Reading/Web/Accessibility for reading/Updates/2023-11/en

Readability improvements: prototype testing results and next steps

In the past few months, the Web team from the Wikimedia Foundation has started working on the project Accessibility for reading. Our goal is to improve the typography on the desktop and mobile sites, and build an easy way for logged-in and logged-out users to set their preferred typography.

Cohorts of designs sent by editors

In October and November, we shared a prototype with 13 Wikipedia language communities and received feedback from more than 600 editors and other logged-in users. The prototype allowed them to experiment with different font sizes, line height, and paragraph spacing, and report which configuration was most comfortable for them.

The majority preferred a slightly larger font size and line height than the current default (around 15 – 17px). A large group showed a strong preference for the current default (14 px), while a smaller group preferred significantly larger font sizes (20–24px). See the full results of the testing.

First version of the new Theme menu when the Tools menu is hidden

We learned that editors who decided to take part in the test are interested in changes. We hope that small, medium, and large options to choose between will be received positively.

In the first half of December, on all wikis, we will launch a new beta feature which allows to select the preferred typography. The feature will be opt-in and available in your user preferences. Turning it on will display a new collapsible menu in the right sidebar, which will appear under the Tools menu.

We invite you to look out for it, try it out when it becomes available, and tell us what you think. In the meantime, if you have time – read over the report linked above and take a look at the mock.