I think it's time to redesign [[Special:Preferences]] in MediaWiki core. The tabs are a bit dated and can probably be improved.
I've been thinking about large collapsible buttons stacked on top of each other or doing a sidebar similar to Google Chrome's. Either of these options should be fairly simple to implement. I'll put up some wireframes soon in an [[mw:RFC]] if nobody beats me to it.
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Redesign_user_preferences
@MZ, don't forget to ping Dan Garry to get access to the logs of pref changes and current states, a lot of prefs might be able to be removed based on usage data. also ping Moiz, he might not have time to help with design but may be able to offer some helpful critique.
(In reply to MZMcBride from comment #0)
large collapsible buttons stacked on top of each other
<details>? ;)
Avoiding the sidebar would be nice. Both tabs and sidebars don't play that well on small screens. Anything that avoids the need to be redone in MF or lessens the barriers to allowing our standard skins to work responsively at small screens with media queries is nice.
Also, a sidebar next to a sidebar (which any core or derived skin will have) will probably look weird.
(In reply to Jared Zimmerman (WMF) from comment #1)
@MZ, don't forget to ping Dan Garry to get access to the logs of pref
changes and current states, a lot of prefs might be able to be removed based
on usage data. also ping Moiz, he might not have time to help with design
but may be able to offer some helpful critique.
Added Dan to the CC list of this bug (Moiz was already added). :-) For now, I think I want to consider removing user preferences (or even rearranging user preferences) orthogonal to changing the layout. I'm hoping we can do something like re-lay out --> possibly re-arrange --> continue to slowly remove user preferences as necessary.
Yes, but unless you have a better idea of what settings are present you'll be organizing what we already have. rather I think it would be best to take all of the setting that we should have going forward and start thinking about how those that remain fit into logical groupings (I argue that the current groupings might not be idea) so unless you start with the right set you might arrive at a grouping that is too similar to what we have now.
I say this from experience, having done a similar exercise with AutoCAD years ago, which had even more preference cruft piled on over the years.
Whether or not there are tabs vs some other navigation element is determined by the skin, no?
(In reply to Isarra from comment #5)
Whether or not there are tabs vs some other navigation element is determined
by the skin, no?
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Preferences&useskin=vector
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Preferences&useskin=monobook
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Preferences&useskin=modern
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Preferences&useskin=cologneblue
and
https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Preferences&useskin=minerva
(note: minerva might not work for most people yet. I managed to enable the BetaFeature ([[mw:Beta Features/Minerva]]) when it was briefly&accidentally enabled a few weeks ago... ;)
Cologneblue uses a very different layout, but still essentially "tabs".
Users without JS get all the sub-sections at once on a single long page (all skins).
[[mw:Requests for comment/Redesign user preferences]] && https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/showdependencytree.cgi?id=62559&hide_resolved=0
I am interested in working on this task. I am a little confused about where to start from. Can someone guide me?
Hi @GShriya this is a very complicated task. If you are looking for places to start out, I suggest looking at good first task and https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/How_to_become_a_MediaWiki_hacker