When used properly, Portable Infoboxes have many benefits mainly related to presentation and usability.[1]
Presentation[]
Primarily these infoboxes serve as a simple way to present data in many devices. Unlike classic infoboxes, they can be formatted to display properly in various devices, such as smartphones, feature phones, tablets, and various other devices.
- Formatting
- Portable infoboxes have a default formatting which reduces the need to have complex HTML tags and parser functions.
- Auto-hide
- They hide empty sections by default to reduce the clutter and present only needed information.
- Auto or manual collapsing
- The infoboxes may automatically collapse to allow the user to read the page content easily.
- Image collections (tabs)
- They have the ability to show a group of images in tabs.
- Themes
- Since markup is the same this makes it easier to share and modify themes from other wikis.
Performance[]
As they have reduced content, these infoboxes perform better in several devices. They also require less bandwidth to download the necessary data, and avoid issues caused by inline styling.
Usability[]
Currently, it is possible to add them using an insert tool, and create them using a visual infobox builder. There is also a migration tool designed to facilitate conversion from classic infobox into Portable infoboxes. Other usability benefits include:
- Present structured data, making them easier to read
- Data types (e.g. images, videos, data) that may reduce typos
Sharing[]
Their portability means that sharing infobox structure and themes is much easier than before. This goes beyond sharing in simple wikis to use in third-party applications. This also facilitates the ability to retrieve data from various pages for use in a custom application, game, or tool.
Extensibility[]
As the portable infoboxes all share a common XML structure, it is simpler for third parties to design tools to enhance and provide extra functionality to all infoboxes, just as there are several tools to use XML.[2]