{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T01:46:30Z","timestamp":1760060790609,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,16]],"date-time":"2025-09-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1757980800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Informatics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In January 2023, Wikipedia introduced its most significant user interface (UI) redesign in over a decade, aiming to improve readability, accessibility, and navigation across devices. Despite the scale of this change, little empirical work has assessed its actual impact on user behavior. This study employs a natural experiment framework, leveraging Wikipedia\u2019s exogenous, site-wide redesign date and large-scale, publicly available data\u2014including clickstream, pageview, and edit histories\u2014to evaluate user experience before and after the change. Using a quasi-experimental design, we estimate an immediate jump of ~1.06 million monthly internal link clicks at launch, while average hourly pageviews in January rose 1.25% despite a one-time \u20131.79 million dip at rollout. These results highlight the potential of large-scale UI changes to reshape user interaction without broadly alienating users and demonstrate the value of quasi-experimental methods for Human\u2013Computer Interaction (HCI) research. Our approach offers a replicable framework for evaluating real-world design interventions at scale.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/informatics12030097","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,17]],"date-time":"2025-09-17T05:59:51Z","timestamp":1758088791000},"page":"97","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The Impact of the 2023 Wikipedia Redesign on User Experience"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Tyler","family":"Wilson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA"}]},{"given":"Prajjwal","family":"Gandharv","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA"}]},{"given":"Karl","family":"Vachuska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,16]]},"reference":[{"unstructured":"Semrush (2025, February 16). Top Websites in the World\u2014January 2025. Available online: https:\/\/www.semrush.com\/website\/top\/.","key":"ref_1"},{"unstructured":"(2025, February 16). Wikipedia. Available online: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia.","key":"ref_2"},{"unstructured":"Wright, E.O. (2010). Envisioning Real Utopias, Verso Books. Available online: https:\/\/www.versobooks.com\/.","key":"ref_3"},{"unstructured":"Wikipedia Contributors (2025, February 16). Wikipedia: Wikipedians. Available online: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:Wikipedians.","key":"ref_4"},{"unstructured":"Wikipedia Contributors (2025, February 16). Democratization of Knowledge. Available online: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Democratization_of_knowledge.","key":"ref_5"},{"unstructured":"Perez, S. (2025, May 01). Wikipedia Gets Its First Makeover in over a Decade and It\u2019s Fairly Subtle. 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Available online: https:\/\/medium.com\/freely-sharing-the-sum-of-all-knowledge\/new-wikipedia-editor-features-make-it-easy-for-everyone-to-contribute-e09135ce9275.","key":"ref_9"},{"unstructured":"(2025, May 01). Netflix New Homepage Design Teaser User Feedback. Available online: https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/tech\/29475408\/netflix-new-homepage-design-teaser-user-feedback\/.","key":"ref_10"},{"unstructured":"Norman, D. (2013). The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition, Basic Books.","key":"ref_11"},{"doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nielsen, J. (1994). Usability Engineering, Elsevier.","key":"ref_12","DOI":"10.1016\/B978-0-08-052029-2.50007-3"},{"unstructured":"Hollender, A. (2025, May 01). Design Notes on the 2023 Wikipedia Redesign. Available online: https:\/\/uxdesign.cc\/design-notes-on-the-2023-wikipedia-redesign-d6573b9af28d.","key":"ref_13"},{"unstructured":"(2025, May 01). Harvard Study Finds Image Search Tools Can Change Customer Behavior. Available online: https:\/\/www.inc.com\/kim-jao\/harvard-study-finds-image-search-tools-can-change-customer-behavior.html.","key":"ref_14"},{"unstructured":"Oulasvirta, A., Perki\u00f6, J., and Schneider, B. (2009, January 19\u201323). When more is less: The paradox of choice in search engine use. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Boston, MA, USA.","key":"ref_15"},{"unstructured":"(2025, May 01). Sudden Changes in Ui: Why it\u2019s a Bad Move. Available online: https:\/\/blog.snappymob.com\/sudden-changes-in-ui-why-its-a-bad-move.","key":"ref_16"},{"unstructured":"Cockburn, A., Gutwin, C., and Greenberg, S. (May, January 28). A predictive model of menu performance. 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