Design/Archive/UX standardization

We have a number of divergent UI libraries in use in MediaWiki core and extensions. This project, led by the Design team at the Wikimedia Foundation, is attempting to slowly but surely converge on a single, consistent look-and-feel for MediaWiki user interfaces.

Specifications

• A living style guide to document styles in use
  • The Flow software as of January 2014 is the most up-to-date user of the new styles, try it.
• Wikimedia Foundation Design/Agora Control Library lists desired controls and annotates button styles
• File:Agora specs.pdf is an outdated but more comprehensive visual spec

Existing libraries / conventions

• mw-ui- styles in the mediawiki.ui core module
  • used by Special:Login, Special:CreateAccount, Special:PasswordChange, and Special:Search in core
  • used by extensions Echo, Flow, GettingStarted, GuidedTour, OAuth, UploadWizard (campaigns only)
• jQuery.ui used by AFT, PageTriage, TimedMediaHandler, UploadWizard, WikiBase, WikiLove, more...
• backbone.js/Underscore.js (PageTriage) - JS MVC framework with template support
• Mobile ui (MobileFrontend)
  • Hogan templates
• OOjs UI widget framework used by VisualEditor
• Vector
• Design audit has screenshots

What we are converging on

• OOjs UI for rich JavaScript and widgets
• mediawiki.ui for CSS styles, and MediaWiki-specific widgets

To Do

• Convert Mediawiki.ui to LESS
• Implement Agora CSS in mediawiki.ui (bug 54360)
• Update inputs and textareas in mediawiki.ui to look like Flow's .mw-ui-input
• Make mediawiki.ui a flavor/theme of OOJS UI
• Use Agora CSS in core and extensions make a table of them?? or use a tracking bug with flags
  • by applying mw-ui- CSS styles
    • Gerrit change 52169 does this for many buttons in core
  • by rewriting them to use OOjs UI toolkit
• Use Agora CSS in mobile (https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/102581/)
• Use Agora CSS in VE by using mediawiki.ui flavor/theme
• Identify existing and required Control/UI elements
  • Highest priority is a usable Agora dialog (vs. woeful inconsistency).
  • Next is Agora flyouts.
• Develop live style guide:
  • auto-generate CSS examples (see https://github.com/kneath/kss) and Jon Robson CSS demo
  • show use of client-side OOjs UI JavaScript
  • swap CSS (see http://pauginer.github.io/agora/ )
  • server-side form examples (in Special:Agora page in https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/93525)
• Add useful descriptions to the class comments for each Widget class in OO.ui - i.e. what sort of UI element does this build?

OOjs UI to dos

•  Done Split into separate repos
  • oojs/core and oojs/ui
  • ve-mw and mw-ui (?)
    • VE
• N Not done Split OO UI dialog into a separate component and apply Agora styling to it
• Documentation (intro and reference)
• Sample code (Gerrit change 93525)
• Get requirements from other teams
• Clients outside VE team.
• RfC
• Move this to core

UX standardization status by extension

Extension	Maintainer	Status/Blockers	UI components	Compatibility
ContentTranslation	i18n team	One mw-ui button	mediawiki.ui
Flow	Core features team	Implements latest Agora, but as local override not core	jquery.ui.dialog, jquery.scroll, jquery.spinner, jquery.tipsy, mediawiki.ui (+ override)
UploadWizard	Multimedia team	Uses mostly jQuery.ui, campaigns are migrated to mediawiki.ui	resizable input field, resizable textarea, inline input field, form validation, radio buttons, dropdown select lists, auto-suggest dropdown, tooltips, file input, collapsible form elements, image thumbnail selection grid, date picker, modal dialog box	IE6 and newer
MobileFrontend	Mobile web team	All internal styles and libraries except for hogan templates	buttons, full-screen overlays, toggler, button bar, segmented button	IE9 and newer (usually)
PageTriage	No one	Some internal, some jQuery.ui	backbone.js + Underscore (including use of templates), jquery.waypoints, jquery.tipoff, jquery.badge, jquery.ui.button, jquery.ui.draggable, pokey dialog	IE7?
Echo	No one	Some internal, some mediawiki.ui	buttons, pokey dialog, jQuery,badge	IE7?
GuidedTour	Growth	Uses mediawiki.ui controls, some redundant styles to remove from original guiders.js	Primary buttons, close icon
GettingStarted	Growth	Uses few mediawiki.ui controls, needs some new styles such as muli-line text in buttons and icons in buttons	Primary and secondary CTAs, close icon
OAuth	Platform-core		mw-ui- styles mostly, jquery.ui.autocomplete, jquery.ui.dialog
WikiLove	No one	uses jQuery.ui	jquery.ui.dialog, jquery.ui.button, image selector, side tabs (with icons), dropdown select lists
WikiEditor	No one	uses some internal, some jQuery.ui	button toolbar, jquery.ui.dialog, jquery.ui.button, dropdown select lists
CentralNotice	Fundraising team	uses internal and some jQuery.ui	jquery.ui.multiselect, jquery.ui.datepicker, dropdown select lists
Special:PasswordReset (Core)	None		vform, mw.ui.primary
Special:ChangeEmail (Core)	None		mediawiki.special.changeemail (clientside form validation)
Special:Search (Core)	Platform		vform, mw.ui.primary
UniversalLanguageSelector (ULS)	Language Engineering Team	mediawiki.ui use is bug 50599, but ULS needs to work in MW 1.20	Foundation Framework grid, side tabs, buttons, flyout. local 'button blue' CSS, jquery tipsy, more?