[wp-design] Second Draft

[Chris Davis]

Thanks for the feedback, 

> I agree, to a point. I still think "status" should be at the top of the
> right column, as it is (probably) the most important "secondary
> information" we have.

While I see your point I still strongly disagree.  I am not sure how
much each of us use some of the extended features, but I am using a
couple pretty heavily.  It is annoying for me to not be able to change
the post slug with out scrolling the browser area.  Logically they
should be together.  I would even go so far as to have them on the
same line; shorten the title input field and throw the post slug field
in on the right.

> I buy it. Though we should be sure not to "forget" the author box in the
> future mockups :) - how about bottom right column, after timestamp,
> collapsed by default?

I don't know if I am understanding what you guys are hoping to
accomplish with the author box, that might be our problem here :)  I
have run a multi-user blog before so I am pretty familiar with it.  I
was assuming you were giving the user the ability to change thier
identity on a post per post basis.  Not only do I see that as
troubling from a readability standpoint I am not sure why I would want
author C to be able to post as author A.

> Yes and no. It certainly didn't have a good enough placement before, so
> it's good we get that player back in the game. Still, I don't think it's
> good to have it permanently placed under the text area. On one hand, we
> want to make it easy for users to delete a post if they want to, on the
> other hand we don't want to stress people into doing it.

Hmmm... I am undecided at this point.  Deleting is a pretty basic part
of the desktop environment, people have been using that paradigm since
MacOS 1.0.  I don't think we would be stressing the user into using
delete, merely providing a tool they already expect to be there.  Not
sure though, you make compelling points.


> Finally, and this is a longshot, but a good idea to keep in mind while
> we all work at this. In the eastern world, people read from the right to
> the left. Where we have a logo in the top left corner, and an "Enter"
> button in the bottom right, It is in their genes to have a logo in the
> top right, and an "Enter" button in the bottom left. By "Enter" button,
> I mean the button that "applies" stuff, the button that says "move on",
> "next line". My point is, while this interface is surely being designed
> for westerners, we should be aware of minor details we could consider
> that would help easterners use Wordpress.
 
You shame me sir, I am usually the one who brings up non western
readers!  As for the placement, why couldn't we just have a preference
in Options for Western or Eastern and have the admin area rejigger
itself accordingly.  It wouldn't be that hard really.

> > Got a good idea from the other message. What if instead of this button
> > we just have a JS created button that says "8 minutes since last save"
> 
> I think, neither. In the case of the normal "Save and cont. ed.", I am
> fully with Michael that the behavior of the regular Save button is
> redundant. In a way, "Publish", is even redundant (though I'm not
> proposing we remove that!)
> 
> As for the "8 minutes since...", it is also redundant. We _could_ have a
> grayed textarea with such a counter, but I would be inclined to think
> that was also a bad idea. I'm afraid having such a counter would stress
> people unnecessarily. Maybe this is a feature people could turn off or
> on in the options?

I definately think it should be an option, but I really love this
idea.  I would differ in saying I think it should be clickable, say if
I need to close down my browser and go to a meeting, but I still have
5 minutes left until the next auto-save?  I could just click the text
and it would go ahead and autosave.  Just a thought.

> >5. I have moved send trackbacks to under the advanced area, since
> >Trackbacks are evil.  Also since we send pingbacks automagically I
> >think they (trackbacks) are more at home in the advanced area.
> >
> >
> I actually rather like trackbacks :) they look nicer than pingbacks.
> 
> But I agree.

And speaking of automagically, why are we not sending tracks
automagically?  It can be done obviously so why are we forcing our
users to input a list of URI's?

> 
> >6. I have rejiggered the header area, and for the sake of illustration
> >changed the title to my title.  I think placing the logout/view site
> >bit under the title is a better way to go since as you can see some
> >blog titles can be quite long.  I also feel strongly that we should be
> >making the admin a little friendlier, I think the inclusion of welcome
> >text that displays the currently logged in users name is essential.
> >
> >
> Very very nice. I like it a lot. A couple of things:
> I love the friendlyness, and the layout, but I'm a bit worried about the
> extra used space. Matt mentioned it as a comment to one of my earliest
> mockups: we don't want to use too much real estate up there. The idea
> is, i would guess, that it shouldnt' be necessary to scroll, to edit
> your post. So if things could be chucked a little together, I'd love it.

You are right there, but I am not a good person to talk about this, 5
minutes at my site should tell you that I am a fan of letting designs
"breathe".  It helps increase readability and reduce stress on the
reader/viewer, so I always err on the side of too much white/negative
space than too little.

> As for the "Good evening" thing, I love it! PERFECT part of the WP
> brand. It is definitely friendly. How about the coders do some magic
> here so this message rotates through a couple of phrases akin to the
> setup? I.e. that funny tone during install that's come to be part of the
> WP brand? A "Hello Dolly" of the admin page?

That would be trivial to implement.  I was thinking of something like
the Time of Day plugin from Dunstan and Michael, but having something
like Hello Dolly or Flickr would be fine as well.

> >7. And finally I have centered the tab text, I am sure this will not
> >be a very popular change, but it was distressing that presentation
> >looked centered - due to its width, while all the others did not.
> >Centering them all is the only way to insure some normalcy accross
> >those controls.
> >
> >
> You're right. I would argue that if the main content is left aligned, so
> should the text on the tabs, but that argument isn't really valid since
> text on buttons is also centered. So your argument holds.

Good points actually.

> However, I would like it that we come up with some more examples of
> this, especially when we go a-branding the interface. One option could
> be to let the tab width be related to the width of the text. Another
> option could be to rename "Presentation" to "Themes".

I like losing presentation, it is just so long and pretensious... I don't know.

> --
> 
> Joen Asmussen
> 
> CPH, DENMARK
> ICQ: 2462161, AIM: workjoen
> 
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> 
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