Redesign admin UI in a comprehensive way that addresses the needs of business site users

[discobot]

The current admin was intended primarily for bloggers and single site owners. An admin UI redesign that caters more to the needs of business site users would be a big step in serving CP’s primary market.

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Read-only archive: Issues · ClassicPress/ClassicPress · GitHub

Author: Ray Gulick

Vote count: 26

Status: open

Tags:

• request-modify-feature
• difficulty-hard

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Comments

Big fat upvote for this

~ posted by Pieter Bos

Thanks, Piet. Not sure ‘Easy’ is the appropriate difficulty rating if it’s done in comprehensive fashion I’d like to see.

~ posted by Ray Gulick

What would that look like?

~ posted by David Shanske

I guess that question would be answered after the redesign.

~ posted by Ray Gulick

Shouldn’t that question be answered while doing it?

~ posted by David Shanske

point?

~ posted by Ray Gulick

I wanted to know more about it. But, I will wait until someone wishes to do it then.

~ posted by David Shanske

Yes. This is where we see which ideas ppl want to support.

~ posted by Ray Gulick

I’m changing this to Difficulty: Hard. There should probably be another setting for Difficulty: We haven’t decided what we want to do here yet.

~ posted by James Nylen

This petition is too abstract to be actionable IMO. I would suggest delineating what exactly you envision in terms of bite-size actionable changes/enhancements and then submitting a new petition for each one.

Also, consider reviewing the existing petitions for those that target actionable changes/enhancements to the admin so as not to dilute votes, as there are already several (2 of which I submitted.)

~ posted by Mike Schinkel

I noticed other admin UI requests that, IMO, take a piecemeal approach to redesigning the admin UI. I’d like to see it be a more comprehensive effort, with the first part of the process being a discovery process that determines what kinds of improvements the business site market would value. So, I guess that’s the first actionable item there; others TBD.

~ posted by Ray Gulick

Said that way, it does sound more actionable. Would it then be fair to say that this would be more what you had in mind?

“Determine changes required for the admin UI to best meet the needs of business site users?”

~ posted by Mike Schinkel

It’s been piecemealed into its current state, I don’t think it’s gonna get a lot better by piecemealing it’s way out.

~ posted by Ray Gulick

Yeah, I could go with that.

~ posted by Ray Gulick

Don’t know if this is anywhere near compatible with this discussion but there are plugins that theme the admin dashboard. They make it much more aesthetic, for certain applications. I find that people I work with are more receptive to the admin area when it is better themed.

One of those plugins is Material - White Label WordPress Admin Theme by themepassion | CodeCanyon

I am not associated with them and I am not recommending their plugin. I am providing it as an example of what I am talking about. There are a few just by that developer.

Not suggesting using plugins to change the UI but looking at that approach, maybe it might not be as difficult to make things more business friendly than some might think. They also give a little more control to the user for branding purposes.

~ posted by a ClassicPress Supporter

related: Issues · ClassicPress/ClassicPress · GitHub

~ posted by Pieter Bos

[anon66243189]

@discobot

The current admin was intended primarily for bloggers and single site owners. An admin UI redesign that caters more to the needs of business site users would be a big step in serving CP’s primary market.

How precisely does a UI that caters to the needs of business site users look like?

For me, this is not a petition. It is the start of a discussion, perhaps… but it is nowhere clear what is the goal of this.
Does it include removing posts because posts are bloggers realm and not “business” realm? Why even is business? How does “business” relate to an UI? Is an iPhone not for business because it has an UI that a child can use? Or is the iPhone for business exactly because it has an UI that a child can control?

I have worked with “Business folks” from all over the world. In general they don’t even know what a string is or a tagline or a heading. They have a different skill set and knowledge, which a “website person” does not have, probably.
What I try to say is… does “business UI” mean that someone who has literally no idea of websites can control it? Because business folks generally do not have that knowledge unless they are in the website business.
In either case, it seems then the CP UI is already pretty much usable by anyone, with or without knowledge, and thus… both business and non-business, pro and noob can use it. I think that’s great.

In any case to be actionable the petition needs clear goals, and this one does not.

[james]

@discobot

I’d like to see it be a more comprehensive effort, with the first part of the process being a discovery process that determines what kinds of improvements the business site market would value

We are still nowhere close to being ready to undertake an effort like this, nor is it a good fit for our current goals and direction. Setting this to close in a week.