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WordPress 2.5, pending

By Phil Barron ⋅ February 15, 2008 ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ Post a comment

Let me just get out in front of this by owning up: It’s my fault. I accept blame for whatever dissent is taking place in the WordPress village regarding the advance look at version 2.5.

I am at fault because when I adopt a blogging platform, social unrest takes place.

Shortly after I hooked up with Movable Type four years back, the big Licensegate storm blew in. Now that I’ve gotten my seat warm and comfy in the cockpit of my WordPress installation, some folks are up in arms over the pending changes to the WP admin.

Granted, the statistical sample is small, but still.

Somewhat more seriously: I like the take of Lisa Sabin-Wilson on this, particularly the tone (we always forget how important tone is).

I spent some time with the 2.5 demo myself and have some issues with the UI, particularly with the Write Post page as it now stands. Whole lotta scrolling going on there in order to get to various elements, and the mostly vacant right column mocks me. The navigation cues atop the Dashboard seem oddly and perhaps arbitrarily split up. Regardless of whether the Plugins, Users, and Settings links really need to be divided from the core functions of Write, Manage, etcetera, they’re in a no man’s land, affiliated with sweet nothing and awkwardly placed. The “Write a New Post” button is in a subordinate position to the “Write a New Page” button (that is, it’s to the right), but most users will move first to create a post, not a page.

As things stand, there’s a lot of real estate being used on the Dashboard page by things that shouldn’t require so much space (looking at you, Recent Comments, Incoming Links, Dev Blog…and I don’t think Plugins belongs here at all). Come to think of it, that’s the case with the present admin. Now is the time to drop a point size and move things around. We’re not all presbyoptic (yet). And it would be nice to move the info in the overarching (it’s like a low ceiling beam) and oddly orange “Right Now” row into a tidy right column.

Overall, I wish different colors had been chosen. The interface has an enervated, washed-out look to it. Even the orange beam is somehow muted.

More positively: I thought I’d miss the drag-and-droppiness of the Widgets page, and I don’t. Selecting and removing widgets in 2.5 seems fairly straightforward. The editability of the Dev Blog and related items on the Dashboard is welcome. Tag managing = good, especially as I’m seriously using tags these days. Don’t know enough about the Image Manager to comment, but hoping it will help me streamline my currently clunky use of graphics.

And…that’s quite enough for now, yes? Things can and most likely will change between now and release day. And even if the final product doesn’t satisfy, the power of open sourcery will likely provide an alternative. Or three.

Addendum: Felt I’d left something important unsaid about interfaces, and it’s this - there’s more to functionality than a slick UI. I remember falling in love with the admin improvements that came with Movable Type 4.x; it was everything familiar from 3.x, but enhanced (and yes, slick). Aside from some irritating overstickiness in the drop-down tabs, it was marvelous to work with….but the convolution of the templating system turned the appealing look and feel of the platform into a mockery.

It doesn’t matter how pretty a tool is when it’s difficult to use.

When I came over to WordPress, the admin looked quaint by comparison, but the program’s ease of use made it quickly feel like a loyal friend in a old blue flannel shirt.

Just thought it was worth the mention.

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