[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #48894: Improve the small user sub window at the right corner on the admin bar a.k.a. the Howdy fly-out

[WordPress Trac]

#48894: Improve the small user sub window at the right corner on the admin bar
a.k.a. the Howdy fly-out
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 Reporter:  ixkaito                              |       Owner:  afercia
     Type:  enhancement                          |      Status:  assigned
 Priority:  normal                               |   Milestone:  5.5
Component:  Toolbar                              |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                               |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  needs-design-feedback has-patch      |     Focuses:  ui,
  has-screenshots                                |  accessibility
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Comment (by afercia):

 Replying to [comment:40 mapk]:
 >
 > 1. The dropdown icon is on the wrong side of the text.

 I'd agree. What to do with the avatar image though? Not sure having the
 avatar and the dropdown icon on the same side would look so nice.
 Personally, as mentioned during latest a11y bug-scrub, I'd just remove the
 avatar image which is definitely too small for today's screens. A 16 by 16
 pixels avatar doesn't help that much. Not sure the avatar serves a
 valuable purpose in the first place. Also, in the responsive view the
 avatar is the only visible control for the menu. The dropdown icon would
 be more appropriate.
 Please let us know what's the best option, design-wise. We have only a few
 days before Beta :)

 > 2. As noted by Joy, shouldn't all topbar menu items have the same
 interaction?

 Yeah this is something that was considered. Some background first:
 - At firs, we considered to entirely remove this menu: the only valuable
 content in the menu is the "Log out" link, which could be placed
 elsewhere. Re: the edit profile links, there are other links to the
 profile in the UI. So we felt the menu itself would need to be re-
 considered but agreed this should happen in a broader discussion.
 - Turned out some plugins e.g. BuddyPress adds stuff within this menu. As
 often happen in WordPress, there's no established API to add items within
 this menu. The WordPress UI can be "hacked" in many ways and plugins can
 often do what they want but that doesn't mean these "hacks" are guaranteed
 to be supported. So for the future, I'd still consider to completely re-
 thing this menu and maybe remove it.
 - The other admin bar items have long-standing accessibility issues. See
 for example #34668. They would need some refactoring and some simplified
 interaction. Right now, the interaction happens in 3 different ways for
 desktop mouse, desktop keyboard, and responsive view touch. Far from
 ideal, although I do realize the original intent (years ago) was good. The
 necessary refactoring is definitely out of the scope of this ticket.
 - Anecdotally, I can't count the number of times I accidentally triggered
 the Howdy menu when I just wanted to publish a post or moving the mouse in
 the top right area for other purposes. This is what we would like to fix
 now, in the simpler possible way :)
 - We also agreed on the need for future iterations but for now I'd think
 the dropdown icon is enough to distinguish this menu from the other ones
 to indicate it behaves differently.

 I can quickly refresh the patch to move the dropdown icon, please just let
 us know where it should be moved and what to do with the avatar image :)

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/48894#comment:42>
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