X-Indywiki

Wikipedia is a very commonly used online encyclopedia that provides a wealth of information, all easily accessible. However, the information is presented in a text heavy format that some users might find challenging, for those who prefer visuals and want to navigate via images, there is X-Indywiki. The application allows users to navigate Wikipedia in a different format, that offers an emphasis on hyperlinked images.

The basic interface of X-Indywiki is simple enough, it operates more like a program window than a web browser, allowing users to browse Wikipedia independently of their browser. The text, affiliated subjects and associated links are all displayed at the bottom of X-Indywiki, with the top half dedicated to the pictures.

Unfortunately, the biggest gimmick of the application doesn't seem to work. X-Indywiki features severe problems loading the images, even with extremely fast internet connections the images take a massive amount of time to load, if they load at all. It undermines the main advertising point of the application and renders it almost useless.

If the pictures could be disabled, the self contained encyclopedia browser would actually be quite interesting for frequent users. The text layout and the side links displayed in their own bar is actually quite helpful, but the pictures cannot be disabled.

There are no real options or layout customization settings, with a the only editable option being the background color behind images, and to disable the loading bar from the window, which never loads. The lack of options is a serious problem, with the right settings the image issue could have been overcome.

While X-Indywiki presented an interesting idea, being able to browse Wikipedia via related images. Unfortunately, the image feature barely works and seems not to the majority of times, leaving the application seeming to be either broken or poorly configured. There are no advantages to using X-Indywiki.