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Wikipedia Redesign

As a short design challenge, I redesigned a Wikipedia page for Gen Z users.

my role

UX/UI Designer

Background

Wikipedia is used by millions of people around the world. It is a towering chest of mutualized knowledge from humanity, past and present, made available at everyone’s fingertips. Be it a quick look-up in the street, verdict on a quiz night, or last-minute revision before exams; whenever you have a question, Wikipedia has an answer. No matter who the authors are, what they once wrote on Wikipedia has helped us in ways far beyond their original imagination.

The Challenge

Redesign Wikipedia screen/s for a young, growing user group: Gen Z. How can we keep their interest?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Research: Background

Gen Z is becoming the largest technology consumer group, which brings the need to adapt the products to the specific way they interact with technology and with their surroundings.

Gen Z and Their Relationship with Technology

  • They are the first generation to be born into technology, and they treat it as an extension of their lives. Being digital natives, they expect an intuitive, flawless user experience from their digital products
  • They attention span is shorter (8 seconds) and they use multiple apps at once - making it challenging to capture their attention
  • They prefer visual information and more dynamic experience, bite-sized information which consists of short texts, videos, gifs, quizzes and animations
  • They appreciate diversity, authenticity and individuality, have multiple personalities and are eager to express them through the content they generate on the digital platforms. Furthermore, they expect customization and digital experiences that are tailored to their needs and interests
  • They are social and prefer media that is shareable and allows them to express their opinion
  • They want their digital product to be reliable and straightforward

Keeping this in mind...

So how could Wikipedia appeal to Gen Z?

  • Fast source of information of all kinds
  • Anyone can be a content creator
  • Democratization of knowledge

Interview Insights

To understand better the point of view of our users, I have asked a few people aged 18-22 what they think and came up with the following observations:

  • They don’t have the Wikipedia app and start their search from Google, so perhaps a Wikipedia homepage is something that is often irrelevant (but perhaps with rebranding, it could be) They usually land on an article page of the mobile (not the native app) version
  • There’s a wide range of things they search for, school assignments, history events, places or words they don’t know, as well as celebrities and actors
  • Some read only the first paragraph
  • All agree that while Wikipedia does what it needs to do, it lacks excitement and visual stimulation, both in the brand and the articles pages. All agree that they would have liked more videos and the texts are long
  • Seems that they don’t find it reliable enough for academic assignments (school, university), since anyone can edit the articles and there’s no personal information about the editor(s). Also, the articles are not detailed enough for academic purposes and in this case they would search further, whether through the links at the end of the article or a different source
  • On the other hand, it’s not fun or up-to-date enough to search for more everyday or practical things. For certain things, they would prefer YouTube (for example, hair and makeup tutorials)
icon of a person with a headset

Fast source of information of all kinds

Icon of a hand with a coin

Anyone can be a content creator

Icon of a chart and a magnifying glass

Easier monitoring
Democratization of knowledge

Defining the Problem

Based on this information, the following scenarios could be relevant:

Our users want fast, reliable, digestible information for school assignments, before they search more academic resources.

Our users want to search for things that are of interest to them in a fun, customizable way that would allow them to find the specific information that is relevant to them.

Ideation: Current State

The mobile version has the section division, while the app uses the menu on the bottom left (although it doesn’t seem like it belongs to the specific article). The same menu can also lead to the article editing history. Apart from that, the structure is similar. For the case study purpose and based on my research, I will focus on the article page of the mobile version.

Initial Ideas

  • Rebranding the visual language
  • Separating academic and “fun” modes
  • Bringing the ”add to favorites” and “share” icons to the front (not just a part of the bottom menu)
  • Customizing article view
  • Adding videos and gifs throughout the article
  • Easy access to the links and sources for academic purposes
  • Rearranging the text in a more digestible way

Final Sketch

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Copyright © 2023 Inna Shevchenko