[wp-testers] AW: Write Page

[Matt Mullenweg]

Daniel Schoonover wrote:
> Wow that was a professional answer there...

Sorry, my following posts expand on the points a bit more.

> The designers screwed up on the
> write page, which was pretty much perfect the way it was.

I don't think anyone who has done support for WP or trained other people 
on its usage could claim the write page was pretty much perfect, 
actually it was pretty awful. We got used to it, and comfortable with 
it, but just because it was widely used doesn't mean it was right.

> I'm sorry to
> break the bad news but the current design of the "Write Post/Page" is
> completely counter-intuitive to the user.

Saying "I think it's counter-intuitive" is very different from saying 
"users think this is counter-intuitive." To say the latter, you need a 
much larger sample size than yourself or a few people on this 
self-selected list.

The first I could totally agree with, the second I wouldn't.

> Who's idea was it to waste the space that used to be for Category selections
> with

Whitespace is not wasted space. Filling every possible centimeter with 
stuff does not make it better, creates a lot of cognitive load, and is 
frustrating even for savvy users.

There is lots of research on this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_theory

For example, people, especially unsophisticated consumers, tend to buy 
products with more buttons because they're perceived to be better, but 
their tested happiness with said products is lower over time. They would 
have been better off and happier getting the less complex thing, even 
though they would swear to the grave they bought the right stereo.

I have never claimed to be an expert on any of this, but I know enough 
to know what I don't know, and hopefully enough to be able to find 
someone who can do a much better job. This is the basis of my whole 
adult life, actually.

> I mean if I'm in the write post section why would I even be thinking about
> managing any of those things?  My current thoughts are on making a POST,
> thus I want to see the options and selections for making the post, why make
> the user have to scroll to make these selections when you have this whole
> sidebar area on the right that could be utilized for efficiency?

Assumptions here:

1. Because I don't think about those things, no one else things about 
those things.
2. The space could be more efficiency used by something else, for 
example categories.
3. Things in the sidebar are more noticed than things in the main column.

I would like to note as one of the people behind the previous layout of 
the WP write page, there was a time when I would have agreed with those 
assumptions completely. My mind has been changed.

Some of my assumptions now are that:

1. Categories, particularly the new layout, need more horizontal space 
than is available in the sidebar. When we add things like "suggested 
categories" this will become more obvious.
2. Things like tags are more commonly used than categories, and we can't 
squeeze those in the sidebar too.
3. Things in the sidebar get missed unless you know to look there, even 
when they're above the "fold" and you don't have to scroll to see them.
4. The stuff in the sidebar now -- saving, previewing, status, 
timestamps -- are the most important things to put there.

> Just
> because it's open source doesn't mean you have to make it like pulling
> teeth.

As someone who got 5 teeth pulled on Monday, I take offense at that. :)

>  We are your users, we are your testers, and we are trying to help
> you develop this to be user friendly, and the current horizontal design is
> not user friendly.

Which is the whole reason we solicit feedback, to have as much 
information, even if it's anecdotal, to synthesize and make the best 
decisions possible, which I believe we are doing there, but by 
suggesting what you think is what everyone thinks you're forcing me to 
take a position of disagreeing with you, when I would rather just 
collate your feedback with all the others and try to make the best 
decision possible.

> In fact I haven't seen a single post praising the design
> of the page we are discussing, all I have read are suggestions for improving
> it.

Mistakes can and will be changed, like the CTRL+V popup in the WYSIWYG, 
which slipped into RC2 but is gone now.

I've read all the emails to the aforementioned feedback address, the 
750+ pingbacks (not all in English, granted) to the announcement posts, 
all the media coverage, and been involved with the process of this 
particular design for the better part of a year.

If you want I could link you to thirty blogs praising the new design, 
but that doesn't make either of us right or wrong and someone would 
inevitable accuse myself or the dev team of drinking our own kool-aid, 
only paying attention to the positive press, or surrounding ourselves 
with yes men and fanboys. Some people might disagree or not understand 
individual decisions, but have faith based on our previous track record 
that the decisions are for the best.

In reality I tend to read the criticism more carefully than the praise, 
because it often has more nuggets of possible changes. But that doesn't 
mean I'm going to agree with it all.

-- 
Matt Mullenweg
http://ma.tt | http://automattic.com