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Evolution of the WordPress interface from 2003-2008

24 points by mqt 18y ago

evdawg 18y ago
Personally, I dislike the new design. It has good intentions but it misses the mark. This would have been a good example of when not to listen to your users-- of course the majority of them is going to prefer gradients and flashy dropdowns. It feels to me as if it was built like a crappy powerpoint presentation: sliding and fading just for the sake of sliding and fading. Everyone thinks "Ooh, ahh!" but there really isn't any added usability to the effects. In some parts of the interface, you have to click multiple times to get to something you shouldn't have to click on to see at all. Once again, you click just for a dropdown. Then you have to click again to get to where you want to go. Eye candy for the sake of eye candy. In my opinion, the 2.5 Happy Cog design was the best of the bunch. It improved drastically, usability-wise, on top of the previous release, and it did so by re-aligning, no re-designing. You may argue that Happy Cog was limited by the fact that they had to base their work on a previous structure, but I really believe this is the best way to improve UI: incremental updates, each improving upon the last, instead of one quick release that wasn't too well thought out.
- brandnewlow 18y ago
  I think the best UI they had was the pre-2.5 UI + the admin dropdowns plugin. I was a happy camper with that set up. Fast, easy to get around, just great.
- blasdel 18y ago
  The pont of animations is to slow down the interface so that changes are more obvious and flowing. "Shiny" animations almost always make a user interface dramatically slower to use, as you have to wait for them to finish!
evdawg 18y ago
Also, I know it's an informal blog, but I think it's really unprofessional to call something the "DO NOT WANT" release. I'm really sick and tired of half-baked "memes" being included in writing as weak attempts at humor. It just comes across badly to me.
- IsaacSchlueter 18y ago
  Do you also notice that you frequently need to shake your cane to get the kids off your lawn? :P
  - nuclear_eclipse 18y ago
    He doesn't have a cane; he's got a walker, you insensitive clod!

24 points by mqt 18y ago

Personally, I dislike the new design. It has good intentions but it misses the mark. This would have been a good example of when not to listen to your users-- of course the majority of them is going to prefer gradients and flashy dropdowns. It feels to me as if it was built like a crappy powerpoint presentation: sliding and fading just for the sake of sliding and fading. Everyone thinks "Ooh, ahh!" but there really isn't any added usability to the effects. In some parts of the interface, you have to click multiple times to get to something you shouldn't have to click on to see at all. Once again, you click just for a dropdown. Then you have to click again to get to where you want to go. Eye candy for the sake of eye candy. In my opinion, the 2.5 Happy Cog design was the best of the bunch. It improved drastically, usability-wise, on top of the previous release, and it did so by re-aligning, no re-designing. You may argue that Happy Cog was limited by the fact that they had to base their work on a previous structure, but I really believe this is the best way to improve UI: incremental updates, each improving upon the last, instead of one quick release that wasn't too well thought out.

brandnewlow 18y ago
I think the best UI they had was the pre-2.5 UI + the admin dropdowns plugin. I was a happy camper with that set up. Fast, easy to get around, just great.
blasdel 18y ago
The pont of animations is to slow down the interface so that changes are more obvious and flowing. "Shiny" animations almost always make a user interface dramatically slower to use, as you have to wait for them to finish!

evdawg 18y ago

Also, I know it's an informal blog, but I think it's really unprofessional to call something the "DO NOT WANT" release. I'm really sick and tired of half-baked "memes" being included in writing as weak attempts at humor. It just comes across badly to me.

IsaacSchlueter 18y ago
Do you also notice that you frequently need to shake your cane to get the kids off your lawn? :P
- nuclear_eclipse 18y ago
  He doesn't have a cane; he's got a walker, you insensitive clod!