When you go from reading the Atlantic, The Economist, The Washington Post... any content site... then begin to read a Wikipedia entry everything you know about reading an article no longer applies. You are now forced to change what you do.
This is just the most basic no no in web design - unplanned interactions, forcing a user to interact, forcing a user to actually think about the interface.
The developers have just forced every person who wants to consume content on Wikipedia to do it differently than on every other content site.
And there are literally countless millions of people who will have no idea how to disable it, who use computers every day but have no idea how to change something.
There's nothing user friendly about this. It's forcing interaction on the user.
Hover ads are like this, if you happen to hover over a word as you scrolled then an ad popped up. This is the exact same thing. You're using one of the most hated ad techniques and calling it an enhancement. Show me any UX expert that would approve of this on any site. Show me an advertiser who doesn't love them. And you're not even making money from it.
What's wrong with an arrow or button next to the link to activate the page preview if you want? It's a simple answer and it's not deciding you know what's best for the user and shoving something in their face that requires action.
This is just piss poor UX. Hovering menu's have been a pain for years and generally not considered good design. Now here you are embedding the equivalent of hover ads in an article meant to be read.
When you go from reading the Atlantic, The Economist, The Washington Post... any content site... then begin to read a Wikipedia entry everything you know about reading an article no longer applies. You are now forced to change what you do.
This is just the most basic no no in web design - unplanned interactions, forcing a user to interact, forcing a user to actually think about the interface.
The developers have just forced every person who wants to consume content on Wikipedia to do it differently than on every other content site.
And there are literally countless millions of people who will have no idea how to disable it, who use computers every day but have no idea how to change something.
Just an incredible UX failure.