers to customize typography. Introducing typographical preferences, useful mostly for people with distinct needs and likings
Night mode
- Improving the readability of articles in low-light settings
- Making night mode options and settings easily discoverable and usable
Timeline and phases
Typography improvements
Phase | Timeframe | Description | |
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1a | Research and literature review | July– | We learn what researchers say about typography for desktop and mobile |
1b | Prototype testing + discussing with communities | October– | Most editors taking part in the previous testing were open to a font size increase. They came from different communities. We will talk with communities to determine whether and how defaults should change. Various languages and scripts may have different settings. |
1c | Beta feature deployment | December 2023 | We release the typography improvements as a beta feature to all wikis and encourage communities to try it out and give us their feedback |
2 | Release to pilot wikis | Iteration based on testing results in collaboration with testing communities | |
3 | Release to all wikis | Not defined |
Night mode
Phase | Timeframe | Description | |
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1a | Technical review | September– | We will review ideas for implementation of night mode and decide what implementation we want to use. We will review the dark mode gadget, night mode on the apps, etc. |
1b | Discussing with communities | November/ | We will work with editors to adjust the community-controlled code (like templates) so that night mode works well. We will brainstorm ideas on making the necessary changes to the community-controlled code |
2 | Development and prototype testing | Not defined | We will test prototypes and iterate on them |
3 | Pilot release | Not defined | Based on testing results, we will release the beta version for testing communities. The first version may be a "beta feature", only available for logged-in users. |
4 | Release for all users | Not defined | When community-controlled code is adjusted, night mode will be available for logged-out users. |
Get involved and Contact
- Promote and adjust the code on wiki, following our recommendations: to roll out our changes for logged-out users, community-controlled code, like templates, needs to be adjusted. It may need discussions on village pumps. It will also need many edits. Help us by starting such conversations and making such edits.
- See the recommendations for night mode compatibility on Wikimedia wikis (currently under construction)
- Report bugs: create a task in Phabricator and add #fy2023-24-we_2.1_typography_and_palette_customizations project.
- Translate: help us translate related pages:
Priority translations
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Earlier research and explorations
- Literature Review: Readability and Optimal Text Settings
- Typography: Apply consistent font sizes across Vector 2022 (T313828)
- Hypothesis: Typographical and palette customizations (T341631)
- Typography: Increased font-size design for Vector 2022 (T254055)
- Editors' feedback on the fifth Vector 2022 prototype testing
- Decisions after the fifth Vector 2022 prototype testing
Project evaluation
We will measure the success of this project with qualitative and quantitative methods. In particular, we will be looking at:
- Research-supported decisions in prototype creation and development
- Qualitative improvements in readability based on user testing and community conversations
- At least X% of all sessions longer than Ys who customize typography
- Note: exact variables TBD
- At least X% of all sessions use night mode
- No significant change in reading depth