4/25 Weekend Design Challenge Comments

The file mt-dp-up.png (the one by GB if I’m correct) best preserves the classy WordPress look that I think fits the matured WP2.8 or 2.9. Big and classy serif fonts have been a WordPress hallmark for years now. Never change a winning formula. JJ’s design also preserves this classy style. If I could vote for more than one, I would vote for these two.

The Fluency style sans-serif headers do nothing for me; I suppose it looks trendy (well, sort of early 00’s) but the visual design is no longer a unity in these mockups. The same problem holds for KM and IK. Besides, the Swiss-style sleek sans-serif font used in these mockups is not actually available cross-browser, so that would probably bring it to Arial, which would be a letdown.

KD’s solution is to place the blog header in a shape similar to the shortcut button. That suggests interaction (a button) to me where there is none (except perhaps in MU installations); besides, I don’t know about the green.

The curved tab in the header of wp28.png (AN) doesn’t really fit with the overall visual language of the rest of the admin.

(Next time the files should have consistent names…)

KD’s solution is to place the blog header in a shape similar to the shortcut button. That suggests interaction (a button) to me where there is none (except perhaps in MU installations); besides, I don’t know about the green.

The reason I think the blog title should be a button itself is because I don’t see the purpose of placing a smaller button (labeled View Site) next to a large title which you know very well.

The color of the button’s background would be configurable in order to make it very easy to distinguish between all WordPress blogs one might have.

p.s. I must agree that out of all of the proposals, the mt-dp-up.png by GB looks like the best next step.

I do really like the Fluency style, but it does have one huge flaw.

The menu doesn’t scroll with the page (or at least it didn’t on the version i tried). So if you have a lot of plugins that add menu items, and are using a smaller screen resolution, you can’t reach the items on the bottom of the menu as they run off the bottom of the screen.

@wnorris: I think we’ve all agreed to hold off on implementing any interface changes (well, re nav/header. the widgets screen is changing a bit. :)) until 2.9 so we can take the time to study the designs that were most popular (right now it’s the fluency-based, the current 2.7, and the MT) and determine what works and doesn’t work in them. Anything that gets put up in 2.9 will also be tested to ensure it is an improvement over what we have… we won’t change it just for fun. (Fun. Ha.)

Regardless of which design is chosen, screen options and help will certainly remain as tabs. I am strongly committed to the notion that submit buttons should submit something, not just be a flashier way to make a hyperlink. I know there are still a few inconsistencies in 2.7 around this, but the goal is to use links for links, and form buttons for forms.

And we’ll definitely keep the multi-modal menu functions, regardless of the styling. You won’t be forced to use flyouts, it will remain optional.

@psybertron: 2.8 includes an update to widget management (no more losing settings when you take a widget out of one sidebar, multi-use for all widgets, UI like the rest of 2.7 (open/close, drag and drop), an inactive area where you can hold on to widgets you’ve configured but don’t want in a sidebar right now, new API, etc), some custom taxonomy stuff, a bunch of performance improvements, an embedded theme browser/installer (pulls from .org repository, like with plugins), lots of bug fixes, etc. I don’t know if this list is fully updated yet, but most of the 2.8 updates seem to be here.

About AN

menus are divided in three sections

+ Content (Post, Media …)
+ Users (Users)
+ Customization (Settings, Appearance, Plugins, Tools)

in the psd file, you will see undisplayed layers about the Panels and Help when activated

Hi there,

I’m sorry if I’m rewriting something that people above have already written, but I really don’t have time to go through all 20+ posts right now. I just wanted to offer my thoughts and ask a question.

This is the one I like the most: https://andrerenaut.ovh.org/wp28.jpg.

The reason why is that it streamlines the design and puts much more emphasis on the working area by moving everything up. Also, I like the idea of having different groupings of menu tabs (a post grouping, a user group, and a technical aspects groups) it makes it easier to work one’s way around. I’d like it even more if plugins could have their own little grouping so as not to clutter up the Settings section (even better still would be if we could then further sub-group the plugins according to our own grouping, but that’s another story).

So – that’s my reason for choosing that design.

With that said – I have a few questions:

1) where is the link to visit the site?
2) Can we still open up the Dashboard tab to see sub-tabs like Blog Stats?
3) Where is the name of the blog – or is that what Just Another WordPress Blog stands in for? If so, then please add a view site link right below it or to the right of it.

In short – I think that functionally speaking this is the best option and that it looks nice (although perhaps it could be spruced up a bit).

Be well,

Moshe

@sembasics

“Just Another WordPress Blog” is the name of the blog AND the link to visit site

thank you for your comment

Hey everyone! The JJ submission is mine, and I’d like to thank anyone that voted for it! I’m surprised it got so many votes! The competition really had some good ideas and I can tell you’ve been thinking about this for a while.

If I can take a moment to explain my design…

• I made minimal changes so that it could fit under the 2.8 time constraints.
• Never was a fan of using the Georgia font for the main navigation links, and it looks like everyone else changed the font too.
• I made the panel a little wider also, since some plugins make their own panels that end up being too wide and force their text onto two lines which REALLY uglies things up.
• I think having the short cut drop down menu on the right side of the screen goes against the entire idea of having a short cut area. Since the navigation is on the left, and your mouse will typically be in that area anyhow, why move the mouse over to the right just to click something farther away than where you just were?
• I really like the idea of having the navigation menu be its own defined area on the page, so I bumped it up to the tippy top, and made the header area not so wide to accommodate it.
• I also only modified the wp-admin.css file, so that it was a 2 second patch if it needed to be committed right away for release.

I actually really like IK and MT’s final ideas a lot, and think those will be the inevitable direction that 2.8+ should go. The strict divide between admin screens and the post body area is a much needed (and currently missing) design element, that immediately visually directs your attention to the places it belongs for the right reasons.

Good job again everyone, and thanks to everyone that deserves it, for everything you’re doing, all the time you’re doing it. ??

I don’t really understand why you can’t just make the whole dashboard ‘Theme’able

You have Themes which tons of people contribute to, to fit various needs and tastes. Why not have dashboard-themes in wp-content right along with buddypress-themes or members-themes or whatever it’s been changed to?

This could also change a BIG question a lot of admins have as to why cant they theme the Login/Profile and dashboard sections of their blogs for subscribed users?

The work you’re doing is great! But if you keep focusing on all these here trees, the forest is gonna come along and ya’ll will miss it.

-Radio-

I agreed that we should make the dashboard themeable. As things stand now, Fluency Style Dark is leading the pack (with 18% of the vote) and all three fluency themes combined have almost 40% of the vote. That seems to indicate that some form of fluency may be in the offering – that’s fine for people who like, but in my mind it would be a huge step backwards.

I personally prefer the present theme much more to that theme. But why should we have to have this discussion at all – let’s use all those designs by making the dashboard themeable. That way everyone can get what they want and more (since other people could also make new themes beyond the ones we saw here).

Great idea – I think I’ll add it to the new ideas section.

All the best,

Moshe

BondageRadio: I don’t really understand why you can’t just make the whole dashboard ‘Theme’able

[…]

The work you’re doing is great! But if you keep focusing on all these here trees, the forest is gonna come along and ya’ll will miss it.

I absolutely agree with BondageRadio’s post. For me, one of the biggest downsides to WordPress is the CONSTANT redesigns and reworks of the admin interface. I’ve helped to implement WP as a CMS for non-tech-savy people in a corporate environment several times and it’s always frustrating when I need to explain how to do everything in the admin now that it’s completely different AGAIN.

Implement a way to theme/skin the admin, but leave the structure alone. It works fine the way it is. Aren’t there bigger issues than whether the blog name goes next to the nav or above it?

Implement a way to theme/skin the admin, but leave the structure alone. It works fine the way it is. Aren’t there bigger issues than whether the blog name goes next to the nav or above it?

100% agree – allow us to make platform even more popular but you have to help us – each redesign forces us into re-doing all the tutorials, guides and doing tremendous amount of unnecessary work.

Implement a way to theme/skin the admin, but leave the structure alone. It works fine the way it is. Aren’t there bigger issues than whether the blog name goes next to the nav or above it?

Took the words right out of my mouth. These redesigns every other point release are frustrating. Developing your own admin skin for WP is a hassle already without having to worry about it being completely broken with a point release.

I love WP, it really is the best system out there that doesn’t over complicate things for end users, which is invaluable when your handing over a system to a non-technical client. This just seems to be the missing piece.

I am not really enthusiastic about the poll procedure as well as the result. First of all I don’t understand why the poll was open only for 2 days within the week and not for longer including the weekend (what IMHO would bring more votes). I think that 2.600 votes are not representative for the WordPress community.
If you look at the top four, you’ll see that they are within a range of only 3%. The winning design represents the opinion of only 18%, while 82% prefer other designs (16% voted for the current).
I would appreciate a second poll with only the top four designs and hopefully much more votes.

What about implementing a couple of the top picks and having a setting for each user and let them choose!?