Overbearing bloatware, pretty awful UI design

Hi @johnc-2,

Sorry it’s taken us so long to get back to you. We’ve added functionality to disable entire parts of the plugin, to allow you to use only what you need. Notifications and tools can be toggled on and off to your liking.

We’d love to know your thoughts about our current version. Thanks!

Hey benvaassen

Thanks for replying to me.

I have just installed the plugin on a blog. I couldn’t see much difference apart from a set up wizard and the settings being over simplified.

I know you have to cater for everyone so that’s fine.

FYI, the buttons you use in the UI are really difficult to know if they are on or off.

All the best.

Hi @johnc-2,

Thanks for replying! Can you elaborate?

In your original review you stated: It does what it says on the tin. But in addition to this, adds a ton of irritating pop-ups, adverts and new elements – 90% of which are superfluous.

– Adds a ton of irritating pop ups. Did you know you can turn off the admin bar: https://yoast.com/disable-wp-admin-bar/. You can also turn off individual messages you receive from our plugin by pressing the ‘X’ in our SEO -> Dashboard. Do you still experience irritating pop-ups before or after this?

– Adds a ton of irritating adverts. It does. The reason those banners are there, is because Yoast is not a 1-person non-profit organization, but a 40+ people company. Simply put, we need to make money. We need to inform people that we have premium products and services. They paid for the development time on the free plugin.
If you don’t want to see the banners in the admin, there’s a simple solution. Pay for the premium plugin. That’ll solve your annoyance with the banners, and help us.

– Adds a ton of new elements. Which elements are you referring to?

In your last reply you state that the buttons are really difficult to know if they are on or off. Does this apply to all the buttons we use? What can or should we improve?

Thanks for your time!

benvaassen

With the latest versions I can’t see any settings without going through some sort of a data mining “configuration wizard” which I’m not going to do – so for all I know you have fixed it.

Anyway, I understand you are a commercial entity and need to generate money.

However I stand by the fact that the adverts, admin columns, notifications, toolbar menus are overbearing, but I’m a minimalist – and it’s just an opinion.

Cheers.

@johnc-2, you can’t see any settings because we hide the advanced settings by default, not because you have to go through the configuration wizard. As a minimalist, we thought you’d appreciate that ?? the configuration wizard isn’t mandatory by the way, you can use our plugin perfectly fine without going through it. It’s there to automatically help you set up the plugin for you, without going through all settings individually.

How can you stand by your fact that the adverts, admin columns, notifications, toolbar menus are overbearing? We’ve made a lot of changes to give more control to our users. Admin columns and notifications can be turned off and the advanced toolbar menus are hidden by default. What more can we do in your opinion?

The only one that’s left are the adverts. If you believe the adverts are still a valid reason for a 2* review, by all means, leave it as a 2* review, but I’m hoping we are doing a bit better ??