[wp-testers] Center

[Les Bessant]

On 27 Mar 2008, at 06:41, DD32 wrote:
>
> The feedback given will be what steers the UI changes, Theres been a  
> remarkably small number of complaints about the width from what i've  
> seen, which means most people who have been testing dont mind that  
> much. Most feedback on the changes have been positive, So its either  
> people like it, They dont care, or they dont complain.
>

Or that the people with objections made them some time ago, in detail,  
and found that their concerns fell on deaf ears, so stopped talking  
about it.

>
> To be fair, HappyCog( http://www.happycog.com/ ) did put a fair  
> ammount of effort into the new design, And based it around a lot of  
> user research, Put together some wireframe mockups of a better  
> interface, And piece by piece, the Devs have done a great job of  
> implementing the changes, and improving WP in so many other ways at  
> the same time.
>

Ah yes, user research. Rather like the interface changes Microsoft put  
in Office 2007. I believe the idea is to make software easier to use  
*for people who've never seen it before* while making it harder for  
people who make more advanced use of it. The parallel is remarkably  
close:

Office (pre 2007) allowed users to have as many customised toolbars as  
they wanted, and to put them where they wanted, without having to do  
anything advanced.
Office 2007 makes this impossible without add-ons

WP (pre 2.5) allows users to drag and drop items on the sidebar to put  
them in the order that makes sense for them (including plugin items).
WP 2.5 removes almost everything from the sidebar, and does not allow  
reordering of the items it pushes below the fold. This might be  
"easier" for people with a particular workflow, but makes it *harder*  
for others.

> WP 2.5 also includes the ability for Plugins to overrule the Admin  
> theme all together, So i'd expect to see a few spinoffs which  
> improve upon the current design, If the changes are popular enough,  
> then i'm sure Devs would consider pulling those changes into the core.
> Once you've used the 2.5 admin for awhile, Its much comfier, if  
> you've just changed over from the old interface, then its going to  
> take some time to get your grips on it, As expected.

I've been using it. I still think the split of the menu into two with  
some bits over to the right is illogical and arbitrary. With wide  
screens it's even more annoying. Not annoying enough to be unusable,  
but still not good.

> All i'm trying to say, Is give it a chance before writing it off  
> entirely.
>
> There'll allways be people who do *not* want to change,
>

I don't object to change per se, I object to functionality being  
removed in the name of making things "easier".

> There'll be people claiming the old interface is better, and  
> *nothing* will change their minds,

In the specific case of the Write page, and for my specific purposes,  
the old interface is superior. Easy configuration is good.

>
> Those 3 groups of people are expected,
> Theres people who absolutely hate the old interface,
> Theres people who liked it, but found it cumbersome, or felt it was  
> time for a change,
> and theres people who loved it.
>

And people who were neutral about it, because it just worked, and  
therefore blended into the background.

> Point is, nothing much has changed, its just the people may have  
> switched group.
>

The Write page has changed enormously.

> So, If someone doesnt like a current design choice, Voice it, get it  
> known, Who knows, Fluid width might be back in 2.5.1
>

Fluid width is less of an issue for me than the mangling of the Write  
page, but I think it should be there - let the user choose how wide  
the interface is. This is where web-based apps generally score.

Perhaps a solution for the Write page would be a "basic", fixed- 
layout, minimal page for "beginners" and a more advanced, configurable  
page for more experienced users (is it my imagination, or did WP used  
to do that?).

Les