What does Wikia Look Like today?[]
- A Desktop layout is based around a large monitor, precision control with a mouse
- Compare with a Phone/Tablet, less precise touch navigation for users, even tinier keyboard, smaller viewing space
- If you make something specifically for the desktop there’s a good chance it will display incorrectly/sub-optimally
- But as things get more heavily customized with templates infoboxes etc, they become more difficult to display on mobile
Why?[]
- Wikia was founded in 2004 When the MediaWiki was created it was before the rise of mobile devices
- Over 50% of all users on Wikia access contest via non-desktop options, tablets phones etc
- Desktop traffic has flatlined and is falling
- Non-desktop devices will make up the majority of Wikia traffic by the end of next year
- Before the end of the year, mobile devices will account for the majority of traffic on Wikia
- This trend shows absolutely no signs of slowing
- If we’re struggling today to get content on a mobile phone and in 5 years everyone is on glasses, headsets etc, what will that look like?
How do we Fix this?[]
- We change the way we contextualize the data. The content remains the same, Wikis remain the same.
- Using metadata and semantics to make the hard info in a Wikia accessible by devices regardless of their display format.
- Styling options in templates are generally the issue that leads to poor mobile display
- We don’t want a homogenous experience of just text and images that makes all of Wikia look the same
- Wikia is working on separate modules for displaying content
- Default Component widgets versus Custom Components vs. straight text/data delivery
- Default Component: Basic tool guaranteed to display appropriately, great for newer users, people just looking to get content up
- Custom Component: Designed for specific communities, can be shared among other Wikias
- Straight Delivery: Direct data delivery designed to display on 3rd party devices and things that are looking to simply gather Wikia content