User:Conor Kenny/Thoughts on wiki design

From SourceWatch
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Features

Meta tagging on wikis

  • w:Template:under construction - using an "under construction" tag is tricky on a wiki when all articles are always evolving, but here's how it's done on Wikipedia.

Portals

I think I really like the new way Wikipedia is doing their portals with tabs. See, for example, the Science portal

A "create a new article" function

  • I'd really like to see this implemented on SourceWatch so editors don't have to use the overly complicated or indirect methods of creating a page.
Example: http://campaigns.wikia.com/wiki/Campaigns_Wikia

Things you can do

Wikipedia seems to have a very complex-under-the-hood but simple-on-top method of organizing the "things you can do." I like their system in part because it gives each portal a separate list while unifying them all together, the way I'd like to see the different parts of SourceWatch unified.

Part of the system is the Wikipedia Template:OpenTasks. See my discussion with User:Beland on my Wikipedia talk page.

Sister projects

I'd like to see a more in-depth description on each portal of how it fits in with larger projects and then within SourceWatch as a whole. On Congresspedia pages I'd like to see discussion of related Sunlight Foundation-funded and run projects. See the bottom of the Wikipedia main page for an example.

Other wikis

These are other wikis, which are useful for comparison:

  • Wikipedia, of course. Some elements of this wiki are very polished.
  • Wikia wikis - Jimbo Wales tries the for-profit model:
    • Politics.Wikia, a wiki on politics. More focused on individual user opinions than collaborative encyclopedia articles. Very polished.
    • Campaigns.Wikia, a wiki on political campaigns. Less polished, but another way of doing politics on wikis and thus worth studying every once and a while.

Earlier design issues and thoughts

Font sizes

This is an h2 font size

This is another h2

This is an h3 font size

This is another h3


This is with big

This is at 150

This a non-main heading

Proposed change in heading fonts
Current style (test site) Conor proposal Conor proposal II Conor proposal III
Article title 188

Article title 160

Article title 188

Article title 190

Second level 160

Second level 160

Second level 160

Second level 185

Third level 132 (b)
Third level 145
Third level 150
Third level 178
Fourth level 116
Fourth level 125
Fourth level 145
Fourth level 165
Fifth level 100
Fifth level 115
Fifth level 125
Fifth level 150
Sixth level 80
Sixth level 110
Sixth level 115
Sixth level 130
Bold text Bold text Bold text Bold text
Plain text Plain text Plain text Plain text

Comparison of my proposed h1 text in a long-titled article.