---
title: "Please No: They’re Redesigning Wikipedia"
description: "Wikipedia is gettings its first major redesign in a decade, with changes scheduled to slowly trickle out over the coming years."
date: "2020-09-23"
modified: "2020-09-23"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/redesigning-wikipedia"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "the digest"
  - "wikimedia"
  - "wikipedia"
---

# Please No: They’re Redesigning Wikipedia

![Wikipedia is gettings its first major redesign in a decade, with changes scheduled to slowly trickle out over the coming years.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/redesigning-wikipedia.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## New Look

For the first time in a decade, Wikipedia is getting a makeover.

Many major website redesigns have been [famously unpopular](<https://www.nj.com/news/2011/09/facebook_redesign_is_unpopular.html>), and Wikipedia's current layout is more intuitive than most. But the Wikimedia Foundation wants to change its appearance to not only appear more modern, [according to the Wikimedia blog](<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2020/09/23/wikipedia-is-getting-a-new-look-for-the-first-time-in-10-years-heres-why/>), but also to be less daunting to new internet users who are encountering the site for the first time.

## Touch Ups

For the most part, Wikipedia's parent organization swears that it'll maintain its [iconic wiki look](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/wikipedia-fake-academic-papers>). But it will get some updates that will make the website easier to use for [those who didn't](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/russia-wikipedia-unreliable>) grow up already doing so.

"We want to create an experience that feels similar to our long-time users," reads the blog, "yet straightforward and intuitive for new folks."

## Tracking Changes

To that effect, [the first changes](<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web/Desktop_Improvements#What_features_will_be_added>), like a collapsible sidebar for the menu of topics included in a given article or narrower lines of text, are fairly minor.

But, down the road, more substantial changes could appear, bringing what the Wikimedia Foundation sees as a long-overdue coat of paint to one of the most well-known sites on the internet.

**READ MORE:** [Wikipedia is getting a new look for the first time in 10 years. Here’s why.](<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2020/09/23/wikipedia-is-getting-a-new-look-for-the-first-time-in-10-years-heres-why/>) \[Wikimedia\]

**More on Wikipedia:** *[This Site Turns Wikipedia Pages Into Fake Academic Papers](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/wikipedia-fake-academic-papers>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)