[wp-hackers] Re: Menus and Labels and Plugins, oh my!

[mpwalsh8]

On Oct 3, 1:13 pm, Stephen Rider <wp-hack... at striderweb.com> wrote:

[ ... snipped .. ]

>
> > We talked about having a Plugin Settings under the Plugins menu, but  
> > there was some question as to whether people would want to put them  
> > there. I think it would be an ideal location, so if people are into  
> > that suggestion by Alex, let us know.
>
> I'm against this in the ***strongest possible terms***.  Please read...
>
> <http://striderweb.com/nerdaphernalia/2008/06/on-plugin-design/>
>
> Excerpt:
> My take on this is quite simple: From the user perspective, plugins  
> should be invisible. That is, the fact that such-and-such part of the  
> interface was made by a plugin should be invisible. The best design  
> for a plugin is to seamlessly blend into the existing interface so  
> that someone who didn't already know would not realize that that thing  
> there is not part of the basic system.
>

[ ... snipped ... ]

+1 - I agree 100% with Stephen on this subject.  Some plugins require
quite a bit of end user interaction from setttings, to management, to
presentation.  The ability to do this is one of the things which
attracted me to WordPress as a development platform.  It provided me
80% of what I needed, I found existing plugins for another 5%, and it
allowed me the hooks to code the remaining things I need.  My end
users don't need to know and probaly don't care which part is core
WordPress, which part is a plugin, and which part is custom
developed.  They just want it to work and to find information where
the UI logically leads them.  I really don't want to end up with a
system where you "manage some things here and other things there" and
"change these settings here and those settings there".

Mike