[wp-hackers] 1.5.2 or on to 1.6?

[Denis de Bernardy]

> Gabriel White said:
> 
> I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at here, so if 
> you can elaborate this for me, that would be great.
> 
> > immediate to notice that users go to the admin section to check for 
> > news, for comments in need of moderation and for links from the 
> > dashboard. And then head straight to create new post, page or link.

First off, I'd like to apologize for the cold wording. No offense was
intented, just a mere pique. And I feel like a sorry jerk for having been so
cutting.

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/jerk.htm

Regarding your question, user behavior is goal driven, implying that the
easier and faster a software allows him to fulfill his goal, the more
usable.

Now, notice the way you suggest to reorganize the admin menu. You group
similar items together and you add a menu level. This makes sense from a
classification stand point.

However, I'm afraid it doesn't make sense when you take a closer look at
user requirements. The key requirements (say, 80% of the accesses to the
admin menu?) are:

- Create new post, page, link
- List of new comments
- (for multi-user blogs) List of new posts
- Check latest WP/Blog news in dashboard
- Moderate comments, quickly get rid of spam

Edit post, edit page and edit comment are very common too, but I count them
out because you typically access these via edit links on the blog.

The secondary requirements (say, 80% of the remaining accesses?) are:

- Manage posts, pages, links (as in: change category, page template, etc.)
- Create/Manage post and link categories
- (for multi-user blogs) Create/Manage users
- (for the more geeky) Play around with plugins

So in the end, the admin menu is not so bad in its current state. The
dashboard set aside, the main improvement would be to ease access to those
things that users use the most, i.e. create new post, page, link. For
instance, a quick jump menu could make it more immediate to navigate to the
admin menu's key areas:

  New: Post - Page - Link | Dashboard | Logout

Arguably, the blog could use the menu as well. I got extremely positive
feedback when I added this to the theme I'm maintaining.

Also, the suggestion to place the menu where the Dolly text is at is
everything but random. Top corners are among the more valuable areas in
terms of screen real estate, because they get eye focus even when users
probe a screen.

--  
Denis