Wikipedia:User page design guide/Introduction: Difference between revisions

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'''[[Wikipedia:User page|User pages]]''' serve several special purposes on Wikipedia. First, they are tools which provide areas for personal sandboxes, workshops, and page storage, to experiment and build pages before placing them in article namespace, and to store tools and pages the user finds particularly useful. User pages are perfect for building and storing reading lists, Wikipedia bookmarks, and navigation bars, to assist your Wikipedia-based research, study, and navigation. Your user page also provides a place to express yourself, and any practice you get designing your user page may be applicable as skills upon making the encyclopedia itself better. Each user page has a discussion page, which makes it easy to communicate with each editor directly; Wikipedia even notifies you when you receive a new message. User pages also provide a place for programs or projects not suitable for other namespaces. A Wikipedian's user page can tell us a lot about him or her; their record of contributions to Wikipedia, their wikiphilosophy, their strengths and interests, etc; and gives us a place to put userboxes! The userbox system, which is integrated into Wikipedia's category system, automatically enters the user who uses one into the category that userbox represents, and serves as a directory of Wikipedians for finding users who have an appropriate skill or knowledge-level that you need applied when you yourself do not have it. Programmers, for instance are listed by skill-level. '''''See [[:Category:Wikipedians]].'''''

== The sections of the UPDC ==

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/About you|About you]]''' - this section is about the focal content of your user page: information about you. Tell us about yourself!

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Navigation aids|Navigation aids]]''' - you can include these on your user pages to help you make your way around Wikipedia easier

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Metadata|Metadata]]''' - information about your userpage, your user account, and about Wikipedia. Page identifiers, edit counts, total articles on Wikipedia, current vandalism danger, and things like that.

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Scripts|Your monobook.js page]]''' - how to enhance your user account with javascripts.

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/User Page Hall of Fame|User Page Hall of Fame]]''' - the best user pages on Wikipedia: some for design, some for content, some for sheer character

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Style|Style (formatting)]]''' - the nuts and bolts of page design, as they apply to user pages. Explains design elements with lots of "how to" instructions and wikicode samples that you can cut and paste onto your pages.

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Menus and subpages|Menus & subpages]]''' - you don't just have a user page, you have your own "user space", which can have as many subpages as you desire. Plus there are many menus provided by which you may tie your pages together to allow easy navigation between them

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Decor|Art, Decor, etc.]]''' - spruce your user page up with banners, pictures, icons, and other things. There are also some practical resources like the "tip of the day" templates.

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Help and collaboration|Help and collaboration!]]''' - This is where to hook up with others about user pages: get your questions answered, and even get hands-on help. And if you'd like to give rather than receive help, there's even a place for you to sign up to join our UPDC Help Team.

== See also ==