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  • Helen Hou-Sandi 9:29 pm on August 15, 2012 Permalink
    Tags: meeting summary   

    Meeting summary for 8/14 

    Note: meeting on 8/7 did not really happen, as many were traveling or otherwise out of commission post-WCSF.

    Meeting was largely focused on status check of various items and really bearing down on assignments and breaking down tasks into what can be realistically accomplished within a given time period (the next week) so we can regularly check in. Setting the goal is not the maximum that can be achieved – only the minimum. Things finished early or with aplomb are highly encouraged :)

    • Welcome screen/panel refinements are still chugging along after @lessbloat‘s paternity leave (CONGRATS). Latest iteration at http://make.wordpress.org/ui/2012/07/24/welcome-screen-design-v2/#comment-22349. Discussed possibly having different paths based on whether or not a static front page is assigned. @lessbloat, @melchoyce, and @chexee are looking at the UX/language side. @sabreuse and @georgestephanis are on the dev side. Would like UX/language nailed down before next meeting and rough patch started. Testing can start anytime there’s something testable. Dev-wise, all hook-ability issues should be addressed this go-round. Tickets: #21368, #21331
    • Color picker. @mattwiebe and Devin Price worked on this at WCSF dev day, going with integrating Automattic’s open source Iris color picker, and will continue to work together toward a patch. @mattwiebe worked with us directly on some UI/UX picking and will continue to refine. Designers welcome to take a look and give feedback as well. @koopersmith is on JS consult. We should be able to knock out the consistency issue while we’re at it. Would like to see basic implementation in at least one place (settings screen or customizer – both are needed for final product) by next week. Tickets: #21206 and #19616
    • Cookies are on offer for a solid patch on #16379. There are some finer details that need consideration, such as editing screens and title + slug. More details in the IRC log: https://irclogs.wordpress.org/chanlog.php?channel=wordpress-ui&day=2012-08-14&sort=asc#m51505
    • @tddewey put up a nice big patch for the remainder of the admin UI images needing HiDPI treatment on #21019. Leaving this to @azaozz for review and dropping in, now that gradients are in and extraneous images have been deleted.
    • I (@helenyhou) am on #21391 as my singular dev task – using the post edit screen for attachment editing, and any CPT support and edit screen enhancements that come with. It is quite full of rabbit holes. Would love a dev partner or two (or more) on this – have some leads now thanks to dev chat.
    • Media. @koopersmith is working on making those lovely wireframes a reality. @azaozz working on preview in the editor: #21585
    • Bonus item: UI/UX guidelines for plugins and themes. Discussion stemming from http://wp.smashingmagazine.com/2012/08/08/help-us-help-wordpress/, with a rough potential document started by @melchoyce at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZWPeUSFVYlMxClmHFjuAXuekXcZsLso49G3bDRquHcs/edit. Would just like to see how this might pan out in terms of a publishable document. Will be leaving my own comments over on Smashing Mag.

    Reminder: devs should ideally be focused on one large item at any given moment. Working on your own pet projects and roaming around is always fine, but would prefer to stay away from overcommitment, especially for point people. This includes me :)

     

    • Kurt Payne 6:51 am on August 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      @helenyhou I can help with #21391!

      • Helen Hou-Sandi 1:09 pm on August 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        YAY! I will hit you up soon, then. I’ve also got blobaugh, maybe jeremyfelt, maybe tw2113, and possibly tomauger (although I think he is on the ImageMagick stuff as well; trying to avoid doubling up).

    • Shane Pearlman 11:43 pm on August 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Thanks Helen, stoked to participate in brainstorming. Will work on the document.

      Things that we often debate that would be fantastic to get guidance:

      • When do you combine content into a single meta panel in a post type vs create a new meta panel?
      • When do you create a new submenu vs combine into a submenu
      • What is the proper ux for condensing long settings / form content (tabs?)
      • Thoughts on advance form permutations > thinks like chosen and select 2 which are wonderful aids, but aren’t standardized
      • Inline documentation styles

      …

      • Helen Hou-Sandi 12:38 am on August 17, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        To be honest, I don’t think it is possible to provide be-all-end-all documentation on the first four items. The documentation would amount to something like “do what feels right and makes sense for your situation” – we can’t possibly expect software-specific guidelines to actually teach what usability means and what creating usable interfaces entails. That’s the issue that I sense will be run into in the end: we can have guidelines for the WordPress community, and we can create awareness via guidelines, but they are not a proper medium for a crash course in human-computer interaction. However, I’d love to be proven wrong, so please do work on the document, and perhaps try to find a time to have an actual discussion beyond notes on said document.

        Inline documentation styles sounds like something that could be looked at, though, and current core usages documented and ideas proposed for extension cases those don’t cover. What we really need is to get bodies on http://dotorgstyleguide.wordpress.com/ (or move it somewhere we can put more people on) and work on items that fall under the current style guide umbrella directly.

  • Helen Hou-Sandi 1:12 am on August 2, 2012 Permalink
    Tags: meeting summary   

    Meeting summary for 7/31 

    Logs: https://irclogs.wordpress.org/chanlog.php?channel=wordpress-ui&day=2012-07-31&sort=asc#m49644

    • Media wireframes: look at them if you haven’t yet, and leave feedback. Development breakdowns and work will happen in #wordpress-dev when we get there, for the development-minded. WCSF dev day will also be a forum for more discussion for those who are there, and we will be vigilant about sharing those conversations publicly. Tickets to keep an eye on: #21390 and #21391
    • Accessibility is still a big need in terms of expertise and hands on deck, and there are plenty of tasks with UI implications. Discuss on the post if you’re interested or have knowledge when it comes to making things accessible on the web (screenreaders and non-mouse users, for instance) or hit up @sabreuse, who is helping shepherd efforts. Also keep an eye on Make Accessibility.
    • Welcome screen v2 is also still in wireframe and copy feedback stage. We need to drop the Spotlight/Alfred/Quicksilver search thing in terms of core development this cycle (sorry, we know how cool it is) and focus on iterating on the panel that is there. We also need go back to focusing on new user experience (NUX) and initial walkthroughs/links for now. The ideas have been great, and are not being thrown away by any means – we just need to focus so that we can actually get something done in time. Who knows, if we move fast, and get user testing rolling, we might be able to look at more iterations (and toss in a hook to make a plugin for the Spotlight thing possible) :)

    And finally, a reminder that open office hours are every weekday at 19:00 UTC (3PM EDT). #wordpress-ui is always open for discussions, but if you’re a little more nervous about just poking your head in or want to schedule something with a group, it’s a great time to do just that!

     

  • Helen Hou-Sandi 10:25 pm on July 3, 2012 Permalink
    Tags: meeting summary,   

    Meeting Summary, 7/3 

    What we talked about today:

    • Briefly touched on @lessbloat‘s post about an advisory group. We should discuss that more right there in the comments of that post, especially if you are linking to resources. Basic consensus is that it’s a great idea.
    • The things we’ve observed and learned from the three user tests that have been done so far. @lessbloat is also going to run some tests focusing on the CMS-type tasks. We discussed low hanging fruit as well as bigger things we can approach, whether for 3.5 or 3.6. More details on those will come in follow up two separate discussion posts. We need to be disciplined about being data-informed rather than data-driven (especially in these small sample numbers), the prioritization of tasks, and being realistic about effort levels and commitments.
    • Pre-flight checklists for things that should always have eyes on them before a release, or rather, before a cycle nears beta. This includes things like the about page and welcome panel as well as process lists for things like patch review/testing. Ideally we’d formalize a few of these. As @jane said, checklists save lives, really!
    • A very quick discussion about the process of UI in WordPress core, from design-y side things like graphics and mockups to turning them into Trac tickets and code/plugins/patches. We need to get back to the way things were/supposed to be and dig up an old post on the process. Briefly, this means that design iterations can happen right here on Make UI rather than Trac, as Trac can be intimidating for some folks and often does devolve into linear discussions about details and code. As a team rep, I (@helenyhou) will be happy to summarize for #wordpress-dev chats or on Trac as crucial points are hit. For those who aren’t as comfortable with code and/or SVN, we should buddy up in pairs or small teams and work together to get working code and then turn that into a patch. For example, a design and front-end type can work with a dev proficient with SVN to get their idea turned into a nice clean patch, or a design-type can work with a dev who’s still learning about contributing along with a seasoned contributor. Again, I’ll facilitate folks getting set up to work together as needed, but since we’re all very friendly, there’s a good chance it’ll happen naturally. There are also going to be clearer paths for discussion and review.

    I would like to note here that we encourage plugins for proposals that involve UI changes because not all people (or realistically, the minority of people) know how to apply a patch or have an environment in which to do so. A plugin, whether or not it’s actually in the .org repo, is a better way to get non-coding types to have a go at testing. I think this is sometimes not well communicated or understood and can come across as a brush-off, so I thought I would write it out here again.

    Things to do:

    • Discussion posts here on Make UI – coming shortly. These are going to function sort of as writing prompts.
    • Yet another survey post about contributors so we can have a reference point for teaming up.
    • We should write up some documents like “Getting Started with Contributing to the UI Group”, guidelines for things like QA/testing, RTL, and accessibility, and some of those checklists mentioned above. Remember that we strongly encourage iteration :)
     

  • Helen Hou-Sandi 5:18 pm on May 9, 2012 Permalink
    Tags: meeting summary,   

    Meeting summary, May 8 

    We made quite a bit of progress on creating unified CSS Coding Standards, which continue to be documented on this Codex user page. We are currently seeking comment format suggestions, especially for section headers and flag methods for ease of searching/navigating. Please leave suggestions as an edit of the Codex page in the Comments section, and sign your proposal (just so we avoid accidentally editing somebody else’s work). We are teasingly calling it a homework assignment :)

    We’ll also need to remember to update the table of contents for wp-admin.dev.css at some point.

    Finally, don’t forget to take the UI Contributor Survey that @jane posted. She makes a very good point about what the various areas of UI are and that newcomers are often put off if the focus of the moment is outside their comfort zone.

     

    • Helen Hou-Sandi 7:57 pm on May 10, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      As we continue to flesh things out, I think we’re probably at the point where we have to consider whether these are guidelines for everybody (plugin and theme devs along with core contributors) or more like a handbook/set of guidelines for core style sheets. Guidelines for everybody would mean being more specific, both in what might be treated differently in, say, wp-admin.dev.css and in what exactly is addressed, e.g. really forward-looking CSS3 that we probably shouldn’t use in core just yet.

  • Helen Hou-Sandi 8:33 pm on May 1, 2012 Permalink
    Tags: meeting summary,   

    Meeting summary, May 1 

    CSS Coding Standards

    The real goal for today was defined as collecting examples of other CSS style/standard guides (perhaps especially in regards to property ordering) and identifying what exactly needs to be standardized. Thoughts are currently being collected on this Codex user page. We should work on it throughout the week and then at next week’s chat discuss any dividing points and find a path to agreement. Standards will help us with future maintenance and creating/reviewing patches, so while a clean up may not necessarily be undertaken just to meet standards (much like PHP code bits are not patched just to space out some parens), we can adhere to them as we do other CSS tasks.

    CSS Clean Up

    This sort of work really has to happen 3.5-early(-early) after the stylesheets settle but before they start moving again. A good approach may be to assign sections of the giant admin sheet or other smaller sheets to individuals/teams to comb through and clean up based on yet-to-be-determined guidelines. There is likely quite a bit of unused CSS in the stylesheets, but care will need to be taken to absolutely ensure that something isn’t being used before removal. azaozz also suggested that we also strive to have all basic HTML elements “work out of the box” in the admin by declaring general styles for tag selectors. If this is done, we should also make sure we look through the rest of the CSS and remove declarations wherever we can. wp-admin.dev.css is a monstrous 8000+ lines – let’s try to get it leaner wherever we can.

    Proposed Color Merge

    I proposed something that’s been briefly discussed here and there, which is the merge of colors-fresh (gray) into the main wp-admin stylesheet. There are some very valid concerns here regarding actual maintainability that need to be thought through. It seems that the real first step here is to get colors-fresh and colors-classic (blue) synced up again. Ideally, making changes in the two would happen on the same numbered line, which doesn’t currently seem to always be happening. A possible merge should either not significantly bloat wp-admin.dev.css or actually make it smaller, thanks to shorthand properties. Whether or not this happens, though, one of our goals for 3.5 should be to work with the accessibility group to create a high contrast theme for the admin.

     

  • Chelsea Otakan 8:10 pm on September 7, 2011 Permalink
    Tags: meeting summary,   

    Resurrecting these! This chat normally takes place on Tuesdays, but was postponed due to some storm difficulties.

    Reminder: Freeze is in two weeks. Responsive admin is our highest priority right now.

    Responsive Admin - #18198

    • Discussed some webkit bugs when styling the admin. @saracannon is looking onto resolving.
    • Newcomers hhsandi and sabreuse will be looking into styling list tables. Welcome!
    • @azaozz recommended a focus an tablet optimisation for 3.3. Still keeping an eye on mobile, but some editor issues may prevent full optimisation for 3.3.
    • Discussed the problem of TinyMCE compatibility.
      • Since iOS doesn’t support contentEditable, almost no WYSIWYG editors will work. iOS5 may be released before 3.3 and is slated to support contentEditable.
      • Will need to style tMCE buttons to be optimized for touch. Anyone on iOS5 welcome to help test :]

    Menu Flyouts – #18382

    • Currently in trunk. Yay @koopersmith. Any UI improvements/suggestions welcome.
    [New User] Experience

     

    View the IRC Logs for this chat. 

     

     

    • scribu 8:46 pm on September 7, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      That last item should really be called ” Experience”, to avoid confusion with “New “.

      • scribu 8:47 pm on September 7, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        One more time:

        That last item should really be called ”[New User] Experience”, to avoid confusion with “New [User Experience]“.

        • Chexee 9:15 pm on September 7, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

          Haha, thanks! Edited the post te read correctly

        • Jane Wells 2:53 pm on September 10, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

          Actually, no. The “feature” @koopersmith and I are working on there is actually three features. One is around new feature launches, one is around new wp users, and one is around new updates. So “New [User Experience]“ would actually be pretty accurate.

    • Marko 12:32 am on September 9, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I would love to help with iOS5 stuff. Did notice I can now scroll in the view.
      Did download the newest TineMCE and upload that to my WordPress trunk installation.
      Not sure how to get the TinyMCE view.

  • Jen Mylo 7:41 pm on February 4, 2010 Permalink
    Tags: meeting summary   

    The first scheduled UI group IRC chat lasted about half an hour. Summary:

    • We agree that Nathan’s approach to Right Now box is the right way to go. Planning use white buffer space instead of the heavy blue line, and make columns equally wide. windhamdavid and Gaston_ volunteered to code it up once there’s a trac ticket.
    • The plan is to try introducing tabs into the WP interface. This experiment will start with the Themes and Add New Themes screen being combined into one tabbed screen. If successful, this new UI approach would carry over into all the Edit/Add New screen Pairs to make things more efficient (there’s an add new link by the Edit headers anyway, and vice versa). Gaston_ also offered to mock up a wireframe for this based on the description I gave, to go with the verbal description that will be in the trac ticket.
    • Ryan Boren let me know today that discussion on the menu management ticket has stalled since last Thursday. It will be brought up again in today’s dev chat, but if no agreement/forward motion happens by tomorrow, I told him I would mock up a simple wireframe/storyboard they could use. TECannon and matveb offered to hep with wireframing this over the weekend if it turns out to be necessary.
    • There will be a flurry of little UI tickets over the next week as we approach feature freeze on Feb 15th. The UI group will focus on these tickets for the next week or two. After freeze, we can pick up some more interesting challenges, such as Settings and the WordPress.org redesign.

    Thanks to everyone who participated in our inaugural UI chat!

     

    • Gaston 7:56 pm on February 7, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I designed 2 versions of mockups for the tabbed theme interface. The first version set is inspired by the post/page tabs for visual/html inputs. The second version has bigger tabs and incorporates the header into the tab text. I was going to write a post on this but I’m having some hosting issues and went ahead and posted the mockups on Flickr not to delay this further (here).

      Feedback, comments, suggestions?

    • Nathan Barry 11:45 pm on February 8, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Sorry I wasn’t able to be there for more discussion on the Right Now Module, but I’m glad my ideas were understood (and improved upon!). I’ll try to make this weeks UI chat.

    • Gaston 1:54 am on February 9, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I designed 2 versions of mockups for the tabbed theme interface.

      The first version set is inspired by the post/page tabs for visual/html inputs. The second version has bigger tabs and incorporates the header into the tabs text. I was going to write a post on this but I’m having some host issues and went ahead and posted the mockups on Flickr not to delay this further.

      What do you guys think?

    • Matias 9:57 pm on February 14, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I made a patch for the Right Now box: http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/12202
      Needs to be tested on trac.

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