[wp-hackers] Re: New Posting Screen

[David House]

On 6/23/05, Scott Merrill <skippy at skippy.net> wrote:
> Why?

Because otherwise you're going on hearsay. Don't make comments on
things you haven't experienced first hand. In the words of Lipton Ice
Tea, don't knock it until you've tried it.

> As was discussed earlier on the list, a single "SAVE" button, instead of
> the three seperate ones ("Save & Continue", "Save" and "Publish") would
> easily remedy some of the confusion.

This is still a better interface than old, fragmented one.

> Yes, I buy into the "options are bad" argument, insofar as it makes
> sense.  But I don't think this is an issue on which it makes sense.

I disagree. If we have the two-interfaces setup again, we haven't
really moved forward. Besides, from the users perspective, there's not
really much distinction between the interfaces: 'Would you have blue
boxes or grey boxes?' Does that sound like a valuable option to you?
 
> How about a completely plugin-driven post interface?  Plugins present
> whatever form(s) they want, and hand the POSTed data off to WP handler
> functions for that data, which in turn performs error checking, saving
> to the database, etc.  Then we can have as spartan or as fancy an
> interface as we want.

I think this is a case for customisability where it's not called for.
The majority of bloggers will be happy with this interface, and if you
really want customisation, edit the core (or write a plugin, there
should be enough hooks).

> My mom uses WordPress, but will never install it; so an install-time
> prompt is functionally no different from an Options page prompt for her
> (and for anyone else using a hosting-provider-installed WordPress).

Keep in mind that WP prides itself on the 5-minute install.
 
> I think of my mom with regard to "regular" bloggers.  My mom's going to
> freak out when she accidentally slides one of the widgets without
> realizing she's done so.  She doesn't expect web-based interfaces to be
> drag-and-drop.

Agreed. The usability of the new interface needs to be debated.
Doesn't mean we should give up the entire interface, though.

-- 
-David House, dmhouse at gmail.com, http://xmouse.ithium.net