User experience issues, not aesthetic (Score 1)

The problem with the entire article is that it tries to hand-wave over the real issue: user experience. The article basically suggests, "If we put lipstick on a pig, the pig will look much better." This kind of thought process is exactly why there is so much shitty software in the real world... suddenly, everyone is a designer, everyone knows how to do information architecture, interaction design, and visual design. Wikipedia has a problem, agreed, but it is not just a "superficial" one. If Wikipedia was designed with a different kind of end-user in mind (average Joe vs. geeks), it really could enable folks to contribute on a larger scale. However, there's a lot more involved in improving user experience than just making it look nicer.