Wikipedia:Media Viewer

This page is written by staff of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) in their official capacity. Any stated assumptions, promises, plans, or goals are theirs. To discuss this page, please go to WT:Media Viewer.

Media Viewer is a component of the MediaWiki and Wikipedia user interface, introduced in early 2014. It changes the way images are displayed when you click on them on the desktop version of Wikipedia.

This multimedia browser displays images in larger size when you click on their thumbnails, as an overlay on the current page. To reduce visual clutter, all information is shown below the image, and can be expanded at a click of a button. Usability studies suggest that Media Viewer provides a more immersive multimedia experience, right where people expect it. They tell us they can see the images more clearly, without having to jump to separate pages—and that the interface is more intuitive, offering easy access to images and metadata. Some useful information that will help you understand an image, such as image notes that describe what you see, are not yet functioning in the current Media Viewer software.

Media Viewer has been tested extensively around the world, and the feedback collected from over 10,000 users suggests that this tool is generally useful to them, as outlined in these survey results. On the English Wikipedia, more than 15,000 beta users tested the tool extensively since it was introduced as a beta feature in November 2013. This feedback was invaluable to improve the tool over a six-month period.

Media Viewer was enabled as the default image viewer on the English Wikipedia on June 3, 2014. It is also being rolled out on all wikis worldwide, as described in this release plan.