[wp-hackers] Splintered Menus in 2.7

[Stephen Rider]

On Oct 1, 2008, at 4:14 PM, Jeremy Clarke wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 5:06 PM, Stephen Rider <wp-hackers at striderweb.com 
> > wrote:
>> You're probably on wp-testers, but this falls right into a thread I  
>> started
>> on that list:
>> http://comox.textdrive.com/pipermail/wp-testers/2008-October/008927.html
>>
>
> That thread is 100% spot on in my opinion.

I guess I should have posted that on wp-hackers instead?

I'm sorry to cross-post, but I think this is important, and I think  
it's the kind of thing that a lot of people are seeing.  I'm seeing a  
lot of comments that sort of glance around this, but nobody's quite  
struck at the core of the problem.

Originally posted on wp-testers:

***
It seems that the menus in 2.7 are becoming _extremely_ splintered.   
Do we really need ELEVEN menus???

By breaking things out so much, I think we're making the layout more  
"brittle" -- less open to changes or additions.  Write/Manage was a  
much stronger setup than Posts/Pages/Links/Media.  Especially as  
plugins add abilities to the system, authors are going to end up  
having to make more top-level menus because we're losing the more  
generalized topics such as "write" and "manage".  Either that or we're  
all going to have a thousand things all crammed under "tools" because  
that's going to be the only logical place left....

	"Hmmm... I used the have the calendar page under 'Manage'.  Huh.  I  
guess.... Tools?"

	"Well, is the 'top of every page' notice (from plugin x) a page or  
post?  Neither, really.  It used to be under Write.  Guess I have to  
stick it under Tools...?"

That was two good examples just off the top of my head.  We're  
removing much of the flexibility of the interface by making Top Level  
menus so specialized.

As much as I appreciate feedback, I think designing this via poll is  
going to give us the proverbial "horse made by a committee".  The  
geeks in charge (in which I, some tiny bit, include myself) need to  
have a longer view of things.

We can't overlook this, guys, or we're going to end up having to do  
_another_ redesign two months from now when all these issues come out  
in real-world use.
***

I think we should really rethink the re-menuing of 2.7  The 2.6 menus  
were very flexible and left a lot of room for any kind of expansion.

Stephen



-- 
Stephen Rider
<http://striderweb.com/>