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Forums: IndexCommunity discussionsNew infobox design | Forum new Post

Template:/demo As frequent chatters on the Discord server are probably already aware, A few of us (namely Nikel23, K6ka, and myself) have been working on a new visual design for infobox templates[note 1] on The Sims Wiki. Our current infobox design is several years old, and was designed in order to more closely match what was at the time the wiki's overall design theme. However, that theme has been changed, so currently our infoboxes don't really match anything else.

Additionally, there has been talk about migrating our infoboxes over to the Portable Infobox markup, which would involve considerable work to ensure that the P.I.-based templates continue to have the same appearance as before. It makes more sense to update the templates to our preferred visual style before undergoing the migration to P.I., rather than migrating first and then trying to redesign them, after the design of the templates has already been put down in .css pages.

And so, a couple weeks ago, we set out with the intent to redesign the infoboxes used on the wiki. What you see demonstrated to the right is the outcome of that work: Infobox Sim. I have included the current version of the Sim template as well for side-by-side comparison.

The function of the template itself is unchanged. Users adding the templates to a page would follow the same procedure. The new template has the same available parameters as the old template and the new template behaves in pretty much the same exact way. Aside from theme differences, there's very little that any user would notice different between the two.

The Sim infobox is just the first phase of what I'm proposing. I would like to migrate the rest of the infoboxes on the wiki, such as {{Object}} or {{Game}}, to use the same design as {{Infobox Sim}}. However, before undertaking this task, we need to determine whether this is the direction we want to take the template.

So, what do you all think of the new design? Are there any things you'd change about it? Do you like or dislike the new appearance? —Preceding unsigned comment added by LostInRiverview (talkcontribs) 19:28, 11 January 2018‎ (UTC) - Please sign your comments with ~~~~

Notes

  1. For those who are unaware or unfamiliar with the term, an "infobox" is a template that displays on the right-hand side of a page, and usually includes the name of the page or the subject, a picture, and major details about the subject. You can find infoboxes on pages about Sims, families, objects, video games, and more

Discussion

I really like the new designs! You did amazing work and I'm already excited to see these on the wiki! But the only thing that irks me a bit is that the logo of The Sims and The Sims 4 are way smaller than the logos of The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. - KailynnKat(talk/fanon) 20:02, January 11, 2018 (UTC)

The new designs are great; though I feel like there's a lack of contrast compared to the old infobox which makes information slightly harder to read. Even so, I'm all for updating the infobox design given how old the old infobox is. -- EpicJoyBoy (My talk page!) 21:38, January 11, 2018 (UTC)
When redesigning, I originally had no background color, but some complained that the infobox looked too "boring" without that color included. Perhaps a compromise would be to dilute the background color a bit? -- LiR talk · blog · contribs 00:49, January 12, 2018 (UTC)
That could work. For Sims 3 and 4 we could use the color used for the header on the main page. As for Sims 1 for the most part they are fine, although Sims 2 could use some diluting. – EpicJoyBoy (talk with me|my contributions) 11:44, January 14, 2018 (UTC)
Just so I understand what you're talking about, you want to change the header color, not the background color? The infobox has two colors - the "header" color and the "background" color, as do the boxes on the main page. The backgrounds on the main page are intentionally diluted so that there's a contrast between the background color and the text. -- LiR talk · blog · contribs 18:03, January 14, 2018 (UTC)
Oops, I may have phrased that wrong; what I meant was to use the background color used on the main page, not the header color. – EpicJoyBoy (talk with me|my contributions) 14:10, January 15, 2018 (UTC)
I've lightened the backgrounds somewhat, you might need to clear your cache in order to see it. -- LiR talk · blog · contribs 04:13, January 18, 2018 (UTC)


────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────I'd say it's somewhat more readable overall, but for Sims 4 I'd personally give it a slightly more bluish tone, since IMO light aqua isn't very readable. – EpicJoyBoy (talk with me|my contributions) 03:45, January 20, 2018 (UTC)


These new infoboxes look pretty nice; though I would like to ask that will {{Sim1}}, {{Sim2}}, {{Sim3}} and {{Sim4}} templates be combined into this Infobox Sim template, or will they stay separate? - SimDestroyer (talk) 15:18, January 12, 2018 (UTC)

As it is now, {{Sim1}} (and the like) all use {{Sim}} as their base, "meta" template, so changing {{Sim}} will affect all Sim templates that use it as their base. {{Infobox Sim}} will most likely be used as a base template for other Sim-templates to use. So no, they'll stay separate, but they kinda already use the same code anyways. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 17:10, January 12, 2018 (UTC)
K6 is correct... the plan is to keep {{Sim}}, {{Sim1}}, etc as well as {{Simbio-start}}, {{Simbio1}}, etc. The main reasoning behind this decision is fanon pages. Editing the {{Sim}} "meta infobox" would affect all other Sim and Simbio infobox templates, since all those templates are built on top of {{Sim}}. Fanon editors might not want the design of the infoboxes they use on their fanon pages to change, so by creating new infobox templates, we can avoid forcing those authors into a template change. The downside of this decision is that every page on the canon side of the wiki that uses a "Sim"-based infobox will have to be edited to use an "Infobox Sim"-based infobox instead. But, I also see this is as a positive, since it gives us the ability to roll the new infobox out slowly, testing it on various pages and demonstrating it to a wider audience before we fully implement it, if we choose to go that route. -- LiR talk · blog · contribs 18:26, January 12, 2018 (UTC)
So does it mean that {{Sim1}}, {{Sim2}}, {{Sim3}} and {{Sim4}} will be combined into this Infobox Sim one for canon pages? - SimDestroyer (talk) 21:29, January 12, 2018 (UTC)
No. {{Sim1}}, {{Sim2}}, and the others will not be modified. {{Infobox Sim1}}, {{Infobox Sim2}}, etc will be created instead. -- LiR talk · blog · contribs 21:36, January 12, 2018 (UTC)

I wanted to add that these proposed changes would (eventually) affect all infoboxes, not just the Sim/Simbio infoboxes. The idea is to create a standardized design that we can apply to any infobox on the wiki, so that they all have a uniform design. To that end, I've "migrated" a few different infoboxes over to the proposed new design. The infoboxes that have been migrated so far are:

It's important to note that these new templates are still being tested and there may yet be bugs to be found. However, I am confident that there will be very few issues in migrating over the rest of the infoboxes. This is because, aside from design and appearance, very little else is being changed. The templates should, by design, work just as they do now. Additionally, thanks to Nikel23, the design coding for the "meta-infobox" is now in the Wiki's .css pages, meaning migrating existing infoboxes to the new design will be even easier and faster, and any design changes we want to make to the infoboxes should be able to be done all at one time, rather than template-by-template.

What I would like to do in this forum is resolve first whether the community at large wishes to adopt a new template design and if so, whether the community wishes to adopt the particular design I've shared here. I would like to get the template design finalized soon, so that we can begin to migrate over the infobox templates en masse, and then after that, migrate over all the main namespace pages that use the infobox templates so that all infoboxes in the mainspace are based on the meta-infobox design. -- LiR talk · blog · contribs 00:11, January 20, 2018 (UTC)

I'm all in for the new design. Nikel Talk Vote! 04:40, January 20, 2018 (UTC)
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