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Revamp pagination / page navigation (Community Wishlist/W186)

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Description

In user contributions, search results, page history, etc, pagination and page navigation is done (and been done as far as I remember) with something like this:

(newest | oldest) View (newer 100 | older 100) (20 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 500)

This is not a great user interface, is still confusing for me after 20+ years (I keep pressing “oldest” instead of “older” for instance), probably not that clear to new users, and not really to the standard of current UI expectations.

It would be great to redesign the navigation to be more up to par with common pagination patterns.

A quick example, keeping text only:

950 entries | Page 1/10

⏮ First page | ⏴ Previous page | Next page | Last page

Display 20 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 500 entries per page

Or using the local {{Clickable button 2}} template just as a rough preview:

950 entries | Page 1/10

⏮ First page ⏴ Previous page Next page ⏵ Last page ⏭

Display 20 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 500 entries per page

Or maybe:

⏮ First ⏴ Previous Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 510 Next ⏵ Last ⏭
Display 20 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 500 entries per page

Whichever form it takes, this new version should ideally be using buttons in different states as well as icons and design tokens from Codex – that would be a great improvement of this very common feature.

Assigned focus area

Unassigned

Type of wish
System change
Tags
Affected users

All users using search, page history, contributions lists, etc.

Phabricator tasks
Other details
  • Created: 09:37, 2 August 2024
  • Last updated: 07:05, 12 December 2025
  • Author: Nclm (talk)
Voting

This wish currently has 8 supporters. Voting for this wish is open until it is completed.

Supporters of this wish
Support Matěj Suchánek (talk) 18:51, 9 October 2025
Support Pppery (talk) 16:30, 10 October 2025
Support What is proposed already exists on Special:ListFiles etc., so it would also be a reduction in tech debt if all page navigation was turned into the same thing. Nardog (talk) 10:17, 22 October 2025
Support Hakimi97 (talk) 22:04, 23 December 2025
Support Epok (talk) 20:43, 12 January 2026
Support Let's not reuse Special:ListFiles's though. It lacks "more/fewer items, starting from the same offset" buttons. NguoiDungKhongDinhDanh (talk) 00:07, 13 January 2026
Support the second option, as it has a better interface. Codename Noreste (talk) 00:46, 13 January 2026
Support This is so unnecessarily confusing! FaviFake (talk) 16:35, 13 January 2026