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

[Kaspars Dambis]

Hi Jane,

Thank you for giving such an in depth look into how the new UI came
about. I think that a lot of developers have been waiting for something
like this -- something which explains how different parts of the 'new'
UI were composed and tested and why you (and Automattic) think it is
better than some of the many suggestions that people have expressed.

Like Stephen Rider said -- "this is the first solid response I've seen
that amounts to more than "just trust us"."

> As Ryan mentioned, a lot of people had trouble with the Write/Manage
> dichotomy, mainly because editing a post that had been saved or
> published was a confusing thing: were they writing or managing?

It would be *very* interesting to know what population of the test group
could not understand if managing means editing or creating. Probably
Create/Manage would have been less confusing for them.

> A lot of people
> also found themselves writing Pages instead of Posts accidentally
> because of the menu structure. [...] things
> that were located under the Manage menu further to the right were often
> problematic, because having such a long horizontal list made people
> gloss right over the menu items they should have used.

This is clearly because of the < 2.5 navigation where the second level
looks more like an inline text not as a row of navigation items with
equal importance.

Did they try something like Ozh's drop-down menu?

> When we did the usability testing over the summer, it became clear that
> the way many users think about using their blog is by content type,
> which is why the Crazyhorse prototype groups all the content types under
> a Content label. From there, we got feedback that most people don't
> think about "content," but about making posts or adding links or
> checking comments. "Splintering" the menu into the content types was
> done in response to the way average users think abut using their admin
> tool. 

This definitely is reasonable. The question is -- why wouldn't it work
as a drop-down (I know it is already decided for 2.7, but I would really
like to know your thoughts on this).

> The current version of 2.7 has not been styled in any way, so it's
> no surprise that it looks clunky. When the admin has been styled and the
> navigation groups are treated differently visually, and they have their
> cute little icons in preparation for the collapsible column, it's going
> to be great (or at least *I* think so; YMMV).

The way it looks and feels in wireframes is really great.

> Re: Users menu. In response to the feedback on this list, we're putting
> the Users menu on the top level and leaving it alone for 2.7.

Compared to the Create/Manage change this (moving User under Settings)
would be really insignificant especially because of username (possibly
with Gravatar) at the top-right.

However I would really like to suggest replacing 'username' with '[G] My
Profile' just because most of the web 'applications' do it that way.

Saying "Howdy, Username" doesn't imply anything about being able to edit
User account or User settings.

Thank you once again, Jane, for getting so much of inside information to
the community.

Best wishes,
Kaspars

p.s. thank you for the lengthy comment on my blog; I'll reply during
this weekend.